Cleaning Your Oven with Ammonia

"Easy Oven Cleaning Tip! No more harsh chemicals to clean your oven! Just use ammonia"

 Before I start, just to get this out of the way. YES, it does work. That's not what makes this a bad idea though. Ammonia is a household item that, as the decades pass, become rarely seen in most peoples houses. There's a very good reason for that actually. You see, as much as people assume a single ingredient cleaner is less harsh or scary than those modern cleaners that have a mile long ingredient list, that's not always the case. In fact, cleaning your oven with ammonia can be far more dangerous and harmful than the infamous spray-on oven cleaner most of us know.

 Let's look at this commonly touted pin/life hack.

1. Preheat to 200° then turn off. 
2. In a heat safe glass dish, fill with ammonia and set on middle rack (about 1 to 2 cups of ammonia). 
3. In another dish, fill with boiling water and set on bottom rack (2 cups). 
4. Leave overnight. 
5. The next morning, remove dishes and wipe down the inside with a hot wet sponge

There's a few problems right off the bat with this: there's no mention whatsoever of using gloves or proper ventilation. Ammonia is highly caustic and toxic and can be extremely harmful to your skin, eyes and lungs. In fact a woman in Denmark was sent into a coma from cleaning her oven this way. Which brings up another fact to keep in mind - ammonia is sold in varying strengths, from 2% to 10%, in different countries. This little life hack is meant to be used with the weaker variants found in countries like the US. When you heat up ammonia it stands a good chance of vaporizing, which is extremely dangerous. Vaporized ammonia not only can burn your eyes and lungs, it can kill you if you inhale enough (by, say, sticking your head in an oven trying to clean it).

The fact is, ammonia really isn't better for you or the environment from other forms of oven cleaners. You might look at the ingredients of such products as Easy Off and balk at what it contains, but when you read over just how bad ammonia actually is, you quickly realize that one isn't better than the other. In fact, modern day oven cleaners tend to have far fewer--if any--fumes, something ammonia surely can't claim. Not only that, if you use various other cleaners in your house, you have to be extremely careful to never EVER mix ammonia with anything that contains bleach. That can cause a reaction that produces fumes that can quite literally kill you.

In my opinion, there's a very good reason many housewives started ditching such cleaners like ammonia in favor of the modern cleaners that started appearing in the mid century and soon took over our homes. All in all, this is just not a good idea. There are many other, safer ways to clean your oven.

How To Get Rid of Telemarketer Calls

"Life Hack to stop telemarketers! don't know if it works, but hey !! its worth a try !! Those pesky pesky people !" 

We've all been there: your phone rings, you pick it up expecting someone important, and instead you hear "How much are you paying for cable each month? Would you like to save $100 on your monthly bill?!"

According to this little life hack all you have to do is press 9 and be instantly added to that company's do not call list! Let's get real, chances are if you're on the line with a live telemarketer, all they are going to hear is an annoying press of a button on their line. They aren't going to know what button you are hitting. If it's a robocall, 9 might work, but so might 2. Each system is set up differently, and some don't even have the option of opting out like this.

The only way to really assure you're removed from the annoying call lists is to make sure you file your number with the national "Do Not Call" list (which you can sign up for here). However that only covers legitimate telemarketers - scammers don't seem to care if your number is on the list or not. So how can you prevent scammers from calling you?

If you know your number is on the Do Not Call list, let the telemarketer know and tell them you wish to be removed from the list. If they call again, ask for the company's name, phone number, and location. If they are scammers this is often all it takes for them to remove you from the list, but that information (if they are willing to give it to you) can be filed here to submit a complaint to the FTC. If it's a robocall, you can try to smash buttons until you get to a menu. Sometimes at the end of the call, there will be an option to "opt out" of their calls. It completely depends on the way their systems are set up though.

However, personally, I just don't answer calls from numbers I don't know. You can also Google phone numbers and find out if it's a scam, telemarketer, collections agency, etc. Another great idea is if a number won't leave you alone, and you're using a cell phone, you can simply add the number to a block list directly on your phone. It won't ring through, and instead send the annoying caller straight to voice mail. 

Spoon To Prevent Pots From Boiling Over

I'm sure we've all seen the pin on how a simple wooden kitchen spoon, when placed over a pot, will prevent it from boiling over. Unfortunately it's not true. I made a video demonstrating and explaining why that doesn't work, as well as showing a few methods that do.

So why doesn't this work? Simple. Starch. If you place a pot of water on the stove, crank it up to high and walk away, its not going to boil over. It will boil dry (and possibly ruin your pan) but it won't boil over. What causes pots to boil over is what you're cooking in them, usually high starch foods like pasta. A spoon isn't enough to break the sticky, starchy bubbles that form, and it still allows it to boil over. Images showing this working are likely done by bringing the pot to a lower, more gentle boil, rather than a full, rolling boil, so the chances of the pot actually reaching the point of boiling over are much lower.

So what are the two best methods to prevent this? Use a large stock pot (filling it no more than half way with water) or simply turn the heat down to a medium to medium-high heat. What you're looking for is a gentle boil, just the top of the water moving, not forming large bubbles. It's enough to cook the food, but without forming starchy bubbles. Another method involves a kitchen gadget such as a silcone lid, which allows the foamy mess to collect on top with out pouring all over your cook-top. I personally love mine, but it's not a necessary to prevent pasta from boiling over.

Freeze Envelopes to Open

"If you seal an envelope and realize you forgot to include something inside, place it inside the freezer for an hour or two & it'll unseal easily."

Before anyone asks, yes I tested this out. On several different envelopes, in fact. I know there are different kinds that feature different glue, some you have to lick, some are self stick, some use thicker paper. Needless to say it didn't work at all. I'm not surprised, if it worked wouldn't we all run the risk of our mail popping open during the winter months? I tried this with newly sealed envelopes as well as various ones sent to me, and they all tore like regular unfrozen envelopes when I tried to ease them open. It seems most sites that recommend this haven't even tested it, and the one youtube video I found had the guy opening it, but he only sealed the most bottom tip of the envelope, which would be fairly easy to open gently without even freezing it. 

Honestly if you DO forget to add something to an envelope, and you've already added the stamp (and don't want to waste that by having to put everything into a new envelope) the easiest thing to do is to use a sharp knife, open it from the bottom carely, add what you need to add, then seal back up with tape. Not ideal, but it works far better than trying to pry open the seal.