Foods As Cleaning Products

Foods As Cleaning Products

 

• Use a banana peel to polish your silverware -- blend the peels with a little bit of water to make a polishing paste.
• Use cucumber slices to polish stainless steel pots, pans or your faucet and sink. Also use it to remove marks from walls -- it works like an eraser.
• Get your grill piping hot and use an onion half (stuck onto the prongs of a long-handled fork) to scrub the grates clean.
• Use your used tea bags (cooled) to clean wood surfaces like cabinets and floors and use the cooled tea as a polish -- the tea's tannins do all the work of cleaning.
• Use a walnut half to remove scratches from wood cabinetry or furniture --its natural oils help lift scratches.
• Use a small amount of rice to clean out your coffee grinder -- just whizz and dump.
• Use ketchup to polish all kinds of copper: pots, pans and bowls. The natural acidity of the tomatoes will make the copper shine.
• Use stale bread to clean your spice grinder or coffee grinder -- it will remove any leftover residue and smell.
• Use used coffee grinds as a hand scrub or a cleaning scrub for greasy surfaces. You can also use the grinds to deodorize your fridge.
• Use club soda to remove stains from fabrics and carpeting. It's also great for cleaning your cast-iron skillet -- just pour some into your hot skillet after cooking and let it work its magic.
• Use olive oil to buff your stainless steel pots and pans. Also use it to clean your cast-iron skillet -- make a paste with some coarse salt and scrub.
• Coarse salt is great as a natural scouring agent. Use it to scrub your wood cutting board (with a lemon half). Pour some table salt onto an oven spill to make it easier to clean up later. Table salt also works to lift a fresh wine stain from a tablecloth -- wash the fabric soon after.
• The natural acidity of lemons is great for cleaning. Use a lemon half to clean and remove stains from your wood cutting board and use it to polish your copper (with some baking soda). It also works to remove lime scale from your kitchen faucet. Put a lemon half down your garbage disposal to deodorize.

From Kitchen Daily

Learn more about house cleaning AND green products at your Wilkinson Public Library.

~ Faith