Vinegar as Weedkiller? Raid as Antkiller? Wetwipes to Spotclean the Fridge? What are your unique uses or ideas for things? Please Let us Know!

[Flicker]

Hi everyone. Do you have a unique use for everyday things or unique ideas? If so, I would like to hear from you! Some of these tips have saved me a ton of money.

Here are just some of the great ideas I have heard of, some I have used successfully myself:



Vinegar as weedkiller
Raid as antkill (worked for me OUTSIDE the doors etc. when the ant products failed, expensive I know, but I had ants galore and not weeds and I didn't want the ants to find my stash!)
Use water to see if eggs are still good - if they sink in a bowl of water they are good, if they float they are bad (due to the gases released as the egg decays). [One of my relatives was unconvinced that the expiration date on the eggs was to be trusted, but when the expired eggs floated and a new box of eggs sunk, it did the trick LOL! Ahhhhhhhh family...]
Wetwipes for everything from spot cleaning the fridge to makeup removal (where I live, these are actually far less expensive than paper towels and toilet paper!)
Ink from the wrong color cartridge can be used to refill your cartridge (messy, but saves me a ton, just need to figure out how to remove it)
Vinegar as an antifungal soaking your feet in vinegar can actually kill some fungus infections, it may take time but if you soak them often you can even get rid of yellow/deformed nails and it works better than all of the expensive products on the market (some people also claim it helps with certain causes of dandruff).
Vinegar as an all-purpose cleaner Some people don't like the smell, but its one of the same ingredients most commonly used in windex (acetic acid, the other kind is ammonia based)

Thank you for your contribution!

flicker :whistle67:

[nurseannette]

I have been using cascade actionpacs in the toilet. I don't do this often, just when
I don't have time to do it myself. I just drop one in and let it dissolve.

[brokenchina]

Use Sweet and Low to kill ants. It's safe around any of your food items. Won't hurt kids or pets if they get into it. And just as importantly, it really kills ants.

If the ants are outside, pour raw grits over the anthill. The ants take the grits down into their tunnels, eat them and explode when the grits swell up inside of them. You may need to sprinkle grits a couple of times to make sure they all get killed.

I've been using these two methods for years and they have always worked. When I go out to eat, I pick up a few extra packs of Sweet and Low to take home with me. Grits are cheap. For anyone not familiar with food from the Deep South, grits are coarsely ground corn kernels that are boiled and served usually for breakfast.

[Alleynn]

To get bad stains out of carpet every time. Soak spot with carpet shampoo, place a wet hand towel or cloth on the spot then put a hot iron on the wet hand towel let sit for a few seconds at a time. The heat pulls the stain up into the towel. Becareful not to leave iron on towel to long will burn the towel and carpet. Sometimes a little scrubbing is needed in between seconds.


Instead of scrapping your frosted car windows in the mornings try this.
Get a clean spray bottle pour windshield fuild into it and spray your windows as your car heats up. The ice melts away and no more scrapping.

If you have shower doors, just pull them off and put them in the tub and pour hot water over them and a little of your favorite cleaner. comes spotless.

If you have a fruit tree or nut tree that drives you crazy and you don't want to pick the fruit/nuts up anymore. Just pour side walk salt around the tree in the fall. may take a couple bags. You wont get nuts or fruit the fallowing year. has to be done once a year. But your yard wont look messy and you wont have to bend over and pick it all up either.

[littlebuffalo]

To get bad stains out of carpet every time. Soak spot with carpet shampoo, place a wet hand towel or cloth on the spot then put a hot iron on the wet hand towel let sit for a few seconds at a time. The heat pulls the stain up into the towel. Becareful not to leave iron on towel to long will burn the towel and carpet. Sometimes a little scrubbing is needed in between seconds.


Instead of scrapping your frosted car windows in the mornings try this.
Get a clean spray bottle pour windshield fuild into it and spray your windows as your car heats up. The ice melts away and no more scrapping.

If you have shower doors, just pull them off and put them in the tub and pour hot water over them and a little of your favorite cleaner. comes spotless.

If you have a fruit tree or nut tree that drives you crazy and you don't want to pick the fruit/nuts up anymore. Just pour side walk salt around the tree in the fall. may take a couple bags. You wont get nuts or fruit the fallowing year. has to be done once a year. But your yard wont look messy and you wont have to bend over and pick it all up either.

Will the salt kill the surrounding plants?

[wholesalebiker]

vinegar is really great to get rid of ants! wipe down everything...something about the smell!! Ants don't like it!!

WD-40 to remove gum, stickers, etc.
Baking soda make paste w/ water to remove bee stings.... or clean anything you can't get clean any other way!

[angeleyeza]

reuse wipe tubs for anything in your house that needs to be contained. Also it helps keep the plastic container out of landfills. I reuse mine with lots of coupons. each one I have marked with a marker for each store. Kmart/Walmart/ grocery stores/ Ra/ CVS? ect.. yes I have that many LOL and keeping them up to date isnt always easy but I perfer this method as it is the best to my ability that I have to keep organized. With 5 kids I cant get as organized as I would like to be.

[buddysmom]

meat tenderizer & water = paste to put on bee stings, will take the sting out

to cure hiccups -
Stand on one foot, face north, close your eyes & drink a glass of water. I made that up when my kids were real little - holy cow, it worked! So then it became the "family cure". DD19 told me recently that she she shared the cure with someone in her college dorm - and it worked! try it - nothing to lose - Hahaha!

[Tracy_in_Missouri]

I had gotten some of the *roots of nature* that was FARR at Wags this summer. I figured Id find some kind of use for it and I have ! Tried it on an old wood table and voila - shined it up very nicely - not slick - but nicely conditioned and clean wood =0) I'll be going after my old upright piano next !

[stacyloucks]

Food burnt onto the bottom of the pan. Add water and plenty of baking soda to the pan and bring to a slight boil until the food comes off easily

[Alleynn]

Will the salt kill the surrounding plants?

I never noticed that it did any harm to my plants. But my plants was a good 3 or 4 feet away from the trunk of my tree. The salt didnt harm the leaves on the tress or the flowers either.

[MamaBird06]

here's one I saw on a home improvement type show years back:

to make your stainless steel sink look well polished, wipe it with a cloth and a little vegetable/cooking oil. I have also done this for our stainless steel appliances, it looks shiny, but if you want to disinfect it, you have to make sure to get all the oil off with the windex or cleaner and then reapply. always use circular motions when rubbing in

I found a better way of making the stainless steel appliances look nice: I use the endust spray~remember all the cans free from kmart superdoubles? ? That's what i use it for: to shine up my fridge, lol! I use plain water and cloth to dust around the house...use circular motions when rubbing in.

here's another oil one: use it to get duct tape residue off of glass or mirrors, dab the area with oil let sit for 20 mins and use a razor blade to get the residue off.

hairspray will get gum out of hair: spray gummy hair area with excess hairspray then let sit for a few minutes and then use a comb to comb the clumps out...

hairspray will also get ball point ink stains out of shirts: spray area and rub a bit and let soak and put in washer. It doesn't work on the gel pen stains though.

[Apennysaved]

I use onion bags (net like) to put over the water out-take hose on my washing machine to catch lint, just attach with a plastic cable ties.

Make sure you snip the onion bag open at the metal clip on the bag.