Surprising Household Cleaners

1. Coffee Grounds.

Although coffee often gets a reputation for causing stains it can be used for the following three things. (if you need coffee grounds Starbucks gives them away free)

• Pest Control. Sometimes our house plants attract bugs. If you add some coffee grounds to the soil this will help fend them off.
• Scrubbing Dishes. Do you have pots and pans you just can’t get clean? Coffee grounds, become of their rough texture, work very well on cleaning the dishes without harming them. Take a square piece of a dry cleaning rag and place a couple of teaspoons of dry coffee grounds in the middle of the rag; turn in each corner to cover the grounds and secure with a rubber band. Then use on it to clean pots and pans.
• Deodorizer. Because of the nature of coffee grounds they will soak up odors. Place some in a bowl in your refrigerator to remove the odor that some of the foods may leave; put some in the bottom or your trash can, and soak your smelly cutting board in water with grounds added. Make sure to renew the coffee grounds with fresh ones if they get too damp or lose their smell.

2. Soft Drinks.

The acid in soft drinks lends itself well to using it as a toilet bowl cleaner. Do you have company coming and you are out of toilet bowl cleaner? Pour a can full in the toilet and let sit for an hour.

Make sure you spread it around the entire toilet. When it has been in there for an hour, use your toilet brush to scrub.

Flush and admire your clean toilet. Soda can also be used to remove rust and tarnish from your brass and silver items. If your brass item is covered with tarnish, soak it in a glass of soda for a while. Remove, rinse and rub clean.

For silver items place a little bit of soda on a clean cloth and wipe the rust and tarnish off. Don’t forget to clean the item thoroughly when you are done because soft drinks can be awful sticky.

3. White Rice

Are you having trouble getting your coffee grinder, thin necked vases and bottles clean? Not to worry.

Take white rice out of the cupboard and do the following. With bottles and vases, fill them approximately one half to three quarters full of water and then add 1 to 2 tablespoons of uncooked rice to the bottle or vase.

Cover and shake for a couple of minutes. The rice acts as a soft abrasive and will work to clean those areas you can’t get at. For a coffee grinder with regular blades add rice up to the top of your blades.

Run the grinder and then dispose of the rice. You will see how it is all covered with the coffee grinds that are still in the grinder. With a burr grinder you will only need to add about 3 teaspoons of white rice and then grind.

You will be surprised what a job this does at getting out all those oils that are left in your grinder.

4. White Bread

Believe it or not, white bread can be a great duster for paintings. If you have oil paintings, you will know that they can collect much dust in no time.

Take a piece of bread and dab it on top of the painting. You will be amazed at how well it picks up the dust, grime and dirt without leaving any residue.

White bread is also great for picking up broken glass. Do you remember how difficult it was to get those fine pieces of glass?

After you have clean up all the bigger pieces with a broom and dustpan use bread to pick up all those tiny shards. Take the bread and go around where it was broken and press it on the area. It will pick up all those hard to see shards.

5. Corn Starch

If you have kids, there is no doubt you probably have stuffed animals. And, if your kids play with them like most kids do, they could probably use a good cleaning.

Corn starch to the rescue. Put the stuffed animals in a bag, sprinkle in some corn starch and shake.

Let sit for five minutes. Remove the stuffed animals and shake and brush off the corn starch. Corn starch can also be used to clean your carpet. Shake the corn starch around the carpet and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes and then vacuum.

6. Cucumbers

I have heard that cucumbers are very versatile when it comes to cleaning. If you don’t want your bathroom mirror to cloud up while you are in the shower rub some cucumber peel on it before showering.

I have also found the peels to be great for removing marks on counter tops and walls.

Other foods you should look into for your cleaning needs are banana peels, ketchup, raw onions, walnuts and tea just to name a few.

If you have a job to do and you don’t have the store bought cleaner that you want, go online and see if there is something you can use in your house.