Dear Heloise: Someone recently mentioned needing their reading glasses to read the instructions on a paint can. When I encounter tiny instructions like those, I take a picture with my smartphone so that I can enlarge it and read it easily. — Kathy, in Texas

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THE SHOWER CURTAIN GHOST

Dear Heloise: If you have shower curtains that “chase” you in the shower, I got a set of small magnets and put them on the bottom of the curtain to weigh it down. You only have to use a couple of sets. They need to be spaced a good distance apart, or they will stick to each other.

I read your column in the Houston Chronicle. — Bill M., Manvel, Texas

Bill, years ago, I read that the Queen of England had weights sewn into the hem of her clothing to keep her skirts down on windy days. This gave me the idea to sew some fishing weights on the bottom of my shower curtain to keep it from clinging to me. It worked out well. — Heloise

COCKROACH COUNTERATTACK

Dear Heloise: I have seen many tips for getting rid of roaches. I had some myself a couple of years ago. After I had no luck with commercial bug deterrents, I went online and found the solution: half sugar, half boric acid. I spread this on my countertops at night. Two days later, there was not a bug in sight. I still keep some in corners and hidden spaces, and I’ve never seen another bug. — Janice, in Tucson, Arizona

Janice, this is a good solution to ward off roaches. Another way is to clean with ammonia, which roaches don’t like. You can use this sugar and boric acid trick in a number of places such as under a kitchen sink, behind a refrigerator, or in any place that is damp and dark.

If you have dishes with traces of food on them but don’t have time to rinse or wash them, stick them in the refrigerator until you do have the time to wash them. At least roaches won’t be able to get to them this way.

You can also pull up plugs in any of your sinks and leave about 1 inch of water in the sink to keep roaches from entering your home through the drain pipes. — Heloise

USING LINT TO START FIRES

Dear Heloise: I know this sounds a little strange, but I save the lint from my dryer and place it in large freezer bags. You may wonder why, but I have a good reason.

We often use some of the fire logs you see in hardware stores, and sometimes we use wood. The only problem is that it’s hard to get a fire going in our old fireplace. So, I usually use a crumpled-up piece of paper and a couple fists full of lint to get the fire going.

My husband likes to take a little along when he and our boys go camping. By the time they go deer hunting this year, I should have about three freezer bags full of lint from my dryer. If it’s cold and rainy, they shouldn’t have any trouble getting a fire going with the lint. — Casey H., in Missouri

BLEACH ON COUNTERTOPS

Dear Heloise: I just bought my first house, which was built in 1949, so I’m doing some remodeling right now. I’m trying to cut costs where I can, and one of these costs was a new kitchen counter.

Well, I picked out a lovely shade of soft white for my laminated kitchen counters. Then I spilled red wine on them the other evening and decided to use some bleach to remove the slightly pinkish spill stain. A word to the wise: Don’t ever use bleach on a laminated countertop.

I now have a countertop that is discolored, and the protective top layer has been eaten away. I will need to replace the entire countertop! I thought you could use bleach on anything white but found out I was wrong. — Harold E., in Minneapolis