B&B Household Tips from the Apple Bin Inn

As innkeepers, we pretty much do the same chores that other households do... we just do them much more often!  We thought we'd share a couple of tips that have helped us at the Apple Bin Inn.  Hopefully you'll find them useful...

We love serving tea to our guests in small antique china teapots, and have collected quite a few from England, Japan, etc.  If you have teapots too, you may have noticed that over time they can get a brownish discoloration inside the pot, spout, and even around the lid.  We just figured that this discoloration was simply the tea staining the ceramic.  We've been using Mr. Clean Magic Erasers for various tough-to-clean things around the inn, and recently used a small piece on the teapots.  Voila!  With almost no effort, the discoloration came off, without scratching the china!  We now use a Magic Eraser to keep the insides of our coffee urns clean too.  Give it a try.

 

If you love strawberries, and like to buy large amounts from your local farmers market, or at places like Costco or Sam's Club, then you also know that strawberries don't stay fresh for more than a couple of days in the refrigerator before they get soft or begin to get moldy.  Well we have a great tip for you... one that we learned from my sister, Judy Klock, who along with her husband Bill owns a B&B in the Hudson Valley area of New York called Captain Schoonmaker's.  Take any strawberries that you're not going to use that day, rinse them and remove the leaves, but don't cut them in any way.  Lay the rinsed strawberries onto paper towels and dry them well.  Now put them in your favorite plastic container, which has first been lined with dry paper towels.  The strawberries can touch each other, as long as each strawberry is in contact with some paper towel.  If you have lots of berries, you can layer them in a large container, with a paper towel between each layer.  Now simply cover and refrigerate, and use however many berries you need each time you open the container.  We have kept as many as 50 strawberries fresh for as long as 7 days, and they stay virtually as firm and fresh tasting as the day we bought them.  So go buy lots of strawberries to add to your favorite cereal, for dipping in chocolate or brown sugar, or as a great topping for waffles or ice cream!

We'll share more tips throughout the year.  Please feel free to add a comment with some of your favorite household tips.  Thanks, and have a great day!