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

You may not cry over spilled milk, but a sticky, broken egg on the floor might be worthy of a few tears. Shake some salt over the mess and leave it alone for 20 minutes. When you come back to it, you’ll be able to clean the egg right up – no scrubbing required.

Glassware with leftover lipstick stains can be a major turn-off for houseguests. To get rid of the marks fast, rub the rims with salt and toss the glasses into the dishwasher. They will shine like new in no time, guaranteed.

Salt is a great medium for keeping artificial flowers in the arrangement you want. Fill a vase or other container with salt, add a little cold water, and arrange your artificial flowers. The salt will solidify, helping the flowers stay put.

When it comes to laundry, some things should never go in the dryer. When line-drying the old-fashioned way, try tossing a bit of salt in your next load. The extra blast of sodium will keep your clothes from freezing on the clothesline in cold weather. You can also prevent clothes from sticking to the line by soaking the rope itself in salt.

Strange, but true: if ants are beating a path to your home, you can intercept them by sprinkling salt across the door frame or directly on their paths. Ants will be discouraged from crossing this barrier.

There are foods that whiten your teeth, and those that stain them.  But brushing your teeth with salt once a week can brighten up your smile. Yes, really! Salt is a gentle and all-natural abrasive, helping to remove stains on your teeth. What’s more “sea salts can temporarily raise the pH in your mouth, which makes it more difficult for bacteria to thrive” and protects your gums from injury and disease, says dentist, Dr William Graves.

Read on for more of the best tips to healthy white teeth.

When cleaning household items that are silver, take care; there are tricks to polishing silver. To shine your candlesticks or remove green tarnish from copper items, make a paste by mixing equal parts salt, flour, and vinegar. Use a soft cloth to rub this over the item, then rinse with warm, soapy water and buff back to its original shine.

Keep slices of fresh fruit looking, well, fresh by dipping them in a salt solution – 1/8 tspn of salt and one cup of water – for a few minutes. Don’t forget to give them a quick rinse in fresh water, or you will be chomping down on salty fruit. The same trick works for potatoes and pears too.

An old-fashioned broom can still be a homeowner’s best friend. But a broom’s bristles can be magnets for dirt and dust. Soaking them in a bucket of hot salty water for 30 minutes will loosen up the grime. Then just wipe them off with an old cloth and leave to dry.

Chefs prize salt as an ingredient that can amp up the taste of almost any dish. Well, it can also be used to fix a home cook’s worst nightmare – oven spills. Covering a spill immediately with salt will not only stop smoke and odours from building, but the mess will also be easier to wipe up after the oven cools.