Hints From Heloise

Dear Heloise: As a family of six with no dishwasher, we do a lot of dishes by hand. Here are two ideas for conserving water.

Use the water you run waiting for the hot water to rinse messy dishes before washing or to soak stuck-on food:

Run only a little hot water into your dishpan at first. Wash a few dishes and run the rinse water from those dishes into your dishpan to finish filling it. Barbara Johnson, Indianapolis

Dear Heloise: At our house, when a package of cheese is bought, it is immediately sliced into strips, both narrow and wide, of varying lengths.

We then store it in a tall clean jar with a lid, where it remains moist and fresh for a much longer time. This is especially good for children, who won’t need mom to slice a piece (or try it themselves) for snacking. - M.C., Waterloo, Iowa