As Summer Ends

By Peggy Hoehne

Summer is over and it is nearly time to shut up the summerhouse, cabin or travel trailer, if you have one. Soon, those of us in the North, will be putting away our lawn and patio furniture. Here are some useful end-of-summer tips.

Before you begin to shut up your summerhouse or travel trailer, invest in a bag of kitty litter. It's very useful in preventing musty, damp odors. Fill shallow boxes with unused kitty litter. Place one in each room before closing up the house to soak up musty, lingering odors.

If you have a refrigerator that won't be used, a good way to keep it from becoming too stale smelling is to place a flat box filled with unused kitty litter on the middle shelf and shut the door.

Put more of the kitty litter in another flat box and place it in the bathtub to prevent mildew. This will also work at home if you are leaving on a vacation and the house will be shut up for some time. Just be sure to keep the bathroom door shut if you have cats.

Outside the patio furniture is probably looking a little worse than it did in the spring. Wash plastic furniture with water and bleach. Let them sit in the sun for additional bleaching.

If your glass topped outdoor table needs a good cleaning, rub in a little lemon juice (bottled is OK). Dry with paper towels and make it shine by rubbing with a newspaper. If you have any scratches on the glass top, try rubbing in some toothpaste and this should remove the scratches.

Keep your wicker furniture in good condition too. Clean wicker with warm, sudsy water to help remove dust. Rinse and dry completely in warm sunshine. Never sit on wicker furniture that isn?t completely dry. Use a furniture wash to brighten the wicker, and then wipe it dry. Soft brushes will help you clean the deeper cracks, wet the brush, clean, and wipe dry.

Windowsills, this time of year, need some attention. All summer they have collected dust, bits of leaves, dead flies, and spiders looking for a warm place to live. Use your vacuum cleaner hose nozzle and thoroughly suction out the sills now, as heating season starts. Once the cobwebs and debris is removed, wipe down the sills with a Lysol solution. It doesn?t need to be a strong solution to keep the spiders away and will repel flies as well.

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