Ok, so some of you who never had to get creative, or always used cleaning supplies, you may not know what all of the household items in this picture can do. There are a few more things that I actually forgot to take pictures of. Sometimes there are really stubborn things (for example a baking pan that has that burnt residue and you just can’t seem to get it off) to clean that I switch over to household items instead of chemicals. You’d be surprised how these things can work! Anyway, let’s hop right into it!
Toothpaste: To Clean Jewelry
My mom taught me this trick a really long time ago. Of course if you have a piece of jewelry that you are really careful with, then please take it to a jeweler to get professionally cleaned. However, if you have some rings that you don’t care too much about that are severely tarnished, take some toothpaste and a tooth brush that you won’t be using and just brush it like you would brush your teeth. Boom, you have a super clean ring or necklace, whatever you decided to clean!
Baking Soda: Multiple Uses
Did your dog/cat pee or puke on the bed?
When we first adopted Zero, she was a frantic mess. I couldn’t even imagine what her life was like before. The shelter told us that she was house trained/potty trained, but she definitely was not. Those first several weeks were rough. She would pee and poop everywhere in the apartment. We would take her outside for a long walk and she wouldn’t go to the bathroom, until we walked inside and it was within seconds that she did her business. Well, because she wasn’t potty trained, she also peed in the bed multiple times. Thankfully most of the time I caught it before it seeped through the comforter and into the mattress, but there were a few times where it did get on the mattress. Obviously this is extremely hard to clean and most people would throw out their mattress, but because we had just moved into our first apartment, buying a new mattress 4/5 times was just not in the cards for us. My brother and mom told me to take baking soda and pour it on the spot where the pee seeped through, put a towel on top of it and put a sheet on like I normally would (or you can leave it off depending on if you are going to bed soon or if you were already sleeping). Let the baking soda work it’s magic for several hours and then take the sheet off along with the towel and baking soda, and it’s as if it never happened. The baking soda absorbs that right up!
Tough grease?
Have you ever had a baking sheet that had stubborn grease on it, or it just had burns on it that you could get off? Obviously after a while these baking sheets go through some rough times, but you can still salvage them! Pour a little bit of baking soda on these stubborn spots, take a sponge and just start washing the baking sheet. After a few minutes of scrubbing, it will look like a brand new baking sheet!
Coca Cola: You’d be Surprised!
If you’re on Facebook, you may have seen all the ways you can use Coca Cola. After I saw what it could do, I honestly did not want to ever drink a drop of it again haha. My fiance told me that when he worked in auto shops they would sometimes pour Coca Cola to have it eat the corrosion when they didn’t have anything else on hand. The ways that I have cleaned with it if I didn’t have anything else around (my fiance drinks sodas and energy drinks, I don’t think he’s ever drank water before lol) is pouring it down the drain if there was a small clog, and I even cleaned the toilet with it a few times when I didn’t have anything else.
Vinegar: Cleaning your toilet
I know A LOT of people who clean with vinegar, they even make cleaning vinegar now. Before anyone knew what this was, people would look at me weird when I told them I cleaned with vinegar. I personally like the smell of vinegar, but I know some people can’t stand it, like my fiance. So I have to make sure I clean with it when I know he won’t be home for several hours. I usually boil it and dump it in the toilet bowl once it’s done. Then I wait until it cools down and start scrubbing the toilet. This is great for those super stubborn rings around the toilet that you just can’t get off with regular toilet bowl cleaner. Trust me, I tried at our apartment, but the ring was just too far gone (a lot of the stuff in those apartments was super old) that it needed vinegar. Sometimes if you forget to wash a bathtub or a shower and you get that gross dirt that just won’t come off with anything like scrubbing bubbles, I’ll pour vinegar on it as well. Once you do that, you just scrub and voila, that stubborn dirt is gone!
Mayonnaise: Get gum out of hair/killing lice
I know a lot of kids that got gum in their hair. I don’t know what it is about mayo, but it helps get this out. It’s also great for killing lice. I mean, if you watch The Office you already knew this haha.
Old Coffee Grinds: Use as fertilizer
I didn’t know about this until several years ago. I personally don’t like Starbucks, I think it’s overrated and the coffee just doesn’t taste good to me. I’ll choose McDonald’s or Wendy’s coffee over Starbucks any day. Anyway, I was standing in line at Starbucks with my coworkers and saw bags of coffee grinds. They were selling their old grinds as fertilizer! Of course, when I got back to the office I looked this up, and there’s something in coffee grinds that works amazing as fertilizer! I don’t use a coffee maker that much because I have a Keurig, but if you drink coffee from a coffee maker, then I highly suggest trying this. It actually works because the next day I went back to buy a bag, just out of curiosity and my plants grew like crazy!
Warm water & Soap: Have a splinter that won’t budge?
Sometimes, there’s that one splinter that you just can’t get out with a needle. When I was younger and played outside I got splinters a lot. I hated when my mom would use the sewing needle because I was afraid of it, so instead she would pour some warm water and soap into a coffee mug and have me let my finger soak in it. Make sure it’s not too hot to the point where it’s uncomfortable, but just warm enough. I would soak it for about a half hour to an hour and then my mom would take my finger out and push the splinter out. It slid right out.
Rubbing Alcohol and Dish Soap: Helping with bugs on plants
A few years ago, a plant that my brother had given me (ponytail palm) got infested with bugs. I don’t know how because I kept it in my cubicle, but somehow the bugs got to it. I was devastated because my brother gave it to me, and I brought it back to life because he almost killed it haha. So, I mixed rubbing alcohol and dish soap and put it in an old hairspray bottle. I sprayed every single leave and massaged it in. Because there were so many bugs, I had to do this a few times, but it worked! It killed all of the bugs and this plant is thriving now, especially here in the perfect weather for it in Florida.
What are some other household items that you use for other purposes?
xoxo Monica
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