Tips for Cleaning, Home, and Health
Salt certainly makes our food more flavorful—and it can also work to fix many of our unexpected challenges around the house. Here are some of our favorite household uses for salt.
When windows won’t open, and salt clogs the shaker, the weather will favor the umbrella maker.
–Weather folklore
Best Uses for Salt in the Home
- Rub salt on fruit-stained clothes while still wet, then put them in the wash.
- For mildew spots, rub in salt and some buttermilk, and then let dry in the Sun.
- If you spill wine or fruit juice on your tablecloth, pour salt on the spot immediately to absorb the stain.
- Apply a paste of salt and olive oil to the ugly heat rings on your table. Let it sit for about an hour, and then wipe it off with a soft cloth.
- To clean your clothing iron, sprinkle salt on a piece of paper and run the sticky iron over it a few times while the iron is hot.
- To restore some of the color to faded fabric, soak it in a strong solution of salt and water.
- A mixture of salt and vinegar will clean brass.
- Salt on your fingers when cleaning meat or fish will prevent your hands from slipping.
- To kill unwanted weeds growing in your driveway or between bricks and stones, pour boiling salted water over them.
- For perspiration stains, add enough water to salt to make a paste, then rub into the cloth. Wait an hour, and then launder as usual.
- Cover spilled raw eggs with salt, then wipe clean with a paper towel.
- To freshen smelly sneakers (or any canvas shoe), sprinkle their insides with salt. Wait 24 hours for the salt to absorb the odor, then shake them out.
- Pour salt directly onto a grease spill and come back to it later.
- A new broom will last longer if you soak the bristles in hot saltwater before using it for the first time.
- Stainless steel can be cleaned by rubbing it with a gritty paste of 2 tablespoons of salt mixed with lemon juice. Rinse well and pat dry with a soft cloth.
- Rub 2 to 3 tablespoons of salt onto the stains inside your glass vases, and then scrub clean with a damp bristle brush.
- Gargle with warm saltwater (1/4 teaspoon salt to 1 cup of water) to relieve a sore throat.
- Sprinkle salt on carpets to dry out muddy footprints before vacuuming.
- When silk flowers get dusty, put them in a paper bag with several tablespoons of salt and shake gently for 2 minutes to clean them.
- Refresh household sponges by soaking them in cold saltwater for 10 minutes.
Have we missed any great household uses of salt? Please let us know below!
Catherine Boeckmann
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This sounds gross but it works. I'm extremely allergic to poison ivy. This was my grandfather's cure. When blisters appear pour rubbing alcohol over the area. Then with a table knife, scrape open the blisters. douse again with alcohol and rub table salt into open blisters. The process burns like blazes but the itch is gone and by next day its 'dried up and no spreading.
I'm also highly sensitive to poison ivy. I've found that Technu is very effective, and won't damage skin cells like rubbing alcohol will. It also won't hurt like heck!
If you have an infected wound, pour salt on it and wrap with a wet cloth. As it dries, the salt will draw out the infection. Yes, it will sting for a few minutes, but usually the infection will be gone the next day.
To get cat or dog urine out of hardwood floors or basically anything that can be moistened. Moisten the floor with water, sprinkle table salt over the floor and let it sit overnight. You will see where the salt has drawn the urine and smell out of the floor. It took two applications for the floor, but after 2 days there was no odor. The things salt won't fix, are all the stains. I spent about $4.00 on the salt.
Throwing salt on a fire in a greasy fry pan will put out the fire.
To get grease and grime, cooking oil, etc off your hands. BEFORE you wet your hands, Pour a teaspoon or 2 of salt in the palm of your hand, add enough Dawn or other liquid soap to make a paste in your hand, mix and rub in well, then wash as normal. Not only does this remove grease it will exfoliate rough, dry skin off your hands too, leaving them smooth. I keep a small bottle filled with salt in my bathroom just for this purpose.
Cut a Lemon in half across diameter. Dip cut end in salt and rub on wooden cutting boards and wooden utensils to remove food debris, odors and stains before rinsing item with water and drying. Can also be used on grimy cookie sheets to remove debris before regular washing. Cut off used salty end of lemon, cut that into smaller pieces and dispose of in running garbage disposer. Place rest of lemon in plastic baggie or small container and freeze to use "next" time. (waste not want not, Old Fashioned Yankee Principle)
I read this a very long time ago. Mix 1/4 teaspoon salt in a cup of warm water, mix well, eye drop into your nose and drain into your throat, to help prevent contracting a virus. Works on stuffed noses too! But use a small restaurant salt pack instead because salt absorbs odors and things. It truly works.
If you have animals and get fleas in your home, sprinkle table salt all over your carpet and furniture, let sit for 24 hours, vacuum up and then fleas should be gone and helps clean the carpet at the same time.
To keep unwanted ants/bugs out of your house - dump on box of Borax and one canister of table salt into a large zip bag. Mix together well, then pour a nice, thick line of this mixture along the base of your house. Renew about mid season. Works wonders!
