Cleansers from the pantry: help keep your home clean using these 10 foods

Homemade remedies have taught us to creatively reuse commonly used objects and food waste for alternative purposes in the home and in the garden. Although today it is much more convenient to buy ready-made chemical products at the supermarket, sometimes using more natural, old-time remedies can be useful in recycling items we would normally throw in the trash. In this way, we help protect the environment and save money.

In fact, many foods in our pantries can be used for household cleaning chores, sometimes giving us truly extraordinary results. Let's find out about 10 uses together:

1. Grapefruit

Grapefruit can easily be used effectively as an anti-limescale remedy. Together with a handful of fine salt sprinkled on the surface to be treated, iyou can rub half a grapefruit over the bathtub, the kitchen sink or any other surface that needs limescale cleaned from it. You will get brilliant results! Since grapefruit has citric acid, you can also obtain the same results using a lemon.

2. Black tea

Have you ever made yourself a cup of black tea and are about to throw the used teabag in the trash? Don't do it! If you have wooden floors in your home, you can reuse the sachet to clean them. By adding black tea to the mop's water, you can take advantage of the action of tannic acid to clean the floor and make it shiny again. Be careful not to use it on laminated floors, as it could damage them.

3. Bananas

Even banana peels can come in handy before finding their way into the trash can. Thanks to their high potassium content (also used in shoe polishes), this makes them very useful in removing scratches from leather objects and the surfaces of CDs and DVDs.

Furthermore, their high sugar content makes them suitable for making a trap for flies: use pieces of a banana peel as bait for a DIY fly trap.

4. Onions

If you have just had a barbecue with friends, there is a very simple way to clean the grill, and without necessarily resorting to using chemicals: using a fork, rub half an onion over the grill. You will easily remove all food residue and your grill will be perfectly clean again.

5. Mayonnaise

Thanks to its oil and protein content, mayonnaise is excellent product for regenerating wood, causing a reaction that narrows any cracks. The oil in Brazil nuts also works in the same way.

6. Rice

If you have narrow-necked bottles or containers to clean, use rice: put the rice in the container together with a little water and some soap; let it soak for a few hours and then shake the container vigourously and rinse out.

7. Potato peels

Potato peels can also come in very handy: let them dry out for at least 48 hours and put them in the fireplace. They will help you clean burnt wood soot.

8. Ketchup

In addition to being eaten with fries, ketchup is also very good for cleaning. If you have pans with a copper bottom, you can clean them using ketchup to make them look like new again. You can use the same method for cleaning stainless steel as well.

9. Lemons

Lemon has many uses at home: thanks to its citric acid content, it can be used as an anti-limescale remedy; it is effective in cleaning stainless steel; and also as a rinse aid in the dishwasher. It can also be used to clean the microwave: heat a bowl of water with lemon in it and leave in the microwave for a bit with the door closed; then clean the inside with a sponge or cloth.

10. Cola

Cola-based drinks, due to their high carbon dioxide content, are excellent for cleaning the toilet. The compounds they contain, in fact, are also present in many commercial cleaning products.

There are many more things waste food products can be tried for. But start using one of these in the above list!