solutions getting organized • one-dish dinners • beauty shortcuts • speed-cleaning tips It’s simple to give the gift that’s all about making life easier. To give Real Simple as a gift, visit www.realsimple.com or call 1.800.881.1172 CONTENTS MULTITASKING LIFE FooD 62 new uses • 2 money made easy • 7 one-pot wonders • 10 Learn how everyday items can Nine common (but vexing) These delicious dishes require do surprising new tricks. money dilemmas solved. just a single skillet or stockpot. HOME BEAUTY All materials in this booklet are the property of clean by the clock • 15 make up time • 20 magazine. realsimple Cover photograph by Quick solutions for every Simplify your beauty routine Ellen Silverman. Back room in your house. with easy shortcuts. photograph by Mark Lund. MULTITASKING 62 extraordinary uses for ordinary things On any given day, you may be juggling upwards of half-a-dozen roles: short- order cook, chauffeur, sleepover chaperone, and, oh yeah, wife, friend, and full-fledged member of the workforce. Sometimes it seems as if Multitask- ing is your middle name. Well, guess what: You’re not alone. In every room of your house, from the bedroom to the laundry room, not-so-ordinary household items are going above and beyond the call of duty to make the things you do every day just a little bit easier. Now, that’s good company. WRITTEN BY VALERIE RAINS PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK LUND REAL SIMPLE 2 MULTITASKING kitchen In less time than it takes to heat up last night’s leftovers, ordinary kitchen items can step up to the plate in plenty of unexpected ways. wine bottle or cork ice-cube tray uncooked spaghetti colander • Use as bookends. A pair of • Cut cookie dough. Roll the • Keep cakes intact. Push a • Shoo flies. Invert the colan- bottles, with or without the dough flat, then press an piece of spaghetti into the top der and use it as a bug tent contents, can hold a small upside-down ice-cube tray of a cake to keep plastic wrap over burgers and buns during library together. into it for a dozen or more or a soft box lid from smudg- a cookout. • Organize jewelry. Poke stud identical treats. Use trays with ing the frosting. • Create a casual luminaria. earrings into a cork and toss it different shapes (stars, hearts) • Mark your page in a cookbook Place tealights or votives in your travel bag. for miniature holiday cookies. with a single slender stick. inside a metal version. • Replace a rolling pin. Roll Tip: This works best with trays • Spear hors d’oeuvres on • Wash your delicates. Don’t piecrust or pizza dough flat with outer rims that don’t party platters. This works throw lingerie into the sink for with a wine bottle. extend higher than the inner best for cold fare, like cherry hand washing. Peroxide from • Keep your boots up. Slide dividers. tomatoes and chunks of moz- some toothpastes and caustic bottles into boots when stor- • Organize desk supplies, like zarella and basil. agents from other cleansers ing them so they keep their thumbtacks and paper clips, • Light candles. When you can bleach, stain, degrade, and shape and stand up straight. or sewing notions, like but- don’t have long matches but even disintegrate delicate fab- • Pack party favors. Send tons, beads, hooks, and eyes. you do have plenty of can- rics. Instead, put the colander dinner guests home with some • Freeze extra pesto, left- dles, use a piece of spaghetti in the sink and wash the gar- of your special sauce or cock- over cooking wine, broth, and to fire them all up in one go. ments inside it. tail mix in rinsed-out bottles. sauces for cooking. Then store Also handy for lighting a can- • Make a Halloween costume. • Cap an X-Acto knife with a the cubes in freezer bags until dle in a deep holder. A stainless-steel colander is a wine cork. you’re ready to use them. perfect Martian helmet. REAL SIMPLE 3 MULTITASKING bathroom A soak in the tub can wash away your cares. But there’s more magic to be found in the medicine cabinet. Behold the transformative powers of dental floss! baby oil dental floss antacid tablets cotton swabs • Remove latex paint from • Unstick a photograph. Slide • Clean a toilet. Toss in two • Touch up paint on cabinets skin. Pour a generous amount a length of dental floss under dissolving antacid tablets, or walls, or use a swab to apply of baby oil on a cotton ball the corner of a photo that’s such as Alka-Seltzer, wait 20 wood stain to elaborate carv- and scrub. stuck to an album page or minutes, then brush. ings on furniture or scratches • Untangle a necklace chain. another snapshot. Work the • Remove a stain from a vase’s on furniture and f loors. Massage a dab of oil onto f loss between the two sur- bottom. Drop a tablet in a little • Keep your phone charged. the tangled area, then use a faces to separate them with- water and let it sit for several Use a swab dipped in alcohol straight pin to carefully pull out damaging the picture. minutes. Wipe and rinse. to clean the battery contacts apart the knot. • Save a necklace. Rescue a • Soothe a sting. Dissolve two of a cordless phone, a cell • Peel off bandages. Avoid busted strand by threading tablets in a glass of water, phone, or a laptop. This will involuntary hair removal— the beads onto dental floss then dab on bug bites. help maintain good battery and extra agony—by rubbing for a quick, sturdy fix. • Impress a kid. Pour water connections and sustain the baby oil over and around the • Hang a painting. To hang into a plastic 35-millimeter– charge for a longer time. sticky parts of an adhesive lightweight artwork that’s not film canister until it is one- • Tote touch-up makeup in a bandage before pulling it off. in a heavy frame, use dental third full, drop in a tablet, tiny evening bag by rubbing • Slip off a stuck ring. Mas- floss in place of picture wire. replace the lid, and place the cotton swabs in concealer sage oil onto your finger and • Cut a cheesecake. Use canister upside down on the and eye shadow and sealing rotate the ring until you can unwaxed, unflavored floss to ground. In 5 to 10 seconds, the them in a plastic bag. slide it off. (This trick works slice any soft cheeses, layer gas pressure will make the • Take a shine to your silver. to get body parts out of a cakes, or homemade cinna- canister pop its lid and shoot Use a swab to apply polish to number of sticky situations.) mon buns from a roll. several feet into the air. the crevices. REAL SIMPLE 4 MULTITASKING bedroom The same items that keep your bed comfortable and wardrobe neat can also preserve produce or hold CDs. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of. tie rack pillowcase shoe organizer bedsheet • Avoid necklace-untangling • Keep your underwear under • Raise the bar. Use a sturdy • Dress up a bathroom. To nightmares. Sort, organize, wraps. When traveling, pack organizer to store wine and replace a plain vinyl shower and display beads and chains intimates in a pillowcase liquor bottles, a cocktail curtain, attach 16 clip-on on the pegs of a horizontally within your suitcase so they shaker, bar tools, and towels. drapery rings to one edge mounted tie rack. Many don’t get lost in a pant leg or • Store art supplies. A plastic of a sheet, then slide it onto wooden versions have hooks emerge at an airport security version is perfect for holding a shower-curtain rod. Back about an inch apart and can checkpoint. paints, pens, brushes, and more. it with a waterproof plastic separate dozens of necklaces • Fend off dust. Use a pil- • Declutter the bathroom. liner. with no overlap. lowcase to cover a sewing Keep soaps, razors, tonics, and • Beat the heat. Tie the cor- • Keep dish towels and pot machine or any other small sprays from crowding counter- ners of a large sheet to close- holders within arm’s reach. appliance that collects dirt in tops and the medicine cabinet. set trees in your backyard for Install the rack horizontally on its crevices. • Separate socks. Keep all instant summer shade. a kitchen wall and hang every- • Make lettuce last longer. your panty hose, tights, and • Make a headboard. Wrap a thing right where you need it. After shaking off excess water socks untangled and in full sheet over a piece of plywood, • Organize a desktop. Place from just-washed greens, place view in a clear plastic version. staple in back, and prop up as a a wooden rack flat on a table them in a clean cotton pillow- • Arrange gift-wrapping sup- headboard for a quick update. and use the spaces between case. Pat dry and put the whole plies. Wrapping presents goes • Move furniture. Place a sheet the pegs to sort CDs or mail. thing in a plastic bag in the faster when you can find the underneath heavy furniture refrigerator. The moist cotton bows, ribbons, tape, scissors, to protect f loors and make will keep the lettuce fresh lon- and cards without digging repositioning easier. ger than a plastic bag alone. around in a box or a drawer. REAL SIMPLE 5 MULTITASKING laundry room A few surprising spins on utility-room essentials can give you a whole new appreciation for laundry day—and great biceps, too.