When washing vegetables (especially leafy spinach or kales) or fruit, fill the kitchen sink or a basin with cold water and add baking powder. Move the vegetables around in the water and then let them soak for about three minutes then rinse thoroughly. This procedure makes all the dirt sink to the bottom, then rinse again and vegetables will be ready to use. Fruit will look much brighter.

To remove tea stains from your cups, put a small amount of bleach like JIK to the cup and then fill to the brim with water. Let the cups sit until the stains disappear, about five minutes. Make sure you rinse the cups well after pouring out bleach.

There are lots on suggestions of how to avoid crying when chopping onions. One good way is to put them in the fridge in a covered plastic container or loosely packed in a plastic bag and get them cold. You will never cry again.

Freeze minced meat in two pound portions (about a fist size) and place into individual freezer storage bags. Flatten out to the edges of the bag and remove all the air before tying or sealing, then freeze. These flat bags of minced meat can be stacked neatly on top of each other or standing on edge in the freezer. This saves a lot of space particularly if your freezer isn't very big or you have a lot of food to freeze. If you want a smaller amount it's easy just to break it off then reseal the bag. The meats also thaw quicker when stored this way.

Any time you have too much soft fruit like strawberries, mangoes, watermelon, pineapple and dont know what to do with them, liquify them in a blender, mash with a fork or for pineapple, apples and other hard fruits, finely chop. Add a little sugar, pack in freezer bags and freeze. Use as part of a dessert such as to accompany a scoop of ice cream or make a fruit smoothie with yoghurt.