Old Is New Again, And Again, And Again

I'm a big fan of re-purposing. Remixing clothes, re-purposing furniture, using things not for their intended purpose.

I have a sick love for house cleaning products. I geek out over sweet smelling soaps, fancy packaging, eye catching labels and inventive ways to use ordinary things. For instance, the other day, I heard someone talking about putting a paste made from baking soda and water on areas where they have blackheads. The baking soda acts as a gentle scrub, and the process of drying out the baking soda pulls out the gunk in  your pores. I tried it, and it works!

So, after a week of being stuck inside with all the rain and roaming aimlessly around my house, I thought I'd put a list together of some unheard of uses for things laying around your house.

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• Banana peels are a great {and natural} way to clean and polish leather and add shine/remove dust from indoor plant leaves!
• Soak cotton balls in cooking vanilla or essential oils and drop them in your vacuum's dust canister. It will take the musty smell out of pulling dirt and grime up from your carpet.
• Soak a dryer sheet in a pan with water overnight to remove the tough stuff that doesn't scrub off.
• Husband have stinky shoes? Roll up a dryer sheet and slide it in the shoe. It will not only help soak up the stink, but it leaves them fresh and ready for the next wear.
• Stinky car? Cut an apple in half and leave it in your car overnight. It will help soak up the smell naturally, and then you have half an apple for a snack!
• Coffee grounds+olive oil= homemade body scrub that helps with cellulite! Caffeine dehydrates cells, thus temporarily tightening skin.
• Use a white coffee filter over the flash of your camera to diffuse the light and help prevent shadows in closeups!
• Add used citrus pieces (lime, lemon, oranges) with a few ice cubes in your disposal to help sharpen the blades and deodorize the sink.
• Soak a piece of a Magic Eraser in the toilet to get rid of  toilet bowl stains. Just don't flush it. You'll have a lot more problems than just stains.
• Put a few drops of essential oils, like rosemary or lemongrass, into the bottom of your kitchen trashcan. This way, every time you pull a full bag out, you're hit with the fresh smell of oils instead of old trash.
• Use a scrub of lemon juice and baking soda to help remove yellow stains from your nails caused by pigmented nail polish. 
•  Place a dryer sheet on your air filter at home. It will circulate fresh smelling air, and help remove stale odors from a home. A large bowl of vinegar placed on a high surface in a room will help remove staleness as well.

Also, check out these websites for more fun tricks for things you probably have lying around.

Real Simple

Magic Eraser