Tenants: Chill out on your household chores – use ice cubes

Wondering why you should have a constant supply of ice cubes when you seldom have a whisky on the rocks? Cooling down a sundowner or putting the cold into any other kind of drink, is just one of many uses for frozen water. Baxton Property Management in Hobart shares with you a number of unusual ways to justify the presence of at least a couple of full ice trays in your freezer at all times.

Cold cubed healers

Baxton is not about to play doctor, and strongly recommends that using ice instead of seeing a doctor in the event of serious injury, is not be recommended. But most of us have heard from our grandmothers or mothers at least some of the healing properties of these ice-cold cubes.

Among these stories passed down by our elders were tips like using packs of ice (sometimes alternated with heat packs) to help relieve swelling and bruising. It’s also able to bring down the heat of minor burns to help prevent blistering or scarring.

But did you know that it can also be used to numb the area when one of the children has picked up a splinter? Then you can remove it with a pair of tweezers  or needle without the usual sound track. Or that you can suggest your kids suck an ice-cube before taking a spoonful of medicine? Yes, ice comes to the rescue by numbing the taste buds so the medicine doesn’t taste so bad.

Ice as a kitchen assistant

• There’s nothing as unappetizing as the layer of fat which can collect on the surface of a hearty bowl of soup or stew. Ice restores your appetite if you pop some cubes into a soup ladle and pull it across the surface. Voila! The fat congeals and clings to the ice cubes in the ladle for easy removal.
• Want to reheat rice, but thinking of throwing it out because it gets so dry when reheated? If you want to reheat it in a microwave, put an ice cube on top of the rice in a bowl and see how moist it comes out.

Cool ideas for pets and plants

• Ice-cubes are useful for cooling pets’ water in the hot season. A few added to the water bowls of cats, dogs and even hamsters or rabbits, will give your furry friends a good cold drink. They’ll be looking at you as if to say: “Water on the rocks, please, barkeep!” And, that’s not surprising – you know what a difference it makes to your pet drink, whether that’s a whisky or a soda.
• If your pot plants are feeling the heat of summer and looking a little limp, a natty way to revive them is to put a couple of ice cubes in the pot and leave them there to deliver water slowly as they melt over an extended period  compared to water delivered in one go with a watering can. Just avoid letting the cubes touch the stems of the plants, which might not enjoy freezer burn.

Cleaning up with ice

Sticky stuff: Another old wives’ tale that appears to work, is to use ice cubes to remove chewing gum from carpets and clothing, and even from your hair. Put the clothing in a large bowl and cover it with ice cubes. And if the gum’s on the carpet, put the cubes on top of it for a while. If it’s in your hair, it involves using a wash cloth to wrap some cubes round the sticky hair, and keeping it there long enough to freeze the gum. In all these instances, once the gum has frozen, you should be able to chip it away.

Cleaning bottles and coffee pots: Tall bottles or vases with narrow necks, and stained or scorched coffee pots can be really difficult to clean. Enter the cubed superhero. Use some ice cubes and add about a quarter cup of salt to the bottle or coffeepot. Leave the coffee pot to stand awhile, but rotate the bottle quickly for a while so a mini whirlpool results. Empty them out and rinse.

Baxton Property Management in Hobart likes to share nifty ideas that might interest the tenants who occupy their clients’ rental properties. Sometimes it’s fun stuff like how to use ice cubes, or the trays they are made in, in unusual ways, at others it’s serious material about tenants’ and owners’ rights and obligations. Keep your eye on the regularly posted Baxton blogs for more information.

Written and syndicated by

– Baxton Media.

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