10 Ways You Can Use Ordinary Salt to Help Around the House

Walking into your kitchen and smelling any foul odor isn't ideal. If you realize it's coming from your sink, chances are bits of food and oils have gotten stuck along the sides. First, make sure to remove any still or standing water in a clogged sink. Next, heat up a mixture of half a cup of salt with a gallon of water until it’s almost to the boiling point, then carefully pour it down your sink’s drain. Flush it with cold water to rinse out the salt, then repeat the process until the smell is no longer noticeable. This process should help to get rid of any grime as it deodorizes. 

It's not just our gym clothes that can be left with pesky sweat stains no matter how much deodorant we use. To solve this problem, mix together about four tablespoons of salt and a quart of hot water, then dab it over the stain until it lifts away all of the residue. The abrasiveness of the salt will help to scrub away the discoloration without damaging the clothing fibers. 

Like sweat, salt can help eke out stubborn blood stains. Instead of dabbing them with the mixture, though, you should let these soak overnight in a mixture of about a quart of water and a couple tablespoons of salt, then wash and dry as you regularly would.

Wine and pasta spills on your carpet or clothes can feel like a nightmare. But don’t panic, a little salt can help! The experts at Cleanipedia recommend pouring enough salt over the stain while it’s still wet to soak it up, then wash clothing items as usual. For carpets, you can wipe away the salt and stain with a warm water cloth and wait for it to dry.

SeriousEats tested four different anti-browning methods on apples and found that the best way to keep slices from turning brown was to soak them in a mixture of half a teaspoon of salt per cup of water. Let them sit in the saltwater for about 10 minutes, then rinse and store them in the fridge. Any remaining mild salty flavor can be rinsed off before eating the fruit. This can work for similar fruit like pears, too.

If you notice that your casserole has spilled out and ended up on the bottom of your oven while cooking, quickly (and carefully!) add a few sprinkles of salt to the gloppy mess before it dries out. This will keep it from becoming hard and sticking to the surface, so you can wipe it away after the oven has cooled down. 

You should never, ever use soap and water on a cast iron skillet — this will only lead to it getting rusty. Instead, after cooking with it, add about 1/4 cup of salt to soak up any food and oil still clinging to the pan. Then use a wire brush or steel wool sponge to scrub it off. Once it’s dry, you can coat it in olive oil to continue protecting it from rust.

Accidentally over-charring your food can leave dark black stains on your cookware that take forever to scrub away. Most of us have probably tried soaking it in dish soap and water, but using salt instead actually works better. After letting it sit with saltwater overnight, you can put it back on the stovetop and heat it to a boil, then easily wipe away any food stains.

Ironing over plastic buttons, food stains, and other meltable objects on clothing items can leave globs of ickiness behind. Get rid of them by sprinkling some salt on a piece of paper and running the hot iron over it a few times until clean. The mild abrasiveness of the salt with the heat of the iron will help remove anything stuck to it.

The experts at FightBugs recommend a couple of options for using salt — which dries out the ants' exoskeleton — to keep these critters from crawling around your home. First, you can boil up some potent saltwater, enough to really taste salty to your own tongue, and then wait for it to cool before pouring into a spray bottle. You can use this directly on any ants you spot or along areas you know they like to spread around. Another trick is to create a mixture of 65 percent bran, like wheat bran, 10 percent sugar, 25 percent salt, then add water to make it into a paste. Spread this on areas where you tend to find them. The sugar tempts them despite the salt and bran’s ability to destroy them.