Useful tip of the day

I had the exterior of my house re-painted yesterday (it looks fabulous, incidentally -- sort of an artichoke green with cream-colored trim and a red front door). I came home from an outing just as the painters were finishing up, and when I went inside, I inadvertently brushed my purse against the door frame. I didn't notice until about half an hour later that my black patent leather purse had several large splotches of artichoke green paint on one side. I didn't figure there was any way to save it and resigned myself to going to the mall today to buy a replacement, which sucked because I love that purse, haven't had it that long, and paid quite a bit for it. I was hoping to find an identical one at the mall.

Later in the evening, as I was surfing the web, I decided to Google "how to get paint off of leather," just for kicks. I pulled up a site that suggested using dish soap and warm water. I thought, "No way will that work," but I didn't have anything to lose, so I tried it anyway. It worked like a charm! I was amazed. The paint came right off with minimal effort and the purse looks good as new.

The site also recommended using olive oil if the soap and water failed to take off all of the paint, but I didn't even have to do that. It's amazing what you can find on Google these days.