DEAR HELOISE: I have two thermal mugs. One is for coffee, and one is for tea. They can’t be used in the microwave or in the dishwasher. To get the stains out, I boil some water and put it in the mugs. I then add a couple of squirts of lemon juice. I let it soak until the water gets cold. Later when I wash them with my other dishes, the stains just wipe away.

I also use this method to get the rust out of my shower curtains. I boil a pot of water with several squirts of lemon juice. I move the pot of water into the sink, add in the shower curtain (tamping it down occasionally), and launder it as usual after the water has gone cold. I admit I got this hint from a woman’s magazine. It worked so well with the shower curtain that I tried it on the mugs, and it worked for them, too.

• Liz Nass, via email

DEAR HELOISE: Thank you for the letters about dog owners picking up their dogs’ waste in your column in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. I love the lady in New Jersey who told the offending dog walker to “get back here” and handed the walker paper towels to pick up after the dog!

We live between a park and an apartment building and frequently find dog poo bags in our trash bins. It’s bad enough that these dog walkers think our bins are there for their dogs’ waste, but they don’t care which bin they throw it in. We find dog poop thrown in with the recyclables, which contaminates the entire bin! Or they put it in with the compostable organics, which is also wrong.

I wish they’d put their dogs’ waste in their own trash or in the park’s public trash cans, but if they have to use my bins, at least put it in the correct bin — the one with trash that goes to the landfill.

• J.T., in Los Alamitos, California

DEAR HELOISE: When I want to buy something on clearance, I snap a picture of the item / price tag. Many times when I check out, the price is wrong, and it saves having to run through the store to verify with the clerk what the correct price is. And it’s easy to delete the photo later.

• Annie H., via email

DEAR HELOISE: I wanted to write in regarding a recent letter featuring Mara Trotter’s hint on opening lids on jars: Please tell her a better way to to open the lid on a jar is to tap around the lid with the handle of a silverware knife. A few taps around the lid will make it easier to open, and you don’t have to turn it upside down to tap it on the countertop!

• Michele Cruz, via email

DEAR HELOISE: Having just finished taking two large antibiotics for a medical issue, I found it so much easier to roll the large pills in a spoonful of honey, which helped with swallowing them.

• Sue, in South Carolina