I have a few different criteria for what kinds of tips I share here on my blog. First and foremost, they have to be useful! I’m passionate about sharing practical information, because that’s the kind of stuff I care about too!
But if I find a tip that happens to be useful AND unexpected, that’s even better in my book. :-) I love being surprised by tips and solutions that seem a bit crazy at first glance, and I hope you feel the same way, because today’s post is packed with such tips!
Today I’ll be sharing 11 different ways you can clean things with food. I think you’ll be surprised at how useful perfectly edible foods and food products can be when it comes to keeping your home clean and tidy!
11 Things You Can Clean With Food
1. Clean Cutting Boards With A Lemon
Food prep surfaces like your cutting board need to be cleaned and disinfected regularly to keep things sanitary, and you can do it in just a couple of minutes using coarse salt and a lemon! Just sprinkle the coarse salt all over your cutting board, and give it a good scrub using half of a lemon.
The lemon juice helps kill bacteria and food odors while the salt scrubs the surface clean. Just be sure to rinse your board well and let it dry completely before using it again. (For even more ways to clean with lemons, check out the link below!)
Related: 10 Homemade Cleaners Made From Citrus Peels
2. Clean Grills With An Onion
Use half an onion to scrub the grate of your barbecue grill clean! Just stick half of an onion onto the end of a grilling fork, then rub the cut side on your grill grate to give it a good cleaning.
3. Clean Graters With A Potato
Box graters are very handy for grating cheese, but they can be really difficult to clean afterwards thanks to all those pesky proteins. The secret to removing the cheese residue from your grater is to use a potato!
Just grate a bit of potato after you finish grating cheese, and the potato will pick up the bits of leftover cheese from the surface. The remaining potato residue will be much easier to rinse away than the cheese would have been!
4. Clean Grinders With Rice
If you have a blade grinder at home for grinding coffee or spices, here’s a simple way to clean it. Just toss in a small handful of uncooked rice, and pulse the rice several times. This will sweep away the residues that are stuck to the inside of the grinder and the blade. (If you have a burr grinder, use puffed rice cereal instead. It’s softer, but still does the trick nicely!)
5. Fix Scuffs With Walnuts
There’s no way to avoid scuffs and scrapes on your wood furniture. But there is an way to make those scuffs and scrapes “disappear!” Just rub a walnut along the visible scuffs. The walnut will blend into the color of the wood, making the scuffs much less noticeable. Your furniture will look good as new!
6. Polish Shoes With Bananas
This might sound strange, but you can actually use a banana peel to give your shoes a nice shine! (Did you know that potassium is a common ingredient in shoe polish? It’s true!)
Just rub the inside of a banana peel onto your shoes, then buff with a clean, soft cloth until they’re nice and shiny.
Related: 10 Reasons NOT To Throw Out Your Overripe Bananas
More Ideas You'll Love
7. Remove Stickers With Peanut Butter
For those stickers that just will not come off, you can use peanut butter to get rid of the remaining sticker residue easily. Just smear a thick layer of peanut butter over the area and let it sit for a few hours. The fat content will dissolve the adhesive, and you’ll be able to rub the sticker residue right off!
Related: 10 Common Products That Will Remove Stubborn Stickers Easily
8. Clean Toilets With Cola
This is one of those facts they used to tell us about in health class to scare us into giving up sugary sodas — but it really does work, so why not use it? Pour a can of cola into your toilet bowl, let it sit for a few hours or overnight, then just give it a good scrub.
Your toilet bowl will be shiny and clean, albeit with some sticky residue you’ll have to clean up afterwards. (It’s not the ideal every day method — personally, I’d reserve cola for tough stains, and stick with a standard toilet bowl cleaner for lighter cleanings.)
Related: 14 Useful Reasons To Keep A Can Of Cola In Your Fridge
9. Pick Up Glass With Bread
After breaking a glass, it can be hard to tell if you’ve picked up all the smaller shards, and no one wants to step on broken glass! But you can easily pick up those tiny pieces with a piece of bread.
Just press it to the floor in the area where the glass was broken, and the bread will grab onto any tiny glass pieces that may have evaded your cleaning efforts.
Related: 7 Things You Can Do With A Slice Of Bread Besides Make A Sandwich
10. Shine Plants With Mayo
I love brightening up a room with faux plants, but they can start to look dull and drab once they collect a bit of dust. But they are easily revitalized with a dab of mayo! Use a clean, soft cloth to apply a very thin layer of mayo to the leaves of the plant to remove dust and restore shine.
Related: 17 Surprisingly Clever Uses For Mayonnaise
More Ideas You'll Love
11. Clean Garbage Disposals With Citrus
Garbage disposals can develop all kinds of yucky residues and unpleasant smells if they aren’t cleaned regularly. My favorite way to clean my disposal is by making frozen vinegar and lemon cubes. They clean and deodorize my disposal in seconds, and they couldn’t be easier to make. Check out the full instructions at the link below!
Related: How To Naturally Clean And Sanitize Your Garbage Disposal
Are there any other food-based cleaning tips you would add to this list?
About your DIY dryer sheets made with lavender. Don’t know yet how they will handle static, but the aroma part definitely will work. Dryer balls, or even tennis balls will work for static.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.But someone asked about a lavender “effusion”, I think she meant infusion, and another thought of using alcohol.
Infusing is very easy. Take about a tablespoon of your intended botanical, put Ito water, about 1nd a half to 2 cups. Plain water, best using either filtered or use distilled water, around $1 or less at most big box stores or grocery. Anyway, you can heat it-not boiling though, just around warm enough for tea. I use my microwave on beverage setting-might have to put in on manual. Around 1 and a half minutes per cup of water. Then let it sit. For about an hour then strain lavender or whichever fragrance organic you are using. You can get a tea bar to do this rather than use a strainer. Then you can put this into a spray bottle and spay (lightly) into your dresser drawers or closet . Someone also mentioned using alcohol. That is the way to make a great fabric refresher for virtually nothing:
get a bottle of cheap store brand vodka at the grocery or whatever. Done spend much, because most vodka is the same-grain alcohol. Anyway, get an empty spray bottle, and measuring cup. Use a cup of vodka to a cup of water. You end up with about 20% alcohol and a inexpensive fabric refresher.
Caution about using essential oils to ad fragrance! According to a recent veterinary newsletter (for non veterinarians) says don’t use certain essential oils like peppermint and a host of others around cats or dogs because they can cause liver problems at worst, and at best eye and lung irritation. Recently I noticed that if I put peppermint in a little Ambiance type of air refresher using essential oils, the cat left the room within just a few minutes. I have cut the amount of essential oil I used to about 1 or two dogs to three ounces of water. Didn’t seem to bother the cat, so go easy on the essential oils if you have cats or dogs, or use the infusion method. For some just buy herbal tea and let it brew for several hours.
Added benefit for Peppermint and Lavender: both repel a variety of bugs including my least favorite, spiders, and cloth eating bugs. Use the infusion in the faux febreeze, too. But with essential oils check with your vet or call a pet poisoning center.
Please don’t pick up broken glass with bread! After you throw it away, a hungry animal could find it and rip their innards apart trying to eat it. A damp paper towel or length of toilet paper is just as effective.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Good point. I have used the paper towel thing too and works great. Easier and less noisy than the vacuum.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I use a mixture of lemons, coarse salt, vinegar, and ice to make my coffee carafe look like new!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.How?? I like to know more. Thank you,
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This blog post is very interesting and I love anything using food. Home economics people must stick together, we are a dyeing breed. I am going to give you a tip, I don’t want to offend you, you are a beautiful woman in the pictures but you need to very your expression in your photos (my humble opinion) let some be fierce, some pouty, come hither, some happy, some comical, hard, soft etc. etc. etc. I enjoy the posts.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thank you Berit, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog! And thanks for the tip :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve read that fluffy white bread is used by art curators to clean dusty oil paintings.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Rolled up bread is also rubbed on walls to clean old wallpaper in restorations.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Actually I think its dried/toasted bread. It kinda scrubs the oil painting, which isn’t smooth. Fresh bread wouldn’t necessarily loosen grime from nooks & crannies and tear & stick to a painting. Afterwards you just blow it off. All of this is done with a gentle hand btw.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.No it was untoasted bread. No scrubbing needed, that would damage the paper or painting. Dirt sticks to the bread.
Here’s a video of how to do it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdS_NQ-tRkg
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I clean my disposals with citrus frequently. I recently removed the black baffle that covers the drain hole and was shocked at the disgusting scum and food particles stuck to the underside. Fortunately, the rubber piece is easily replaced. I took the old one (in a zipper bag) to the hardware store. There were 2 size options. I’m still cleaning the blades with citrus fruits; I also remove the baffle every couple of weeks to inspect and clean with a scrub brush using bleach & detergent mixture!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.How do you remove the baffle?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I regularly run it through the dishwasher, top shelf!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Combo of vinegar and baking soda cleans all that pretty well too. One or two tablespoons baking soda, cup of vinegar. Dump into disposal, it does the school project lava impression, after a minute turn disposal on. cleans and smells better. Lemon rinds with some fruit still attached and cit into smallish pieces. Put handful into drain and for a few seconds then run water in at full blast to get the ground up lemon to flush down the drain. Minute or two with water depending on water pressure. Cuts through grease, gunk and you name it. Lemon works great while washing greasy pots and pans. Learned this in the Army when they still had KP,before they hired civilians to do it. Believe me it works.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Before the Magic Eraser, my mom used white bread to remove marks from the walls.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.How interesting! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Normally I’d hate to waste peanut butter on removing sticker residue but I bought a jar of pumpkin spice PB cuz it was at the .99 store. It tastes weird so I was going to toss it but now it has a use. Thanks!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Ive done that before with the citrus peel ice cubes. My family members thought it wasn’t good for our disposal.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.i USED LEMON AND ICE CUBES IT REALLY WORKS AND BAFFLE ALL SO.
It might sound like Armageddon, but disposals are built to chew up even big bones. Don’t really recommend that, but it should handle ice cubes easily, if noisily.
Perfect! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Does anyone know how to clean a bamboo cutting board please? Is the salt and lemon safe?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I do it all the time and it seems fine.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.When I purchased my bamboo cutting board, the tag said to treat with mineral oil a couple times a year. Maybe after cleaning with the salt and lemon, follow up with a little neutral scented coconut oil. It gives it sheen and helps to protect the bamboo. I feel it’s safer then the mineral oil. Never let it sit in water. Mine lasted a long time.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.You can clean your bamboo board the same as any other wooden cutting board. Food grade mineral oil, butcher’s block oil, salad bowl oil, to restore what the cleaning takes out is good occasionally. Stay away from cooking oils, Olive, canola, even coconut oil, they can/will go rancid. My husband makes bowls and cutting boards and has researched what is best to care for them to advise those who get them. A well cared for board should last you the rest of your life.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hard-to-dust things, like silk flowers, can be cleaned by placing in a plastic bag with a handful of salt. Just seal & shake the bag, and the dust will come off the item & stick to the salt. Shake the salt off and throw away the bag of dusty salt.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.That’s a great tip Sherry! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Great ideas. I use about 1T of Salt when I wash my darks to help keep,the color from fading. I also try and keep some coke in the house. I never know when I might need it to get a blood stain out of dark colored fabric. It helps break down the proteins in the blood .
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Coke is also used to take the tarnish off old coins (for coin collectors).
Please log in or create a free account to comment.True. I have the wacky uses book and it mentions this, among other crazy uses for the coke.
Gotta try this. I have a bag of old small denomination coin that are old but the tarnish makes it hard to read dates and mint marks. Great idea.