Weird Household Uses for Food

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Did you know that milk and vinegar can nix stains, butter can save your precious baubles, and corn starch gets you and your kids out of knotty problems?

Read on for smart and unexpected household uses for peanut butter, vinegar, potatoes, and plenty more.

Apples

Sick of waiting for your green tomatoes to ripen on the windowsill? Stick up to five tomatoes in a brown paper bag with a ripe apple and seal for a few days. This will speed up the ripening process.

Bananas

Before you throw your banana peel in the compost pile, remove any stringy pulp and use the peel as a buffing tool. This works with silverware as well as leather shoes and leather furniture. Just rub the peel over the object, then buff with a soft cloth. Be sure to test a small section of your furniture first.

Bay Leaf

The fragrant leaves can be spread around in garden beds to deter insects, including those cute but pesky ladybugs.

Beer

Soak your hair in beer, and go lay out in the sun for some great highlights. Make sure to shampoo afterward, or you'll end up smelling like a brewery!

Bread

• Put slices of bread in the bags and jars of cookies and other baked goods to keep the goodies fresh. Great for holiday baking and shipping.
• Next time you drop a wine glass or break a plate, grab a slice of bread to help you clean up. After you pick up the larger pieces of glass, press the bread over the area and it will pick up all the tiny shards you can't see.
• Bread can also help clean fingerprints off walls and wallpaper. Just rub and voila!

Butter

A jewelry box can help you organize, but sometimes those thin-chained necklaces just want to get tangled, no matter what. Rub some butter into the knot and lay necklace on a flat surface. Then take a sewing needle to untangle. When finished just run under hot water to rinse off the butter.

Castor Oil

While most of us associate castor oil with constipation or childbirth, did you know it can also help get rid of pesky moles in your yard? Just mix a 1/2 cup of castor oil with two gallons of water and pour the mixture down the mole(s) hole(s). Don't worry, the solution is animal friendly and they will likely relocate.

Club Soda

There's no more worrying about drinking red wine on white carpet. Soak up as much wine as possible and then pour club soda over the area, making sure to blot and not rub. Repeat the process until the wine is no longer visible. You can also do the same for urine stains from pets.

Corn Starch

• If your little one has diaper rash, sprinkle the area with corn starch.
• Your child just learned how to tie their shoes and the knots are impossible to undo. Stay calm and sprinkle a little cornstarch on the laces to help you work out the knot.

Eggs

No time to hit the salon before your big event? Get your hair super shiny and conditioned with eggs! Take two beaten egg yolks and massage into hair. Start at the scalp and work in small sections. Then gather all of the hair in a shower cap, wrap in a warm towel and wait 30 minutes (you could cook the kids' dinner). Rinse with cool water and shampoo as usual.

Flour

You have an ant problem but are worried about the poisonous ant traps around your pets. Just sprinkle flour wherever you see ants entering the house and along the pantry shelves, since they are most likely after your food.

Garlic

If you get a splinter, rub some garlic on it -- the splinter will almost pull itself out. In the old days, carpenters used to always carry garlic in their pouches for this reason.

Grits

Uncooked grits are an excellent and inexpensive way to get rid of ants. Cover a mound of ants outside or sprinkle inside along shelves or walls where ants are a problem. Grits are environmentally safe and are not harmful to pets or children like other insecticides.

Lemons

• Lemon is great as a hair lightener. Just squeeze it in your hair and lie out in the sun.
• Dandruff can be embarrassing, but the special shampoo often smells yucky. Try massaging 2 tablespoons of lemon juice into your scalp and rinsing with warm water. Follow with a leave-in rinse of 1 teaspoon lemon juice in 1 cup of warm water. Use this daily until your scalp is healed.

Mayonnaise

It's one thing when your child draws on the wall with crayons, it's quite another when it comes to your wood furniture. Rub some mayonnaise on the crayon mark and let it soak for ten minutes. Then take a damp cloth and wipe away the mayo AND the crayon.

Milk

You forgot to put the cap on your pen and now there is ink seeping into your shirt. No worries -- just grab some milk and soak the area. Depending on the type of ink, this process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. Patience is a virtue.

Mustard

It may make you smell like a hot dog, but rubbing a thin layer of mustard over your chest and covering with a hot towel can relieve a stuffy head and chest.

Olive Oil

Does it seem like nothing is working for your bad skin? Use 4 tablespoons of salt and 3 tablespoons of olive oil to create a paste. Leave it on your face for 2 minutes and rinse with warm water. Then wash your face as normal. Use every day for a week and then cut back to 3 days a week and you should notice an improvement.

Oranges

Don't you hate it when you have to start a fire and little bits of newspaper are flying everywhere? Next time, air-dry orange peels, which contain flammable oils that burn longer, and use those instead of the paper. The delicious smell is a bonus.

Peanut Butter

To get gum out of a carpet, scrape up what you can, using an ice cube to stiffen it if necessary. Then rub a small glob of peanut butter into the fibers, and wipe up the whole mess with a cloth. To get rid of any remaining PB, just dab it up with a mixture of 1 tsp of dishwashing liquid in 1 cup of lukewarm water. It's also great to get gum out of your hair.

Pepper

Everyone knows Clorox's catchy ditty about keeping clothes bright, but all you need is pepper. Add a teaspoon of pepper to the wash before you add in your clothes and it will keep the colors from fading.

Potatoes

Too much to drink last night and now you have puffy eyes? Apply a thin slice of cold potato to your eyes and leave on for five minutes. Then splash with cool water, put on your makeup (or just some moisturizer -- this means you, too, guys!) and head to work.

Sugar

At your next BBQ don't spend money on anti-pest candles that never work. Simmer 2 cups of milk, 1/4 pound of sugar, and 2 oz. of ground black pepper for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour the mixture into bowls and put them where the flies will be attracted to them and then drown. You can also place around the house. No more buzzing at the windows.

Salt

Grease stains can be a huge pain when it comes to doing laundry. Before you wash, work a generous amount of table salt into the stain and then launder as usual.

Shortening

For a natural solution to diaper rash, try coating the area with a thin layer of shortening. It will act as a moisturizer.

Soda

Next time your drain is clogged, look in your fridge for the solution: A 2-liter bottle of soda will do the trick. Just pour it down to clobber the clog.

Vanilla Bean

Don't just throw out the whole bean after you've scraped out the inside -- it's still got vanilla flavor. Stick it in the filter of the coffeemaker and enjoy the vanilla-flavor of your next brew.

Vinegar

Most people know that vinegar is a great way to clean a coffee pot. What to do with the hot vinegar afterward? Pour it on weeds. White vinegar is an herbicide, while boiling water also kills weeds.