{"id":44501,"date":"2025-07-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=44501"},"modified":"2025-07-10T14:39:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T21:39:35","slug":"retro-recomendo-household-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/retro-recomendo-household-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Retro Recomendo: Household Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started nine years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we\u2019re trying out something new \u2014 Retro Recomendo<\/strong>. Once every 6 weeks, we\u2019ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 9 years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Unclog sewer drains<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We live in an old house and the sewer pipes get clogged a lot. I got tired of paying a plumber $150 to clear the pipe every time it clogged, so I bought this $27 hose attachment, called a Drain King<\/a>. It\u2019s a rubber bladder that you insert into the sewer line opening. When you turn the hose on, the bladder expands, forcing the water to push the clog out. It has never failed me. Read the glowing testimonials on Amazon for this thing. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bathroom phone shelf<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You are sitting on the toilet but there is no place to park your phone safely. This is an everywhere-in-the-world problem, with a first-world solution: this hefty, heavy solid metal, toilet roll shelf<\/a>. The shelf is flat, dry, and stable. The roll holder underneath is easy to use. It can also store books, wet wipes, etc. As a courtesy I replaced our guest bathroom roll holder with this, and I like it so much I may do the rest of the bathrooms. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smudge-free surfaces<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I bought a 10-pack of these extra-large microfiber cloths<\/a> ($12), and now I keep them everywhere\u2014home drawers, office, car, purse. They leave every surface spotless in seconds. I spend at least 10 hours a day staring at a screen or wearing glasses. I never knew I needed something so much in my life. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This vacuum cleaner really sucks<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Bissell Zing Canister<\/a> (model 2156A) was only $50 and it exceeded my expectations. It is bagless, quieter than any other vacuum cleaner I\u2019ve owned, and has powerful suction. It\u2019s great for hardwood floors (I don\u2019t know how well it works on carpeting since we don\u2019t have any). \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best stain remover<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tipped off by the comprehensive research at America\u2019s Test Kitchen, I\u2019ve found that the best \u2014 really the only \u2014 stain remover for laundry that really works is sodium percarbonate, which is a powder you need to mix in water before each use. (No liquid spray works nearly as well.) You then soak garments for 6 hours and wash. It completely removes just about any food stain, even stale ones. There are generic versions available but a proven brand of percarbonate is OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover<\/a>. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simple strategy for cleaning<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The next time you have a big mess to clean up, try the \u201cpile method.<\/a>\u201d Gather everything that needs to be put away into one giant pile, then sort the items\u2014like with like\u2014into smaller piles. Put those piles away one by one. This way, you avoid getting sidetracked as you put things away. At first, it felt counterintuitive to make one big mess, but it really does speed up the process, and it\u2019s so satisfying to be efficient and tidy. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recomendo – issue #470<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2323],"tags":[2324],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44502,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44501\/revisions\/44502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}