Cool Uses For Ordinary Things
How To: 11 Sizzling Uses for Charcoal Briquettes Besides Grilling
However much you love your summer barbecue parties, you probably won't be going through your entire bag of charcoal briquettes anytime soon. So, take advantage of your charcoal excess by putting them to good use in other ways!
How To: 8 Refreshing Ways to Recycle Empty Soda Cans into Cool New Things
Other than providing a convenient vessel for your carbonated beverages so that they don't go completely flat, aluminum soda cans are also quite useful for a number of other things once they're completely empty.
How To: 11 Non-Dental Uses for Your Old Toothbrush
We all know to should swap out our toothbrushes one every three to four months, but did you know your used Toothbrush still has a number of handy uses once its time in your bathroom is done? You can use an old toothbrush indefinitely to remove silk from corn, exfoliate your lips, tame your unruly eyebrows or clean your cheese grater before sticking it in the dishwasher.
How To: 11 Excellent Ways to Reuse Your Empty Coffee Cans
After you've completely emptied out your coffee can of its coffee beans, put your caffeinated high to good use by getting crafty and productive with the empty vessel that now lies before you.
How To: 9 Poppin' Uses for Bubble Wrap
If you're like me, you have a secret dream of living in a house completely covered wall-to-wall and carpet-to-carpet in bubble wrap. Until you have enough of that pliable transparent plastic with air-filled bubbles, there are some truly practical things you can do with the little you do have—besides packing fragile objects.
How To: 9 Super-Practical Uses for the Humble Safety Pin
Originally invented by American mechanic Walter Hunt in 1849, the humble safety pin was first called a "dress pin." It was intended to solve the problem of bent pins and wounded fingers, but that's not all it's good for.
How To: 9 Exciting Uses for Boring Cotton Balls
Cottons balls may not be the most exciting bathroom product in the world, but there are some surprisingly useful things you can do with them.
How To: 11 Crazy Useful Things You Can Do with a Candle
Originally made using whale fat, candles first appeared over 2,200 years ago as a means of illumination. From the 1st century up until the 19th century, candles were primarily made using beeswax or tallow, and aside from providing light, were used as a method of keeping time.
How To: 9 Ingenious Uses for Your Spare Contact Lens Cases
There are over 38 million people who wear contact lenses in the United States, but nearly a quarter of those never replace their contact lens case. If you're one of those folks, you probably have a drawer full of empty, unused lens cases in your home. Start putting them to good use!
How To: 10 Broken or Worn Out Things That Can Be Made into Something Useful
Despite the tremendous increase in recycling programs across the states, 136 million tons of municipal solid waste still ends up in landfills. So, the next time you throw away something, conjure up your DIY spirit and ask that trash, "Are you really trash, or just the beginning of my next ingenious project?"
How To: 9 Common Household Items That Can Unstick Your Stuck Zipper
Sooner or later you're going to have to deal with a stuck zipper, whether it's on your favorite jacket, backpack, or pair of pants. Simply tugging hard on the zipper tab hardly ever works, but a few things lying around your house might do the trick.
How To: 11 Practical to Crafty Uses for Empty Pringles Cans (Or Just More Excuses to Eat Lots of Potato Chips)
If you've recently binged out on a can or two of Pringles potato chips, don't throw away those empty containers just yet. After cleaning the insides, you can transform your cylindrical chip canisters into uncooked spaghetti noodles holders, kaleidoscopes, pinhole cameras, sugar shakers, and even hot dog cookers.
No Ear Cleaning Required: 9 Handy Uses for Cotton Swab Q-Tips
Commonly associated with cleaning gunk out of your ears, cotton swabs, colloquially known under the brand name Q-tips, have a ton of other practical uses.
How To: 16 Uses for Wire Coat Hangers That Have Nothing to Do with Hanging Clothes
Do you have an excess of wire clothes hangers from multiple trips to the dry cleaners? Rather than letting them take up space in your closet, you can use them for any number of things, from holding your necklaces and magazines to unclogging your sink and fishing dropped objects behind furniture.
How To: 14 Practical Uses for Nail Polish Remover That Have Nothing to Do with Removing Nail Polish
Acetone-based nail polish remover is great for removing nail polish, and it's also great for some DIY uses around the home. From eliminating scratches to fixing the consistency of correction fluid, its uses are varied but all effective. With nail polish remover, you can also clean your computer keyboard, get rid of ink stains, and even remove leeches from your skin. Talk about versatile!
How To: 14 Amazing Uses for Orange Peels
What should you do with an orange peel after you're done eating the fruit part? If at least one half of the orange peel is still intact, consider using it as a seed starter pot, emergency oil lamp, bird feeder, or a super-easy, salt-packed DIY fridge deodorizer.
How To: 15 Clever Uses for All Those Extra Bobby Pins in Your Bathroom
Bobby pins are great for pinning down flyaway bangs, but they're also great for pushing up the unused gel in a tube of toothpaste, marking the end of a transparent tape roll, opening the plastic seal in food jars, and even removing the pits from ripe cherries or olives.
How To: 8 Weirdly Practical Uses for Uncooked Spaghetti Noodles
Other than serving as the raw ingredients for your epic spaghetti and meatball feast, uncooked spaghetti noodles can also be used to make a DIY knife block for your kitchen knives, light a candle with a deep holder, check the done-ness of your baked goods, and double as a DIY toothpick or skewer you can break into your desired length for cooking or serving.
How To: 15 Clever Uses for Expired Debit, Credit, Gift, and Membership Cards
Do you have a junk drawer full of expired gift cards, membership cards, school ID cards, debit and credit cards, and other sturdy rectangular pieces of plastic you no longer use?
How To: 15 Ways to Reuse Old CD Spindle Cases
Compact discs...remember those? Before you toss your old CD spindle cases away, consider upcycling them to a DIY terrarium, cable storage container, hamster toy, rainfall shower head, bird feeder, bagel sandwich lunch box, and more.
How To: 12 Helpful Uses for Those Annoying Bread Clips
Plastic bread clips, which are primarily used to keep bread bags closed, can also be used to add new life to your old flip-flops, scrape gunk off your nonstick pans, keep matching socks together before laundering, label your cable cords, and more.
How To: 10 Alternative Uses for Your Old Oatmeal
Oatmeal may not be the most exciting breakfast option in the world, but in uncooked form the oats can be used to neutralize odors in your refrigerator, relieve your dog's itchy skin, soak up kitchen oil spills and treat your poison ivy or chicken pox itch.
How To: 12 Innovative Ways to Reuse Plastic Cups
Don't add your plastic cup to the trash bin just yet. The sturdy plastic material of these ubiquitous containers makes them perfect to use as miniature DIY greenhouses for seedlings, smartphone sound amplifiers, Christmas ornament storage, and even packing material.
How To: 13 Weird Uses for the Milk in Your Fridge
Other than adding that extra missing ingredient to your dry cereal in a bowl, the milk in your fridge can also be used to enhance the flavor of your corn, remove ink stains from your clothing, freshen up the taste of your frozen fish, add shine to your leather shoes, relieve your sunburn and insect bite itch, and more.
How To: 8 Awesome Uses for Chalk That You've Probably Never Heard Of
Commonly associated with classroom blackboards and sidewalk art, chalk can also be used to repel ants from invading your home, lift grease stains from clothes, prevent your tools from rusting, and hide your wall scrapes and nicks in a pinch.
How To: 16 Uses for Wax Paper You Probably Didn't Know About
Wax paper, a moisture-proof paper commonly used in the kitchen to keep food from sticking, can also be used to preserve maple leaves, keep bathroom fixtures spotless, line your refrigerator bins, funnel spices into small spice containers, and make re-corking unfinished wine bottles a cinch.
How To: 14 Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Cornstarch
Cornstarch, a fine, powdery starch commonly used as a thickening agent for sauces and gravies, can also be used to remove ink stains from the carpet, detangle stubborn knots, silence your squeaky floorboards, and give your pooch a dry shampoo.
How To: 18 Ingenious Uses for Binder Clips
Office binder clips, commonly used for binding together thick stacks of computer paper, can also be used as a bookmark, money clip, picture hanger, boots hanger, cable organizer, and more.
How To: 8 Amazing Non-Edible Uses for Rice Grains
In their cooked form, rice is great for making spam musubi, sushi, and other amazing meals. In their uncooked form, dry rice grains are unexpectedly useful for preventing your salt from clumping in your salt shaker, cleaning out the insides of weirdly-shaped, hard-to-wash containers, weighing down your unbaked pie crust, cleaning out your coffee grinder, and—if you act quickly enough—saving your wet cell phone from cell phone death.
How To: 13 Unexpected Uses for Vinegar You've Probably Never Heard Of
We all know that distilled white vinegar is great as a general non-toxic cleaning solution and for deodorizing funky smelling rooms, but did you know that vinegar is also great for curing hiccups, deterring ants from invading your home, relieving jellyfish stings, and testing the alkalinity of your garden soil?
How To: 12 Creative Ways to Reuse Old T-Shirts
Got a bunch of T-shirts you need to get rid of? Depending on how nostalgic you are for your high school choir club shirt or rock concert tee from your college days, you can cut up your former threads into a dishrag or gym headband.
How To: 13 Cool and Clean Uses for Mouthwash
Mouthwash, the liquid concoction commonly used for giving the inside of your mouth a thorough cleaning after brushing, is also not surprisingly useful for making things clean and bacteria-free. Like minor cuts and wounds. Or your toilet bowl. Or your toothbrush. Or your garbage disposal. Or your super-smelly gym socks.
How To: 8 Non-Drinkable Uses for Kool-Aid
Kool-Aid, the flavored mix powder, commonly used to make sugary and fruity cold drinks in the summertime, is also unexpectedly useful around the home to clean your rusty dishwasher, remove rust stains from concrete, and check to see if your toilet tank is leaking.
How To: 18 Clever Uses for Empty Film Canisters
Film canisters, remember those? Those black containers with the grey lids that used to contain... camera film?
How To: 10 Helpful Non-Kitty Uses for Cat Litter
Whether or not you have a feline companion at home, a bag of cat litter makes for a handy household staple that can help prevent grease fires, add traction to slippery icy steps, remove grease spots, preserve your fresh flowers, and clear algae from your backyard koi pond.
How To: 13 Fascinating Uses for Club Soda
Want to make your homemade pancakes and waffles fluffier? To enjoy a restaurant-quality breakfast, simply replace liquids used in the recipe with club soda.
How To: 12 Non-Edible Uses for Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise is not exactly the healthiest thing in the world, but it makes for a great household and self-care item, from whitening your yellowing piano keys to adding shine and luster to your dry and brittle hair.
How To: 16 Cool and Unusual Uses for Ice Cubes
In addition to keeping your cold drink from turning lukewarm, ice cubes are also surprisingly useful for removing gum from your carpet, keeping your hollandaise sauce from curdling, skimming fat off your soup, and watering your hard-to-reach hanging plants.
How To: 18 Useful Things You Can Do with Cardboard Tubes
Don't toss out those cardboard tubes just yet. Whenever you have one leftover from a roll of paper towels, toilet paper, or wrapping paper, hang on to it, because it's got some great DIY potential.
How To: 13 Non-Lip Uses for Chapstick
Now that the weather is colder and drier than usual, you may be using Chapstick more frequently to moisturize your dry lips. Did you know that you can also use Chapstick on dry elbows, dry cuticles, dry knuckles, and even the ends of your hair?