Around your house 5/30/07

A tidy car

It's a good bet most drives have stuff in their car that goes "clunk" whenever they stop, start or turn a corner. Besides being annoying, things slide out of reach, disappear under seats, and bang around in the trunk. It's probably wearing out the carpeting, too. To keep things in place, use pieces of soft rubber mesh, the kind used to line shelves and drawers and to keep area rugs from sliding around. It can also provide good anti-slip traction for all sorts of items in your car. A small piece on the dash or console keeps cell phones, sunglasses, and toll road change close at hand. Larger pieces in your trunk, on the back shelf, or on the floor mats keep packages, groceries, or your other stuff in place. -- AP

Home Q&A

Q. Our top-loading washing machine smells musty. How can I get it clean?

A. Though most of the grease and debris from dirty clothes is washed down the drain, crud of one kind or another often splashes up underneath the rim of the machine, or gets caught in the rubber gasket at the top of the drum. Fortunately, cleaning the rubber gasket is easy: Remove it (it will slip right off) and soak it in bleach for a couple of hours. While the gasket is soaking, clean the edge of the drum that it normally covers. Vinegar works really well here. It is important to wash beneath the rim of the drum and at the underside of the top of the machine as well. Finally, run the machine through a wash without any clothing. Add 2 cups of bleach to a hot water cycle and let the machine clean itself. -- AP

Deadhead bulbs and spring flowering perennials as blossoms fade. Early detection is essential for good control of vegetable pests. Learn to identify and distinguish between pests and beneficial predators. Watch for bagworms feeding on many garden plants, but especially juniper and arborvitae. Thin seedlings to proper spacings before plants crowd each other. Thinning overloaded fruit trees will result in larger and healthier fruits at harvest time. Thinned fruits should be a hands-width apart. Enjoy the strawberry harvest. -- mobot.org