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domestic affairs

My, my, the things we have no idea we need until someone waves them under our nose! Such was the case a few weeks ago when two small spray bottles arrived in the mail containing a sort of oily squirt that smells of grapefruit. A reader had enthusiastically tipped me off about this product on the grounds that it's great for removing puck marks. (Which, I can only assume, are those mysterious scuffs that show up on walls and floors.) I was also told it's marvellous for getting stickers off car windows. (Just how many stickers on a car does one have?) And, it's excellent for crayon marks. (No kiddies drawing on walls around here either.)

Anyway, although "Tack ATTACK Biodegradable glue remover" didn't exactly sound sexy – or like something I'd ever have a use for – I felt it deserved to be kept around for a while because it's entirely plant-based, which I approve of, and created by a retired Canadian chemist who decided to turn his skills to products for the home. One likes to support that sort of venture.

I gave one of my bottles to a neighbour and put the other away on a shelf, remembering that old joke about the definition of a long marriage: when you're on your second bottle of Tabasco. (Here, probably, was another bottle to fit that bill.)

But, to my amazement, I found myself reaching for Tack ATTACK within days. I'd bought a present for someone and had to get the pesky price tag off before I could wrap it. "Just soak it in hot water!" you want to say. Yes, well, the present was a book. Instead of picking at the sticker for half an hour and fouling my mood, one squirt of Tack ATTACK and a wipe and it was gone. Immediately, I realized just how handy this product would be at Christmas. But Christmas is far off, so back on the shelf it went.

Then along came the weekend and time to get the deck in order with a whole lot of plants in nice pots. Well, naturally, every nice pot came with a stubborn sticker and I found myself needing Tack ATTACK yet again before I ripped my hair out. Suddenly, I was taking this product seriously. It took sticky glue residue off my fingers, candle wax residue off the coffee table…goodness only knows what else it will do.

"Every builder should have this stuff in their kit," my husband pointed out. "It's so true about stickers on new windows. They're impossible to get off." As a test, I took a jar of mustard out of the fridge, squirted the label liberally, waited a minute or two, then ran over it with a scrubber. Gone completely. And so, now, is half my bottle of Tack ATTACK. I regret having given the other one away.

Tack ATTACK Biodegradable Glue Remover $11.95 + HST and delivery from tack-attack.com.

Do you know of a genius domestic product? If so, Laura wants to hear about it. E-mail domesticaffairs@globeandmail.com

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