Cleaning Salt and Pepper Shakers

I recently noticed our glass salt and pepper shakers were looking cloudy. Due to the shape of our shakers, I couldn’t get into the corners even with my faithful toothbrush. Then I though about them as small vases and tried my Alka-Seltzer technique. I filled them up with water and dropped a few broken pieces of Alka-Seltzer tablets. It worked. An important thing to remember when cleaning your shakers, no matter how you do it, is to leave them empty overnight to be certain that all the moisture has evaporated from them. If any moisture remains when you refill them, the salt and pepper will clump.

Alka-Seltzer to the Rescue for Vases

My wife has a number of beautiful, yet very skinny, vases. On way too few occasions, I buy her flowers. One of my hang-ups to buying them has always been trying to clean the vases afterwards. Here is a great tip that I got from my mom to clean the bottom of skinny vases. Fill the dirty vase with clean water and drop in a few Alka-Seltzer tablets. The tablets foam up and will break-down the water stains!