Do you have pests eating up your herbs and veggies, but you don’t want to use harmful insecticides? Try making your own bug spray with ingredients you’ve probably got lying around your kitchen. All you need for this hack is a spray bottle, a couple of heads of garlic, some mint leaves, dish soap, and a few teaspoons of cayenne pepper. Don’t worry – this spray is for your garden, not your skin.
Toss your garlic and mint leaves into a food processor or chop them as finely as possible if you don’t have access to one. Meanwhile, boil ten cups of water and add your cayenne pepper. Combine everything into one pot and boil for 2-3 minutes. Once your concoction cools completely, strain and pour it into spray bottles along with a few squirts of liquid dish soap. Use the mixture to spray on areas where pests are most prevalent.
Clean With Slime or Goo
You probably remember goo balls or slime if you were born in the 80s or 90s. The latter has actually been making a comeback in the last few years. That weird, slimy, sticky substance has always been popular with kids. You could mold it, bounce it, squish it, throw it at your friends, drive your parents nuts by sticking it all over the house, and basically anything else you could think of.
The bad part was, that if you got it dirty, even if it was one speck of dust, you knew your slime was doomed – it would never be clean again. But this makes it perfect as a car cleaner. Go to the nearest kid toy store and get a ball of goo, then dab it all over your car and collect every last particle of dirt or dust. You can also make your own slime, just google “DIY cleaning slime” and chose any tutorial.
Help Your Sink Drain With a Toothbrush
If your kitchen sink doesn’t drain quite as well as it used to, you can scrub it clean with an old toothbrush and then drop sliced lemons in the garbage disposal to freshen everything up. It should go without saying, of course, that this should only be done with a toothbrush that you don’t plan on ever using again…at least, not on your teeth. Luckily, though, this is a great excuse to get rid of that old brush you needed to replace anyway.
Besides, it’s unhealthy to use the same toothbrush for too long. Even if you used a new toothbrush for this method, though, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. They tend to be pretty cheap, and you definitely don’t need anything fancy for this technique!
Clean Silverware With Ketchup
This may seem somewhat counter-intuitive, but ketchup works as an effective polish for silverware and stainless steel or copper pots and pans. There is more to our favorite red stuff than playing the french fry's best companion. Simply squirt a little on, scrub with a scouring pad, and rinse the residue away with warm water.
Who would have known that a simple condiment like ketchup could actually be such a great cleaning agent? It’s enough to make you wonder who thought of this method in the first place. How many of us see something dirty and think to clean it with the same thing we put on burgers?
Easily Clean Your Microwave
When you cook things like soup in the microwave, pops, and splatters can leave the inside looking more than a little messy, and there si nothing more disgusting than opening the device and discovering dry and moldy leftovers from the last time you used it. To clean it without much scrubbing, just nuke a bowl full of vinegar or a sliced lemon, then wipe it down with a wet sponge!
This is definitely going to be a lot of help for any microwave owner because cleaning it thoroughly can be quite difficult. Many of us live with people who don’t clean up after themselves properly, so the grime and grease can get dry and hard to clean. No longer!