Take a minute to make your life a bit easier

•A great cleaner and conditioner for wood floors is tea. Just brew a couple of cups and use the tea as you would your regular wood floor cleaner. It’s nice and shiny afterward. — I.L. in Utah

•Be sure to get and check references for any home-service professional you hire. Get estimates in writing, and make sure the estimates list what is included — and what is not.

•We recently suffered a power outage. It turned out to be a long, dark evening, and when it was time for bed, we were in a quandary. I wanted to use something as a nightlight for my child’s bedroom since it was awfully dark in the house, but the flashlight was burning through batteries as it was. Then my husband came up with a brilliant solution. He went and got a few of the solar-powered driveway lamps from the front yard. They are the staked kind, no wires. They were bright enough to cast enough light to get your bearings if you woke up in the middle of the night. — S.S., via e-mail

•Because fabric softeners can leave residue on the dryer’s lint trap, clean yours out at least every other month. Just scrub with plain soap and water.

•I get a lot of junk mail, and I have found that the return envelopes in credit card offers come in handy. I use them to hold coupons when I go to the grocery store. I also use them to file different kinds of cutouts for my art projects. — Y.R. in Washington

•If you have a muddy boot problem like I do, then get a couple of cookie sheets and set them by the door. The boots can go on the cookie sheets, and the mud doesn’t get tracked into the house. — A reader in New Jersey