People can find strange uses for everyday products, making their lives easier and saving money. Examples include using a tennis ball as a back massager, honey and olive oil as hair conditioner, and Cheerios mixed with water as a paste for insect bites. Books by Joey Green and Heloise offer more ideas.
Humans have long been known for their creativity and inventiveness in developing strange uses for everyday products in their world. Fans of the MacGyver TV show especially enjoyed applying MacGyver’s problem-solving skills to stop crime with an assortment of common objects. You don’t have to be a MacGyver to know that a few strange uses for everyday products can make your life easier. While some people want to buy specific products for a single purpose, there’s often no need to double down on things specific to a purpose when you may already have something in your home that could work just as well.
For example, do you really need a back massager when a tennis racket or ball will give you a great massage? Do you need a stain remover if you have access to club soda and cola, and is it necessary to buy expensive hair conditioners if you have olive oil and honey in the house? There are numerous books dedicated to the practical and sometimes strange uses of everyday products. Chief among these is a series of books by writer Joey Green, although it should be noted that he is picking up the ball from columnists like Heloise, who have been suggesting multiple uses for products for many decades.
Listed below are some suggestions of weird uses for everyday products. This list is by no means exhaustive:
Honey mixed with olive oil makes a great hair conditioner, or apply honey to sunburn to freshen it up.
Powdered milk mixed with water and powdered watercolor can be used to paint your house.
Mixing Cheerios®: And then applying a small amount of water can create a terrific paste to relieve the itch of poison ivy or insect bites, or add a little mixed oatmeal cereal to your bath for the same purpose.
Try sprinkling baking soda under your arms or adding it to your shoes as a natural deodorant.
Before driving nails or driving screws, add a waxy lip balm like Chapstick® and you’ll be able to hammer with less force.
Get that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed look by letting the wet tea bags sit on your closed eyes for 15 minutes.
Clean your dog’s brush with a toothpick
Use orange peels, flour, coffee grounds or cloves to repel ants.
Make coffee filters out of paper towels.
Use canned whipped cream to shave.
Consider using a hair dryer on a low setting to help ease nighttime ear pain in children.
Turn on the vacuum cleaner to relieve the crying of colicky babies.
Coat the cut sponges with petroleum jelly to make excellent fish bait.
For more weird uses for everyday products, check out the following books:
Paint Your House With Powdered Milk And Hundreds Of Other Unusual Uses For Everyday Products By Joey Green
New tips from Heloise of Heloise
The Bubble Wrap Book by Joey Green and Tim Nyberg (look for used copies as the book is out of print).
Stump the Duct Tape Guys by Jim Berg and Tim Nyberg, which features hundreds of strange uses for everyday products with a particular focus on duct tape.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
