Helpful Hints: Keep a Reusable Bag in Your Purse

Keep a reusable bag in your PURSE (not the car) all the time. We all have good intentions to use canvas bags, but if we don't carry them with us, we usually end up leaving them in the trunk. And that doesn't help us - or the environment - much at all!

Household Hints - Kitchen Hints - Opening Tight Jar Lids

Tight jar lids got you down? Try a few of these helpful household hints to open a tight jar lid:

- My favorite is to tap along the edges of the jar lid with a butter knife. It seems to break the seal, and then you can easily open the jar.

- Wear a pair of rubber gloves! The extra grip will make loosening a tight jar easy!

- Run the jar lid under hot water...again, this seems to help loosen the tight seal.

- Use a Jar opener to open the jar. There are specialty jar openers available that make opening tight jars a breeze. Great gift for anyone with arthritis, too. Here are just two available on the market:








Do you have any other ideas to share on how to open a tight jar lid? If you do, please post a comment!

Household Hints - Cooking - Found a great way to soften brown sugar

It's pretty frustrating when you open up the canister of brown sugar and find that it's somehow become a huge, organic, solid lump. Sort of like a sandy rock, and totally impossible to use! I'm a big fan of a slice of bread stuck inside to keep the brown sugar nice and moist.

But, what can you do when the brown sugar is ALREADY completely hardened?

I put the canister (microwave safe) right into the microwave and microwaved on high for about a minute. I'd heard of this tip before, but had never tried it. It worked!! I could get out the brown sugar I needed. It's definitely the fastest way I've ever tried to soften brown sugar. Hope it helps!