60 clever uses for salt – that don’t involve cooking

From beauty tips to household hacks, salt can be used for much more than seasoning food.

When it comes to red wine spills, it pays to act fast. First, while the stain is still wet, pour some white wine on it to dilute the colour of the stain. Then dab the spot with a sponge and cold water. Next, sprinkle the area with salt, wait about 10 minutes, and vacuum up the whole mess.

When spring cleaning, you should never skip these spots.

Move over, sugary lattes. If you drink your coffee unsweetened but prefer a less bitter brew, try tossing a pinch of salt into your mug. The seasoning contains sodium ions that neutralize or cancel out coffee’s bitter taste, research has found.  Cooking Light recommends adding about 1/8 teaspoon of salt into the ground coffee beans before turning on your coffee maker.

You should clean your fridge every three to six months to keep it looking (and smelling) good, but elbow grease alone doesn’t always do the trick. To lift stubborn food stains and smells, scrub the shelves with 1/2 cup of salt mixed with two litres of warm water.

Your whole house will smell amazing with these clever hacks.

Countless studies have found that plastic and wood cutting boards harbour germs deep inside the grooves made by your knife. Luckily, you can keep bacteria at bay by adding one easy salt-scrub step to your washing routine. For plastic boards that you use to handle meat, sprinkle bleach and salt on the board, scrub it with a stiff brush, and rinse with hot water. Wood boards can be sanitised using salt, rubbed in with a lemon wedge, then rinsed clean.

Glasses or bottles can leave watermarks on wood that really stand out. Make them disappear by mixing 1 teaspoon salt with a few drops of water to form a paste. Gently rub the paste onto the ring with a soft cloth or sponge and work it over the spot until it’s gone. Then, restore the lustre of your wood with furniture polish.

Your home will look more expensive by following these tricky tips.

Hand and mop sponges usually get grungy long before they are actually worn out. To revive your sponges to a pristine state, soak them overnight in a solution of about 1/4 cup salt per litre of water.

If you get stung by a bee, salt is a natural salve. Immediately wet the sting and cover with salt to lessen the pain and reduce swelling.

Sneakers and other canvas shoes can get pretty smelly, especially if you wear them without socks in the summertime. Knock out the odour and soak up the moisture by occasionally sprinkling a little salt in your canvas shoes.

To speed up the healing process and prevent infections, soak new body piercing jewellery in salt water. Just be sure to use the correct ratio: The Piercing Bible recommends ¼ tsp of non-iodised salt for each cup of warm water. You can get too much of a good thing; water with high salt content can irritate your skin, according to the site.