Besides the best and most common use for food—eating it—it can be used in a number of ways around the house. Here are some of the strangest.
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The foods we eat can provide a multitude of health and nutritional benefits. But did you know that some items in your refrigerator and pantry can have a dual use? Scroll on to discover foods commonly found on your grocery list that can be used for other things.
Apples can ripen green tomatoes
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Have you ever checked tomatoes off of your grocery list only to realize the tomatoes in question weren’t ripe yet? This hack using apples will speed up the ripening process so you can use those tomatoes in no time. Fruits produce a gas called ethylene which helps speed up ripening. Left to their own devices, tomatoes would ripen on their own but it could take a while. According to Farmer’s Almanac, to help make the process go faster, store washed and dried tomatoes with other fruits like apples in a closed paper bag. Make sure you check in on the tomatoes from time to time, to see how the process is going, so that you can be sure to enjoy them when they are ripe! Here are additional creative ways to use apples for eating and for other purposes.
Orange peels can help deodorize refrigerators
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The fruit best known as much for its Vitamin C as its fresh citrus scent can help neutralize smells in the refrigerator. After eating an orange, pour some salt on the rind, then place the rind way back in the refrigerator. Here are other ways orange peels are way more useful than you think.
Use bananas to shine leather shoes
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Slipping on banana peels was once comedy gold, but now there’s a better use for the fruit. Aside from the great nutritional benefits like potassium, bananas have a skin that can be used to polish leather shoes. Simply peel the banana and use the skin to buff up your shoes. Afterward, buff with a clean cloth to finish up the shine. Presto! If you have a bunch of bananas going bad and you and aren’t sure what to do with them, here are additional clever uses for bananas—besides eating them.
Peanut butter helps remove gum from your hair
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Almost everyone has had a wad of chewing gum stuck in their hair at one point or another. The last resort is to cut it out, but you can avoid a haircut if you have a jar of peanut butter in the pantry. According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), peanut butter can be used to remove gum from hair. Simply coat the gum with creamy peanut butter (not crunchy), and let the oil in the peanut butter do its thing for a few minutes. Then, using your fingers, try to gently maneuver the peanut butter-coated gum out of your hair. When you’re done, wash your hair with shampoo and conditioner to remove the peanut-butter residue. If your shampoo happens to be baby shampoo,
Use mayonnaise to remove water rings on wooden surfaces
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Who would’ve thought mayonnaise could work miracles removing marks and water rings from wooden surfaces? “Dab a quarter-size amount of mayo on a towel and scrub the surface. Within seconds, the stains will disappear,” says Erin McDermott, Communications Manager for Molly Maid, a Neighborly Company. “Wipe the excess off with a damp rag or wet wipe.” That’s just one of the 22 uses for mayonnaise.
Use old slices of bread to pick up broken glass
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When glass shatters, the shards go everywhere and it’s a long, painstaking process to pick up each piece off the floor. In order to safely pick up pieces of glass, first make sure you’re wearing gloves to protect your hands and that no exposed skin is showing. After vacuuming the area, take a slice of bread and press it down wherever there may still be shards on the floor. Be extra cautious when throwing away the bread with embedded bits of glass in it. On a related note, this is the best thing to do with leftover bread crust.
Bread and milk can splinters from your skin
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According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, you can use a slice of bread soaked in milk to remove splinters. Immerse a slice of stale bread in a bowl of milk until it’s completely saturated. Gently squeeze excess milk from the bread, then cover the affected area. Let this soggy bread poultice sit for a few hours or overnight. As the dry bread sucks back moisture from the skin, it will extract the splinter.
Potatoes can also remove splinters
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After cutting a potato into slices, not wedges, place the side without the skin on the splinter. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, various sources recommend leaving the potato slice for 10 to 20 minutes and up to all night. Tie the potato slice in place using bandages. “When you remove the potato, it should pull out the splinter.” This is the simple trick to help keep potatoes from turning brown.
Potatoes can remove certain food stains from your hands
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Ever found yourself eating or picking berries only to find your hands have been stained with the juice? According to the old Farmer’s Almanac, simply rubbing your hands with slices of raw potato will help remove berry stains from skin.
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