Dear Home Ec 101,
I admit, I was one of those - a bagless vacuum cleaner! What an amazing idea! No thought was given to what I was going to do with the container full of dust and debris. I’ve figured out that one - dumping out the junk is fairly easy although many people including [...]

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Dear Home Ec 101,
My husband nearly burnt our house down recently because he turned the stove on and forgot to take our plastic strainer out of it. The plastic is everywhere, now hard and stuck. I’m not exactly kitchen-smart, especially when it comes to the stove. (I’ve been known to mess up cup-a-soups by forgetting [...]

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Dear Home Ec 101:
My dishwasher just isn’t doing as great a job anymore. I haven’t changed anything: same soap, I scrape the plates, I still use a rinsing agent. What could be going on?
Signed,
My Dishwasher is a Dud
Heather says:
Did you know your dishwasher requires regular maintenance to provide consistently clean dishes?

Check the trap [...]

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Dear Home-Ec 101,
It seems every time we take something apart for storage, we manage to lose any screws that go with the items. How do you manage not to lose the screws?
Signed,
Not all who wander are lost, but my screws are gone forever
Ivy says:
Screws are wily little buggers and will get up and leave whenever [...]

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Dear Home Ec 101:
This is embarassing, but I can never remember which way to tighten a bolt.
~A nut with more than a few loose screws
Heather says:
Don’t be ashamed.  If you have never been shown, how could you know?  There is a simple rhyme to keep things straight:

Lefty loosey, righty tighty. 

Whether using a screw driver or [...]

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