Mary Ellen’s Best of Household Hints (1976) was the subject of a blog post I wrote seven years ago.  At that time, I was about to get rid of the book because it was old and falling apart. In taking a quick look, however, I came upon a solution to a problem we had (getting paint off a newly varnished floor). It worked.

I decided to keep the book.

The other day I noticed it tucked away in a corner of a bookshelf. This time, I came across Mary Ellen’s method of getting ink stains out of fabric. I tried it on a sofa that had a ink stain from a pen separated from its cover.  It worked. 

I paid $3.95 for the book forty-five years ago.  It’s available at Amazon, now $61.79.