Dear Heloise: Several months ago, I stored a leather purse in a cedar chest that belonged to my grandmother. Now the entire chest and the contents smell like leather. I removed everything and put fresh cedar chips in and left it. It still doesn’t smell like cedar the way it used to. Is there any way that I can clean it or refresh it to smell like it used to? — Ellen Printy, Whitehall, N.Y.
Dear Ellen: Use some very fine sandpaper and lightly sand the inside of the chest, following the wood grain. Use your vacuum to clean up all the sawdust. If this doesn’t restore some of the aroma, you can apply some cedar oil. You may have to search for this, or you can call the manufacturer of your cedar chest, who will probably have it in stock.
Remember, too, that if you apply the oil, you will need to be careful about what you put into the chest because of the possibility of staining from the oil. You may want to consider only putting the oil on the lid and not on the inner walls or bottom of chest. — Heloise
Dear Heloise: In an empty clear vase, fill with potpourri and silk or dried flowers. Sprinkle with fragrant oil or mist with air freshener. The potpourri and dried flowers hide the stems of the original arrangement, and they also look pretty. The fragrance makes the “fake” arrangement seem to be fresh and smell nice. — Nancy Lenning, Altoona, Pa.
Dear Heloise: Here is another way to recycle 2-liter plastic bottles. Remove the label, trim off the bottom of the bottle and hold bottle by the cap, take a nail in a pair of pliers and heat it over an open flame. When the nail is hot, poke holes in the body of the bottle. Now you have a mini-greenhouse that fits on your pots for starting seeds. You can remove the cap to water the seedlings. — Jan Albe, Houston
Dear Heloise: While making oatmeal cookies, I realized I was about a cup short of oatmeal. I remembered my husband’s instant apple-and-cinnamon oatmeal and used this to make up the difference. The cookies turned out better than the original recipe. — Sharon Neas, Rogersville, Mo.
Dear Heloise: I am a former serviceman and always prided myself in keeping my boots shined. Putting on the polish and buffing them usually caused me to get polish on my hands. I decided that using a pair of thin soft gloves solved both things: I don’t get polish on my hands, and the gloves make a very fine buffer. I keep two pair in my shoe polish kit, one for black and one for brown shoes. — Donald W. Schmelter, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
Send hints to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000 or fax to 210-HELOISE.
