Want to stretch your budget and maybe even kill a whole bunch of birds with just a few stones?
It is possible to get some work done around the house without purchasing every newfangled product being pushed on you in stores and TV commercials.
Inside your kitchen cupboards and medicine cabinet are little secrets that could help you find effective uses for everyday stuff. Some of the uses are bizarre, but you never know when you’re going to need to get a grease stain out of the lace curtains in your living room.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of different uses for the five products we’re writing about in this article. Some of them are a bit repetitive, others are pretty ridiculous. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to highlight the ideas that I found most surprising – yet potentially helpful.
1. White Distilled Vinegar
Don’t tell Mr. Clean, but vinegar is one of the most useful household items of all!You’ve probably already heard about some of it’s seemingly magical uses.
I’ve recently used it to help clean up a nasty microwave and a dishwasher that was leaving us with cruddy cups and silverware.
There is actually an entire website dedicated to vinegar’s versatility. Check out VinegarTips.com for its 1001 Uses for White Distilled Vinegar. The site even breaks vinegar ideas down into categories – from cleaning and cooking to pets, gardening and automotive care.
You can use vinegar to keep frost from forming on your car’s windows overnight by mixing 3 parts vinegar with one part water and coating it on the glass. That would be a big benefit for me living here in Wisconsin. There have been plenty of times when I’ve walked into work five minutes late because I had to scrape ice off my windshield.
VinegarTips.com also says this miraculous household item can lighten your freckles, soothe sunburn and keep lint from sticking to your clothes (just add 1/2 cup to the wash cycle).
2. Baking Soda
We’ve all seen the opened box of Arm & Hammer baking soda inside a fridge absorbing the funky food smell that develops. And we’ve all mixed baking soda with the aforementioned vinegar to make a fun science experiment/fake lava for your volcano school project.
But baking soda can be used for much more…
You may have noticed the recognizable Arm & Hammer logo used on a lot of other products, like toothpaste and laundry detergent. That’s because it really does have some serious cleaning and de-stinking power. (FYI – there are generic brands of baking soda too)
As a deodorizer baking soda can be used for:
- Stinky sneakers
- Yucky trash cans
- Smelly dishwashers, drains and garbage disposals
- Carpet freshener
- Kitty litter box odor elimination
As a cleaner baking soda is great for:
- Boosting laundry detergent’s effectiveness
- Homemade toothpaste
- As a scrub for fruits and vegetables
- Cleaning cloth diapers
- Polishing silverware
- Removing oil stains from your garage floor or driveway
You can find 51 Fantastic Uses for Baking Soda at Care2.com. Other suggestions include things like using baking soda as antacid, and patting it in your armpits instead of using traditional deodorant. I think I’ll skip that one.
3. Hydrogen Peroxide
We generally think of that brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide (or H2O2 as I like to call it) as something in the first aid kit for disinfecting wounds. Yazmin Cruz, from the blog Bargain Babe, recently listed 25 great uses for hydrogen peroxide.
Topping Yazmin’s list of ideas for this household item is soaking your toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide to kill germs. She says it’s a great idea if someone at your house has been sick, and all your toothbrushes have been sitting next to each other in that slimy cup on the sink
Hydrogen peroxide is actually great for getting rid of a lot of gross things. Yazmin’s suggestions include using it to remove mold, to spray on foot fungus and to clean wax out of your ears.
One of the more interesting ideas for H2O2 is putting just a little bit inside an aquarium to prevent the growth of that green fungi, which makes you look like a lazy fish owner.
4. Aspirin
When you think of aspirin, you think headaches. More recently, we’ve also started thinking about preventing heart attacks and strokes.
But how about spackle? Yes, some crushed aspirin and water can be used to fill small holes in your walls.
Aspirin is a great item to bring along on camping trips, because when you create a paste, it can be used to take the sting out of bug bites. They’re an excellent gardening additive as well. Crushed aspirin in water helps plants ward off infection and stay strong after being transplanted. Aspirin can also be used to help a bouquet of flowers last longer – just like those little packets you get when you buy a dozen roses.
According to this list of 50 Amazing and Everyday Uses for Aspirin, the simple drug can be used to remove nicotine and grass stains as well as reduce the puffy redness of pimples.
My personal favorite use for aspirin? Crush some up and let it sit in a “serving size” of shampoo for a few minutes and then use it on your itchy scalp to get rid of dandruff. Aspirin is good for headaches and head flakes!
5. Olive Oil
You’ve cooked with it, but have you polished furniture, washed paint off your hands or moisturized your cuticles with it?
Personally, I don’t know that my cuticles have ever needed moisturizing.
However, there are a lot of cool uses for olive oil. This list from FoodEditorials.com gives us 30 Unusual Uses for Olive Oil. They include pouring some in your kitty cat’s dish to keep it from hacking up hairballs.
If you’ve got a bottle of extra virgin olive oil in the pantry, you could save a bundle on beauty and hygiene products. The list includes suggestions for using it as a shampoo, makeup remover, to control frizzy hair and you can mix it with beeswax to create homemade lip balm.
More masculine suggestions would be using olive oil to fix a squeaky door, as a substitute for shaving cream and to condition leather products like baseball gloves.
Double Dipping
One of the added benefits of using many of these household items for unlikely chores is that it can also be more environmentally friendly than using products full of potentially harmful chemicals.
If you read through the articles I link to in this post, you’ll also notice you can often use some of these products together for great home remedies. For instance – a solution of apple cider vinegar and aspirin can apparently help eliminate warts.
You’ll also notice that all these different items seem to serve similar purposes. Just be careful about confusing them.
Hydrogen peroxide and baking soda are both suggested for oral hygiene – but I wouldn’t recommend gargling with vinegar for fresh breath. Although some say that will help relieve a sore throat.
Vinegar, baking soda and olive oil are all good for your hair – but don’t shampoo with hydrogen peroxide unless you’re going for that bleached blonde look.
It seems that all five of these household items are recommended for clearing up acne – even olive oil! I’m planing to try and mix up a concoction that will be endorsed by Justin Bieber. I’m gonna be rich!
Your Turn!
What are your favorite unusual uses for things like vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, aspirin and olive oil?
Do you know of other household items that have out-of-the-ordinary uses? Tell us about it!
If you enjoyed this article, please share and retweet with your friends!
Image Credits: imageo, elycefeliz & Ian Fuller
+Kasey Steinbrinck writes about personal finance and the economy for Check Advantage. When you order checks from Check Advantage, you’ll find hundreds of unique photography featured on Wildlife Checks as well as Flower Checks and much more! Plus, now you can get free shipping on personal checks!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I can think of two household items that I use that is kinda unusual.
For starters, I will take any leftover butter cup or even cottage cheese cup and use it for storage down the line for fruits, vegetables and more. I know people throw these out, but it sure does beat buy Tupperware.
Another household item that I use as well is my crock pot. Fill it up with a little water and just set it in a small room. It works great for those that don’t have a dehumidifier!
Great suggestions for frugal living Hannah – thanks!
Reusing containers as tupperware is something we do at our house too. Some restaurants give you pretty nice plastic “to-go boxes” that snap shut as well. Chinese take-out places and Noodles & Co. are two that come to my mind.
The Crock-Pot humidifier is one I’ve never heard before. Might have to try it out in this dry winter weather!