15 surprising ways to use table salt
12) Remove odor from your hands. Our hands can get a bit smelly when we’ve been fishing, or chopping garlic, for example. After washing thoroughly with soap, moisten your hands with water and then scrub them with a small handful of salt. Be careful if you have cuts on your hands — the salt will sting.
13) Give yourself a manicure. Try mixing one teaspoon each of salt, baking soda, and lemon juice in half a cup of hot water. Let your fingertips soak for at least ten minutes and then give them a scrub with a nail brush. Rinse with warm water afterwards. This treatment will work to soften your cuticles and strengthen your nails.
14) Soothe a bee sting. You should cover the sting with salt and then hold a wet compress to it. The salt will soothe the sting. (Note: If you are allergic to bee stings or if you experience any swelling or shortness of breath, seek medical attention immediately!)
15) Make your own exfoliant. You’ve probably heard of sugar scrubs, but a salt scrub is just as good for buffing away dead skin cells and leaving you with smoother, brighter skin. Try mixing the salt with a little olive oil to keep skin well moisturized.
16) Kill poison ivy. Mix salt with boiling water and spray onto poison ivy plant. Be sure the hot water solution goes down the stalk of the plant and penetrates the roots.
17) Keep away the mold and mildew. Salt water keeps mildew from building up on your shower curtain. Run your curtain through the washing machine (if safe to do so), then soak it in the bath with water and a couple of cups of salt — it’ll stop the mildew from building up again. Try keeping a spray bottle of salt water in the bathroom and giving the shower curtain a spray once a week.
18) Prevent your clothes from freezing on the clothesline. Put a bit of salt into the final laundry rinse to prevent your clothes from freezing on the clothes line during the cold winter months.
Bonus tip: bad restaurants. Have you ever been at a restaurant, and your food has come out with a hair in it, or something else so off-putting that you send it back? Well here’s a good way to ensure that the next dish they bring you is actually a fresh one: Visibly sprinkle the dish with salt. You’ll know if you get the same dish back.
Salt is versatile, cheap, and free of toxins, and we almost always have it in the house. It’s a good idea to keep an extra box in the pantry just for cleaning — it can replace so many expensive products and it won’t release any nasty chemicals into your home. Next time you have stinky shoes or a red wine emergency, reach for the salt instead!
