Some ingredients used in cooking to enhance the flavor of dishes can have other unsuspected uses. This is the case with salt and bay leaves. Among other things, they allow you to maintain the house or take care of the laundry, at a lower cost. Discover their little-known uses around the home.
Salt and bay leaves have many strings to their bow, especially for taking care of the house or laundry. How to use them for this purpose?
What are the unsuspected uses of salt and bay leaves at home?
Salt and bay leaves can be used in several ways to maintain your home.
- Unknown uses of salt in the home
- Salt to fix the colors of clothes and linens
To protect the colors of your new clothes, and prevent them from bleeding, you can use coarse salt. To do this, before washing colored clothes in the washing machine for the first time, first immerse them in a basin of warm water, then add 5 tablespoons of salt big. This will allow the colors to better hold up to machine washing. Note that rock salt can also be used to brighten the colors of your clothes that have started to fade. To do this, simply immerse the item in question in a basin of cold water with coarse salt. You will need one tablespoon of salt for each liter of water.You can also soak your white tablecloths and other white linens in salt water to revive their whiteness and restore its shine.
- Salt to remove limescale from the house
Salt is a natural descaler, effective in removing traces of limescale. To descale joints and taps you can mix the juice of half a lemon with a little salt. Cover the scaled surfaces with this paste, leave to act for a few minutes, then rub and rinse. You can also pour a glass of salt into the toilet bowl, let it sit for 10 minutes, before scrubbing the walls with a toilet brush. This will allow you to remove traces of limescale and stains covering the bowl. Thanks to its anti-limescale action, coarse salt is also a natural softener, which softens the washing machine water to soften the laundry.
- Unsuspected uses of bay leaves at home
The sauce laurel is a shrub with aromatic leaves much appreciated in the kitchen for flavoring sauces and marinades. Laurel is also known for its antifungal, antiseptic and antibacterial properties. In addition to their culinary and medicinal virtues, bay leaves have other unsuspected uses, especially in home maintenance.
- Bay leaves to keep pests away from the house
The smell of bay leaves is very effective in keeping away some pests and pests that invade the kitchen and pantry, like ants , cockroaches, flies or even mice. To do this, just scatter a few dried leaves around the kitchen, on the pantry shelves or around the containers in which food is stored. You can also put one or two bay leaves inside the jar of flour or cereals to protect them from moths which they lay their eggs in the seeds.
- Bay leaves to deodorize the house
Bay leaves are effective in fighting bad odors in the home or kitchen. To do this, simply place some bay leaves in a saucepan with water and boil the mixture for 15 minutes. Spread this scented vapor throughout the rooms of the house to deodorize them. An effective trick to spread a very pleasant soft and subtle fragrance.
How to use salt and bay leaves together?
To effectively repel parasites from the house, it is advisable to use these two condiments together. To do this, simply mix in a bowl of water, a little coarse salt with a bay leaf. The odor emitted by this mixture will act as a natural insect repellent. You can also soak cotton balls in this solution and place them on the windowsills, so you can ventilate your home without fearing an invasion of flying insects .< /span>
Having said that, thanks to these two ingredients you will be able, among other things, to keep insects away from your home, eliminate bad odors and maintain your laundry.