While most retail stores are hanging on by a thread due to COVID-19’s assault on the U.S. economy, thrift stores, specifically consignment stores, are having the opposite problem: Business is booming! According to thredUP.com, a major secondhand shopping site, the resale apparel market will grow to $64 billion from $28 billion in the next five…
Best Inexpensive Toaster, Eufy Customer Service, Stainless Steel Cleaner
There are times when the old adage “you get what you pay for” doesn’t hold up. Sometimes the less expensive option turns out to be best. Best Inexpensive Toaster Dear Mary: Does anyone make a decent, simple, reliable pop-up toaster? I don’t need it to do anything but make evenly toasted toast! —Bev Dear Bev:…
14 Ways to Use Coffee Filters That Don’t Involve Coffee
It was a dumb mistake. I grabbed the biggest package of coffee filters—a pack of 1,000—only to discover much later that I’d picked up the wrong size for my coffeemaker. Coffee filters aren’t expensive, which is probably the reason I didn’t bother returning them to the store. I suppose I should have tried, but I…
One Big, Fat, Wadded-Up Mess and How to Fix It
If I’ve heard from one reader, I’ve heard from one thousand—all with the same problem: wadded-up sheets. I feel their pain because I have suffered this problem as well. So annoying. It can happen in the clothes washer, but also in the dryer. My best solution, which only slightly reduces the problem, has been to…
A Cake That’s Worth the Wait
What do Pat Benatar, George Foreman, and I, your humble columnist, have in common? We were all born on the same day: Jan. 10! I only know this because someone gave me a 768-page book simply titled “The Portable Book of Birthdays.” Good thing, too, or I’d never have known that, according to the book’s…
Appliance Maintenance You Can Do Yourself
It was Christmas Eve several years ago. Everything was ready. Our overnight company would be arriving in a matter of hours. I opened the refrigerator to discover the inside had reached a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This could not have happened at a worse time. Away to my computer I flew like a flash, straight…
An Efficient Way to Slash Home Heating Bills
Just as I was knee-deep in researching, testing, and learning all I could about electric space heaters, this letter popped up in my inbox. Dear Mary: I need your help to figure out how we can reduce our home heating bills. It’s killing us to pay so much to keep our house warm in the…
Please, Can’t Someone Make a Decent Steam Iron?
I just asked Siri, “How do most people relax?” She rattled off a list of activities including “Nosh on chocolate,” “Rub your feet over a golf ball,” “Count backward,” “Meditate,” and “Drip cold water on your wrists.” Siri completely missed my favorite way to relax. I iron (not to be confused with “I pump iron,”…
How to Remove Rust Stains From Just About Anything
If there’s one subject that shows up in my inbox more often than any other, it has to be rust. Ugly, orange-ish stains on tubs, showers, toilets, washing machines, sinks, and even stainless steel. One reader (who shall remain nameless, as I have hopelessly misplaced your message) wrote that tiny rust marks have appeared on…
Car Dealer Spills the Beans on Treating Leather Interiors
Do you know what I love? Learning insider secrets. I’m not talking tabloid headlines or conspiracy theories, which I work hard to avoid, but solid, authentic, and reliable insider secrets. I’ve got one for you today, prompted by a question sent in by a faithful reader. Dear Mary: I recently purchased a late-model previously owned…
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