Household Tips - Day 1

Happy Monday, my friends! How was your weekend?  What fun things did you do?  We went to Connecticut on Saturday to pick up our daughter from her friend's house and then hubby and the kids worked in the yard of our rental property there for about 5 hours.  I pretty much ran a lot of errands while they did the hard labor.  Afterwards, we drove back to New Jersey, showered and went to dinner at Chevy's Mexican Restaurant.  It was great food as usual but slower than normal service.  On Sunday me and the kids slept in until 11:00 and then me and my daughter ran and did some shopping.  Afterwards we came home and I did laundry, cooked, cleaned, etc.  Just the normal weekend, right?! :o) 

Okay, so like I told you on Friday, I have came across some "Green", helpful and inexpensive household tips that I wanted to share with you.  If you already know and use these, then disregard this post.  Otherwise, I hope that they will come in handy for you as they've done for me already. 

USES FOR TOOTHPASTE (besides the obvious)

1.  Relieve irritation from bug bites, sores and blisters - Apply a drop of toothpaste to a bug bite or insect sting to stop the itching and decrease any swelling.  When applying to sores or blisters, it dries them up and allows the wound to heal faster.  It's best when used overnight.

2.  Soothe a stinging burn - Apply toothpaste delicately to the affected area immediately after a burn develops.  It will temporarily relieve the sting and prevent the wound from weeping or opening.

3.  Decrease the size of a facial blemish - Apply a tiny dot of toothpaste to the pimple at night before bed.  Wash it off in the morning.  This will speed up the healing.

4.  Clean up your fingernails - For cleaner, shinier, and stronger nails, simply scrub the underneath and tops of fingernails with a toothbrush and toothpaste. 

5.  Keep hair in place - If you are looking to style and hold an extreme hair creation, try gel toothpaste as your go-to product if you are out of regular hair gel.  The gel toothpaste contains the same water-soluble polymers that many hair gels are made of.

6.  Scrub away stinky smells - Scrubbing your hands and fingertips briefly with toothpaste removes all traces of smelly odors including Garlic, fish and onion.

7.  Remove stains - This works on clothes and carpets alike.  For clothes, apply toothpaste directly to the stain and rub briskly until the spot is gone then wash as usual.  (Please note - using a whitening toothpaste on colors will bleach the fabric).  For carpet stains - apply to the stain and scrub with an abrasive brush - then rinse immediately.

8.  Spruce up dirty shoes - This works great on running shoes or scuffed up leather shoes.  Apply toothpaste directly to the dirty or scuffed area, scrub with a brush and wipe clean.

9.  Make silver jewelry and other silver pieces sparkle - Rub the toothpaste onto jewelry and leave overnight.  Wipe clean with a soft cloth in the morning.  To make diamonds shine - give them a gentle scrub using a toothbrush, toothpaste and a little water.  Rinse to remove all traces of toothpaste.  Do NOT use on pearls - it will damage the finish.

10.  Remove scratches on DVDs and CDs - This works fairly well on shallow scratches and smudges.  Apply a thin coating of the toothpaste to the disc and rub gently.  Rinse clean.

11.  Remove the burned crust on irons - Rub the toothpaste on the burned area and wipe clean.  The silica in the toothpaste will gently grind away the rusty-looking layer.

12.  Burns - As soon as you burn yourself (flat iron, stove, etc.) - immediately find WHITE toothpaste and smooth it on the burn.  Let it dry and then rinse off later.  This works WONDERS! There will be NO scar and the burn will completely stop hurting.  I cannot tell you how many times I have used this trick due to burning myself on my flat iron or just getting burned in general.  I always keep a tube of the white toothpaste at my desk at work too just in case.  My mom taught me this trick many years ago and I've also taught it to my kids as well.  I promise this is one use for toothpaste that I tell everyone about! :o)

So... do you have any tips or tricks for toothpaste that isn't on the list?  I'd love to learn more uses for them if you do so please feel free to pass them along. 

Have a great Monday and thanks for stopping by to say hello.

Lots of love and hugs,