Commonly used for washing and scrubbing dirty dishes, the ubiquitous kitchen sponge can also be used to sprout seeds, loosen wallpaper, remove oil leaks, deodorize your fridge, and more.
If you ever need an emergency finger splint for a broken or sprained finger, use a popsicle stick. Wrap medical tape around your broken finger to the side of a popsicle stick until you can receive proper medical attention.
Originally invented by the Shaker community in the 1700s, clothespins are incredibly useful for hanging wet clothing on a clothesline, but also can be used to organize your cable cords, keep your pair of socks together, hold down the used end of your toothpaste tube, and decrease the possibility of you accidentally hammering your finger while pounding down on a nail.
Cayenne peppers are great for spicing up your bland cooking, but did you know that they can also prevent frostbite? If you ever need to keep your feet warm during a long snow hike or skiing adventure, add a little bit of cayenne pepper powder to the bottom of your socks.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When it comes to common household items with a million practical uses, baking soda reigns supreme. We all know that baking soda is great for deodorizing stinky things, whitening your teeth, and helping with clean-up around the house, but did you know about the other weirdly unexpected and esoteric uses for baking soda?
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?
Paper towels are great for absorbing your kitchen spills, but did you know that they're also perfect for cooking bacon in the microwave? Simply place bacon side-by-side on a layer of two paper towels and place two more paper towels on top of the bacon. Zap in the microwave at 1-minute interval for 3-4 minutes until desired crispiness is reached. No greasy pan-cleaning to worry about afterwards.
Plain yellow mustard, most commonly used for adding an extra zing of flavor to your ballpark hot dog, also contains potent medicinal properties that is perfect for relieving your sore throat, relaxing your sore back muscles and decreasing the intensity of your headache.
Sick of using potatoes as side dishes for your dinner meal? Left in their uncooked form, raw potatoes have a variety of weirdly practical uses, from aiding you in removing a broken light bulb from its fixture to keeping your ski goggles clear in the cold weather. A raw potato can also help with your floral arrangement, add new life to your beat-up shoes, and absorb the excess salt from your overly salted soup and stews.
Do you drink a lot of coffee? Before you toss your used coffee grounds into the trash or compost bin, see if you can use them to deodorize your freezer, cover up your wooden furniture scratches, and help clean up the grease and grime from your pots and pans.
Just dried a load of laundry? Don't throw away that used fabric softener sheet just yet. You can repurpose a used sheet for a variety of practical uses around the home, such as picking up pet hair from your furniture, deodorizing your gym bag, removing static cling from your stockings, and adding shine to your mirrors and toaster.
Got a minor cut, but no Neosporin? Rather than running to the nearest drug store, simply grab a jar of honey from your pantry and apply directly to the wound before wrapping with a band-aid.
Other than adding that missing component to your jelly sandwich, peanut butter is another weirdly useful pantry staple that can also be used as emergency shaving cream, door hinge lubricant, gum remover and more.
Want to reduce the overwhelming smell of paint from a newly painted room? Slice up some raw onions, place them in a bowl of water, and leave them in the room overnight.
If you are like most people, you probably have a lot of used computer paper lying around at your home or in your office. Before you toss them directly into the recycling bin (which you should at least be doing if you're going to be getting rid of them), what are some crafty and practical things you can do with used computer paper?
Other than something you can place on the floor as an ironic reference to a bygone era when a banana peel fall was considered to be the height of comedic gold, banana peels have many weirdly useful applications for your beauty regimen, the maintenance of your leather couch, the health of your backyard garden, and more.
What can you do with your egg cartons after you are done using up all the eggs? The compartmentalized spaces used for storing eggs are also perfect to use as seed starters, DIY candle makers, paint palettes, and for storing similarly fragile or round objects like Christmas ornaments and golf balls. The sturdy, lightweight material of styrofoam egg cartons are also ideal to use as cheap packing material and an alternative to packing peanuts.
If you are cutting down on sugar and don't know what to do with the excess box of sweet stuff taking up space in your pantry, you are in luck—sugar is another one of those super-common household items that has many practical, non-edible uses around the home and garden.
Though it may seem like sacrilege for some to use butter for something other than to flavor your food with delicious buttery goodness, butter has many other surprisingly practical uses, like keeping your hard cheeses mold-free or helping you swallow your pills.
Just like soda pop, beer has many strangely useful and non-drinkable uses that can be pretty handy around the house and garden, in the kitchen, and even for your beauty routine. Beer bath, anyone?
Invented by Philadelphia tinsmith John L. Manson in 1858 for canning and preserving perishables, mason jars are experiencing a major resurgence in the DIY community. In addition to being a handy storage device for both food and non-food items, its old-timey, quaintly antiquated look also makes for good drinking glasses, candle holders, flower vases and eye-pleasing decorations.
Just as how plastic grocery bags have many amazing reuses if you have a whole bunch of them stocked up in your home, the same goes for their papery counterparts as well.
If you are like most people, you have a lot of plastic grocery bags lying around the house. Most of us end up reusing them as trash bags for small trash cans, doggy-doo pickup, kitty litter box liners, or plastic versions of a paper lunch sack.
Scotch tape may not be as versatile as duct tape when it comes to mending things, but it still has a number of weirdly practical uses that goes beyond taping down wrapping paper and sealing envelopes.
Originally invented in the 1950s to develop a rust-preventing solvent and degreaser for the aerospace industry, WD-40 spray has at least 2,000 practical uses for house-cleaning, gardening, furniture maintenance, farming, and more. Commonly used to repel water and prevent corrosion, WD-40 can also be used to help lubricate stuck objects (like zippers and LEGO parts), make shovels slippier for more efficient use, and even keep pigeons from pooping on your balcony.
Duct tape can be used for a variety of minor to major emergencies, from baby-proofing your power outlets to temporarily repairing the hole in your canoe. In a pinch, duct tape can serve as a handy band-aid, DIY clothesline and a not-too-shabby robot costume if you are in dire need of a last-minute Halloween costume.
If rubbing alcohol is commonly used to treat minor scrapes and disinfect surgical instruments in hospitals, then you might as well use its medicinal qualities to also disinfect your cell phone and mix with aloe vera gel to make your very own DIY hand sanitizer.
What to do with the canisters of tennis balls gathering dust in your garage? If playing tennis is no longer your passion and you don't have any dogs to play catch with, don't give away your tennis balls just yet—tennis balls happen to have many practical, non-sport uses that can help with your laundry, gardening, back massage needs and more.
A small, pointy wooden stick normally used for picking at your teeth after a meal can do many other things. Use the humble toothpick to aid you in microwaving your potatoes, marking the end of clear packing tape, applying glue onto sequins and plugging the hole in your garden hose.
