We love finding new uses for products and ingredients we already have in our homes–especially if those “new uses” leave our homes clean. From mayonnaise shining up your faucets to newspapers tucked into your fridge, here are 5 weird cleaning tricks that really work:
Add Newspapers to Your Fridge
The folks at Real Simple suggest tucking balls of newspaper into the corners and drawers of your fridge overnight to soak up the strong odors that sometimes lurk in small places. For odor prevention, use sheets of newspaper to line drawers, replacing every two weeks.
Put Kool-Aid in the Toilet Bowl
While Kool-Aid is a great treat on a hot day, it can also be used to get rid of hard water deposits and stubborn toilet bowl rings. Diana from Anyone Can Decorate recommends sprinkling a generous amount of lemonade flavored Kool-Aid powder in your toilet bowl. After the mixture sits for awhile, simply brush down the sides and flush.
Shine Faucets with Dryer Sheets
Instead of throwing away your used dryer sheets, use them to put a shine on metal faucets. Simply add a little of water to the sheet and scrub with “the tiniest bit of elbow grease,” says Raye from Thoughts by Her. And, because the sheets are often anti-static, you can also use them to do a quick dust of your furniture.
Remove Watermarks with Mayonnaise
Who knew the popular sandwich condiment could be so helpful around the house. Put a small amount of mayonnaise (or toothpaste) on a damp cloth and gently rub away the watermarks from a wooden surface. Mayo can also be used to put some shine back on your plant leaves.
Clean Your Walls with Bread
According to Michelle from HuffPost Home, a piece of semi-stale white bread works just as well as brand name “erasers” when it comes to cleaning marks off of your walls. Simply remove the crusts from the bread and roll it into a ball. After wiping down the wall with a soft cloth, rub the bread over the mark until it disappears.
Talk to us: What is the weird cleaning trick you use?
image courtesy of flickr CC/Julia Frost