Bananas 101
Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how the primates do it. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. (In next week's Inspiration Line eMagazine, we'll dazzle you with more facts about the amazing banana.)

Longer lasting cheese and celery
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold! Celery will keep longer in foil, too!

Pepper picking
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating raw. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better to use for cooking.

Chase away burger grease
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

Mmmmmmm .... garlic!
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light flavor of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Reheat pizza crisply
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to medium-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No more soggy microwaved pizza.

Warming refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave oven with a cup of water. The increased oven humidity will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Zap weeds with newspapers
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients into your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic, but they will not get through wet newspapers.

Pick up broken glass safely
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass that you can't see easily.

No more mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrels be gone!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the squirrels or the plants — and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuuming
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, tape an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Taming static cling
Pin a safety pin to your pants cuff, with just a small, barely-visible piece of metal showing and most of the safety pin concealed within the pant leg. On dresses, do the same thing but near the bottom seam of the dress or skirt.

Slip-slide measuring cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add an ingredient such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Defog your windshield
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car . When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelopes
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily. You can also press the back of the envelope with a steam iron and it will open easily as well.

Smoother legs
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Bye-bye fruit flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Getting rid of ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Washing your dryer lint trap saves energy
Keeping the lint filter clean is one simple way to increase the efficiency and lifespan (and decrease the operating costs) of your dryer. However, just removing the lint from the filter isn't always enough — the fine mesh of most dryer filters can be clogged in ways that aren't obvious at a casual glance. Softener sheets can cause waxy build-ups on lint screens that require a little extra effort — usually no more than a quick scrub and rinse in warm, soapy water — to remove. Many modern dryers also use moisture sensors rather than ordinary timed cycles, and residue from dryer sheets can coat the sensors and interfere with their ability to function properly. Cleaning the sensor screen with a little detergent and a soft brush, and wiping off the sensor itself with a cotton ball and some rubbing alcohol can rectify this problem.

~From AARP Community
(Contributed by Hilda who lives in Auburndale, Florida)

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