I decided to add this category so that I could share a few extraordinary solutions to age-old problems around the house, most especially pet problems. I've had 13 cats over the last 17 years - usually five at a time. Last summer, I was in the sad position of putting three down in just six weeks, so I "only" have two now.

The worst cat problem of course is urine or spray odors. Over the years, I've replaced whole rooms of carpeting, redone hardwood, and tossed many affected items due to this issue. I've tried every product on the market: Nature's Miracle, bleach, peroxide, Hot Shot, etc. None of these has worked to eliminate the odor. I hate to admit this, but I've felt forced to make the euthanasia decision for a couple of geriatric cats based on urinating outside the box.

Last summer, two of my 17-year old cats soiled a large area of my 10' round deep shag carpet. I had it cleaned, but the urine had soaked the hardwood floor below. I could barely stand to be in my living room due to the smell.

A miracle product appeared in a newspaper column: ATMOSKLEAR was the name. I found it in Target's air freshener department, brought it home and sprayed the hardwood. Within mere seconds, there was NO ODOR WHATSOEVER!!!!! I got down on my knees and put my nose to the floor: NO ODOR could be detected. This, after 3 months of stench and every possible product had been tried.

I got so excited about AtmosKlear that I called the toll-free telephone number and found myself speaking to its inventor. I got a real education on the topic of "odors". He explained that anything which smells emits gases and it's these gases which produce the unpleasant odors. His product literally eliminates the gases. He said he's demonstrated this by, among other tactics, placing a pile of dog poop on the floor and spraying it! The smell just disappears.

As we talked, I learned that this same miracle product eliminates other common odors:
HOCKEY EQUIPMENT (my roommate & all his hockey buddies use it)
DOG AND SKUNK ENCOUNTER STENCH
CIGARETTE ODOR ON CLOTHES
OVERSPRAY FROM BOYS BATHROOM USE
SMELLY SHOES

The list is endless and oh so impressive. I even considered repping this product in toddler departments for moms of little boys. The inventor, a local guy, suggested that I come up with a name for it. This was fun! I settled on PISS MISSED (or PISS MIST) but this idea went south when he said I'd have to purchase 1500 bottles of his product in order to rep for my own partial profit!

Enough on odors! There are two other solutions for pesky household problems I can mention in this post. One is pet hair on furniture: use a pet brush with little wire bristles. This also works on cleaning screens each spring!

Finally, to make porceline sinks pure white again with NO scrubbing, fill the sink with about two inches of water and liberally sprinkle dishwasher powder in it. Leave it for an hour or so, rinse it away, and your sink will look like new.

I'd welcome any "miracle cures" my site visitors have happened upon and will add them to this list.