Take a second look at your spice rack and you may find the ingredients for some useful home remedies and solutions.
Cloves are delicious on ham but they can also help deodorize your home. Place a handful of cloves in a small cloth sack and you have a handy sachet for your clothes drawers and closets. Cloves smell much better than mothballs and repel moths just as well. Cloves also make an excellent repellant for insects. Sprinkle some whole cloves or pieces of cloves anywhere you have a problem with insects. If you want to fill your home with the delicious scent of baking without going to the trouble just simmer some cloves and cinnamon sticks on the back of your stove. Deodorize your carpet by sprinkling on some ground cloves and let it sit for half an hour before vacuuming.
The aromatic bay leaf can be put to many uses. Bay leaves repel ants, moths, and grain worms. Put a bay leaf in your flour, rice, and cereal container and they will stay bug free. Bay leaves also make a great anti-dandruff remedy. Just boil five to ten crushed bay leaves in four cups of water for half an hour. Each time you wash your hair you can use the bay leaf mixture as a soothing rinse that will help eliminate dandruff. Bay leaves make a good smelling and attractive addition to homemade potpourris. Chewing on a bay leaf may relieve flatulence.
Cream of tartar is a mysterious and seldom used inhabitant of your spice rack. What is cream of tartar anyway? It’s actually a waste product of wine making that can be put to good use around the house. If you have a sink or bathtub that is badly stained you can use a paste made from hydrogen peroxide and cream of tartar to scrub it clean. To shine up your aluminum pans just fill them with water and boil a few tablespoons of cream of tartar in them. A paste of cream of tartar and lemon juice can be used to remove ink stains. Let the paste set for at least one hour before attempting to clean. If you are baking and you run out of baking powder you can quickly make you own by mixing two parts cream of tartar to one part cornstarch and one part baking soda.
Hot and spicy cayenne pepper makes a great repellant for all sorts of annoying pests. Sprinkle cayenne pepper around your house to keep ants from traipsing in. If you have trouble with bears and raccoons getting into your garbage just sprinkle some cayenne pepper over the tops of your garbage cans. One snort of cayenne pepper and your furry friends will be running for the woods. Add a bit of cayenne pepper to some chicken soup when you have a cold or the flu and you will feel better faster.
The most common spice in the kitchen is salt. Unless you are on a low sodium diet you probably have a container of salt in your cupboard. Salt can be used for a great many things around the house and it is incredibly cheap. If you have a cutting board that is stained you just need to sprinkle salt on it and rub with a lemon or lime. The cutting board will be clean and deodorized. Lemon juice and salt can also remove rust stains from clothing. Just soak the stain in a half and half mixture and leave the clothing in the sun for a few days before washing. To get rid of those pesky weeds that keep growing in the gaps of your sidewalk or stone path just pour some salt on the weeds and add a good dose of hot water.
