Inventive Uses for Your Toothpaste

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Toothpaste is an essential item on the shopping list. You'll always have it in your home so you should know how to use it in every way you can, it may save you money on other products.

Stain remover - Squeeze toothpaste directly onto any stain in your carpet, shirt or pants and scrub it in nicely. Rinse and repeat. This may not work on every stain or if the stain is old. Especially useful with ink, lipstick and grass stains. Obviously whitening toothpastes do contain bleach so be careful with colours.



Shoe Polish – Speaks for itself, all synthetics respond to toothpaste but water it down for leather and always rub in a circular motion at the toes and with the grain along the sides of your shoes. Same goes for belts, jackets and bags.

Scrub on skin to wash away smells – If you've spilled something yourself, or you want to hide that you're smoking, wash your hands and arms in addition to brushing your teeth. Soaps will clean the substance off but the smell may linger as it's been soaked in to lower layers of skin. Toothpaste will not only clean but the minty scent will stay in your pores.

You can also get rid of the sour milk smell in baby bottles by rinsing them out with toothpaste and water. Rinse it out after or put them in the dishwasher to clean out any minty residue.

Pimple Cream – Budget pimple cream. Leave it on overnight to reduce redness and draw up oil.

De-fog Goggles – When scuba or swimming goggles are fogged up give them a rub with toothpaste and rinse them out to clear them up again. Same goes for bathroom mirrors, eye glasses and hard contacts. Very gentle scrubbing though, so as to not scratch.



De-scratch CDs and DVDs – Everyone knows this one. Just rub toothpaste over your CDs and DVDs in circles and rub it off with a cloth or paper towel, follow with a damp cloth or paper towel to clear. This also helps with watch faces, headlights and mobile phone screens.

Clean silver, iron, dishes, chrome, and piano keys – Everything from candlesticks to cutlery. [Careful not to scrub too hard, you may cause unnecessary tarnish.] Piano keys must be wiped clean with a lint-free cloth, all jewellery with precious stones. [NOT pearls.] Fantastically, this works on flutes and other metal instruments.

On sores – Relieves itching and burning, prevents wounds weeping. A dab of toothpaste on a bug bite, sore, minor rash, cold sore or blister. Best used overnight or under a bandage it dries up your irritation to help it heal, stops itching and decreases swelling. Also useful on a minor burn, any burn that doesn't break the skin toothpaste can provide a temporary cooling effect.



Fun Extras
-Removes hair colour from your scalp line and the tips of your ears.
-Gives a shine to your nails.
-Apply to poison ivy or oak and leave for 10-15 minutes. Rinse with cold soapy water and repeat twice daily until rash is gone.
-Help gum out of hair.
-Removes scuffs from linoleum and veneered synthetic floorboards.
-Can remove crayon from walls. [Always use a test area.]
-Hair and clothing irons made shiny and new again.
-Clean sink and drain, along with baths and showers.
-Toothpaste in a folded paper towel under your car seat will act as an air freshener, replace as needed.

When you've squeezed all you can squeeze warm your tube up, under hot water or even just in the shower with you, so you can soften it and get more moving. Hey, cut it open if you want, it's worth it.

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