Weird But Practical Ways To Use Rice Around
The House
BY JASMINE HARDING
Scrubber
Rice grains can get into tight spaces to scrub out build-up in vessels with narrow or irregularly-shaped openings where even a bottle brush cleaner might not reach.
Put two tablespoons of rice, a few drops of dish soap, a splash of white vinegar, and some water into the container, then swirl and shake the rice around until it’s clean.
Soak some rice in water for 30 minutes to two hours, drain the rice, then use the water as a gentle grime-remover for most hard surfaces like glass, metal, and ceramic.
Rice water also contains essential minerals like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, which you can use to fertilize your garden. Just replace your usual water with rice water.
To reduce moisture and prevent clumping, put some rice directly into your salt shakers, or put some into a small, porous bag and place it in your sugar container.
To prevent rusting of tools, put a cupful of rice into a sock and place it inside a closed toolbox, or pour rice into a larger container and put the tools metal-first in the rice.
Put ½ a cup of uncooked rice in a small container and mix in a few drops of essential oil to fragrance it. Cover the container with a cut pantyhose or cheesecloth.
Tuck this container into an area that you want to smell nice, like a bathroom or closet. Make sure it's out of reach of children and pets as it can be dangerous if ingested.
To hold flowers in place, put at least two inches of rice into the bottom of a vase and plant the stems in it. Use the same method to make an incense holder using a jar.
Rice dyed with food coloring in a clear vase makes a low-cost holiday decoration. Use black and orange for Halloween, green and red for Christmas, or red and blue for July 4th.