Unintended but Practical Uses for Common Kitchen Items
Take a look around your kitchen the next time you are there. You may not realize it, but a number of tasks that pop up around the rest of the house from time to time can be addressed quite effectively by using things that usually never see the outside of your kitchen. Not only is using kitchen items for use in other rooms an actually useful way to recycle, but by using what you’ve already got you can save money and avoid adding to your clutter at the same time.
Twisty Ties
Those little bits of plastic used for keeping bread fresh or tying up garbage bags can be used for practical purposes in a number of ways suitable to unexpected minor crises. If you accidentally break a shoelace, you can use twisty ties as a temporary fix to this particular emergency. During Christmas, you can call on the power of twisty ties to fill in when you have run out of wire hangers for the ornaments on your tree. The power of the plastic twist can also help alleviate, at least temporarily, the potential disaster of broken buttons on pants and shirts.
Straws
Save your used straws for recycling purposes. Just be sure to place them in a special area where they are clearly marked as having been used. One very practical use for straws include sliding over short stems of flowers to provide length and support in the vase so that they can be arranged at the same level of flowers with long stems.
Peanut Butter
Don’t toss away that jar of peanut butter just because all that is left are streaks on the side and bottom. That little bit of peanut butter not worth trying to collect for use on a sandwich may prove to be more than enough to use for removing the sticky residue left behind after removing price tags. Whether you want to display the item or just don’t want the recipient of a gift to know how much you spent, you can use small amounts of peanut butter to clear away the gummy evidence.
Mayonnaise
It may be disgusting, but the particular oiliness of mayonnaise serves it well for use as a lubricant. If you need to get a ring off a finger that was much thinner when the ring went on, you can boost the odds of success by smearing mayo on the digit. Try the same application to stubborn screws and nuts that refuse to budge.
Bread
If you should happen to drop something made of glass on the floor, bread can not only be put to practical use, it has the potential to save you from harm. After picking up any large shards and sweeping up smaller pieces of glass with a broom, you may still be left with almost invisible slivers invested with the power to cut into bare skin. Pressing soft bread into the surface of any areas where the glass might have wound up is a safe and effective way to finish the job of cleaning up.
