By Heloise Cruse
King Features Syndicate
DEAR HELOISE: Here's a hint for storing tablecloths and other items like large scarves or shawls to prevent a crease from the coat hanger: I save the cardboard rolls from paper towels. Then I take a wire pants hanger -- the kind with the small cardboard-tube insert -- open up the coat hanger, slip the paper-towel roll over the existing tube and use this to hang my tablecloths and shawls. It helps prevent a crease, and I would like to think that it is less stress on the fabric. -- Tibby Gold, Austin, Texas
DEAR HELOISE: Do you still have the recipe for making sheer curtains stiff? I would really appreciate you repeating this in your column. My mother had it but cannot find it. -- Jackie Hayward, Via E-mail
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After washing sheer curtains, they become limp and lifeless. Make them crisp again by using Epsom salts. This is easy to do, and your curtains will "shape up" again! Fill a sink with cool water and mix in 1 cup of Epsom salts until dissolved. Add the curtains and submerge them completely so that they become soaked with the solution. Remove the curtains from the solution but do not wring -- just hang them out to drip dry. After drying, they should be crisp, wrinkle-free and ready to hang again. -- Heloise
DEAR HELOISE: I live in a two-story home, with many trips upstairs to the bedrooms, etc. I keep a small wicker basket on the steps to put in articles that must go to the second floor. That way, I accumulate several items and don't forget to take them up. It saves a lot of trips. I do the same with articles that must go down to the lower level while I'm upstairs. -- Inez C., Rochester, N.Y.
