99 Amazing Uses for Salt!

Cooking Uses for Salt

1. Cooking – Add salt to egg whites before whisking to make them fluffier.
2. Cooking – Add salt to the grease before you use a frying pan to prevent grease splattering.
3. Cooking – Boiling cracked eggs. If you hard boil a cracked egg, the egg will stay in the shell instead of seeping into the water.
4. Cooking – Improve the texture of cooked potatoes by salting them after you boil and drain.
5. Cooking – Make your water boil faster by salting it when you turn on the burner.  Salt lowers the boiling temperature of water so it will boil without waiting so long.
6. Cooking – Peeling boiled eggs. If you hard boil eggs in salt water, the shells will peel off more easily.
7. Cooking – Poach eggs using salt water instead of plain to set the whites.
8. Cooking – Put out a grease fire. You can put salt on a grease fire if you don’t have baking soda handy.
9. Cooking – Put your Jell-O over ice cubes which have been salted so it will make it set faster.  This is a huge help if you’re making several Jell-O mold desserts for a party.
10. Cooking – Rub salt on the inside and outside of your chicken before you cook it to make it taste better.
11. Cooking – Soak nuts in salt water so the nuts’ insides (meats) won’t break apart when you crack the nuts’ shells.
12. Cooking – Testing for rotten eggs. If you can’t tell if your eggs are still good and they’ve passed their expiration date, try this salt trick. Put the questionable egg in a measuring cup of water. Add 2 teaspoons of salt to do the test. If the egg floats in the salt water mixture, it is rotten! Throw it away!
13. Cooking – Throw salt on BBQ flames to lower them without cooling off your charcoals.
14. Cooking – Make a chicken easier to pluck by rubbing its skin with salt first.

Cleaning with Salt

15. Cleaning – Bathroom tiles. Mix salt with dish detergent to make a soap scum scrub.
16. Cleaning – Chimney soot will not cake on as badly if you put a sprinkling of salt into your fireplace while the fire is burning.
17. Cleaning – Clean burn marks off the bottom of an iron with salt.
18. Cleaning – Fish tanks. Scrub water deposits with non-iodized salt and rinse well.
19. Cleaning – If you accidentally dropped an egg, salt it first and let it absorb before wiping up with a paper towel and then disinfecting the surface with antibacterial cleaner.
20. Cleaning – If your food has bubbled over on the stove or in the oven, salt the food spill before it cools.
21. Cleaning – Ivory. Make a homemade ivory cleaner out of lemon juice and salt.
22. Cleaning – Make a homemade brass, pewter and copper cleaner out of flour, salt and vinegar.
23. Cleaning – Make a homemade green cleaning mixture from salt, hot water, and baking soda.
24. Cleaning – Make a homemade mildew remover out of lemon juice and salt.
25. Cleaning – Pans. Cut grease in cast iron pans with salt.
26. Cleaning – Pans. Tarnished copper pans. Scrub the tarnished area with salt and vinegar to clean.
27. Cleaning – Remove baked on food from dishes. Fill them with enough hot salt water to cover the hardened food and let it soak. Wiped out the softened food and wash in the dishwasher.
28. Cleaning – Remove burned smell from your stove with salt and cinnamon.
29. Cleaning – Remove coffee stains in your coffee maker’s carafe.
30. Cleaning – Remove fish smell. Salt a piece of a lemon (or use lemon juice and salt) on any kitchen surface that has residual fish smell from cooking, cutting, or preparation. Use the mixture to scrub the fish smell right out!
31. Cleaning – Remove mildew and discoloration in vases by filling with salt water to soak before wiping clean.
32. Cleaning – Remove odor from stinky shoes to absorb odor. Let it sit overnight, then shake out in the morning.
33. Cleaning – Remove onion smell from your skin with salt and vinegar.
34. Cleaning – Remove remaining dough from wooden counters or cutting boards. Salt the wood and then wash normally.
35. Cleaning – Remove red drink stains from carpet. After soaking up the spill with paper towels, cover the are with salt and let it draw out and soak up what is left. Vacuum up the salt from carpeting or shake out the area rug outside.
36. Cleaning – Remove stains from coffee mugs and teacups. Fill with salt water, let soak, and then rub the stained areas clean.
37. Cleaning – Remove stains from old cutting boards by rubbing them with salt water.
38. Cleaning – Remove the tarnish from silverware by scrubbing with salt before you wash your dishes.
39. Cleaning – Salt plates with egg residue after breakfast so the egg won’t dry solid and the dishes will be easier to wash.
40. Cleaning – Scalded milk in a pan. Add about 1 inch of water to the bottom of the pan and 2 teaspoons of salt. Allow to soak and then wipe the scalded buildup from the bottom of the pan.
41. Cleaning – Silk flowers. Salt your artificial flowers right from your salt shaker, then shake the flowers outside to remove dust.
42. Cleaning – Soften old hard sponges by soaking in salt water.
43. Cleaning – Take off lipstick and chapstick stains from glasses and mugs by rubbing salt on the area before cleaning.
44. Cleaning – Toilet stains. Remove stains from porcelain by scrubbing with salt.
45. Cleaning – Wash green leafy vegetables in salt water to help extract dirt.
46. Cleaning – White scald marks off of wood tables, counters or cutting boards. Remove hot scald marks by using oil and salt on the area. Let absorb into the wood, then clean as usual.

Gardening with Salt

47. Gardening – Fertilize tomato plants, roses and house plants with epsom salt (1 tablespoon for each foot tall)
48. Gardening – Fertilize your lawn with epsom salt by mixing 2 tablespoons per gallon of water.
49. Gardening – Kill poison ivy plants by spraying with salt water.
50. Gardening – Use salt water as a weed killer in places you don’t want any plants to grow.

Health and Beauty Salt Uses

51. Health and beauty – Add salt to a warm bath to relieve muscle tension.
52. Health and beauty – Add salt to your toothpaste for a homemade tooth whitener.
53. Health and beauty – Blackhead removal. Make homemade blackhead treatment by boiling 1 tsp of salt, 3 drops of iodine, and 1/2 cup of water. (Thanks to Reader’s Digest for this amazing salt use!)
54. Health and beauty – Help a sore throat by gargling with warm salt water.
55. Health and beauty – Make a homemade facial scrub out of salt and coconut oil (keep out of eyes).

56. Health and beauty – Make homemade facial scrub out of salt and extra virgin olive oil (keep out of eyes).
57. Health and beauty – Make a homemade foot scrub by adding sea salt to shortening.
58. Health and beauty – Make a homemade mouthwash out of warm water, baking soda and salt.
59. Health and beauty – Make a homemade saltwater face mist by mixing warm salt water in a spray bottle.
60. Health and beauty – Make a homemade saltwater hair spray by mixing warm salt water in a spray bottle.
61. Health and beauty – Make a  homemade tooth cleaner  out of baking soda and salt.
62. Health and beauty – Put salt on a bee sting to help draw out the toxin.
63. Health and beauty – Put salt on mosquito bites or other bug bites to minimize the itching.
64. Health and beauty – Soak your feet in sea salt or epsom salt to help loosen dead skin and relieve tension.
65. Health and beauty – Tattoo removal.  This process is called salabrasion and can only be done by a medical doctor.

Household Uses For Salt

66. Household – Add salt to your flowers’ vase to make your flowers last longer
67. Household – Soak wrinkly apples in salt water to remove the wrinkles.

Laundry Uses For Salt

68. Laundry – Add salt to starch so that your iron won’t stick to the clothing and leave caked up residue on your iron.
69. Laundry – Prevent dye from bleeding out of new clothes. Add salt to your washer for the first two washes to prevent the dye from washing out.
70. Laundry – Remove blood stains by soaking the stained item in salt water to absorb the blood.
71. Laundry – Remove ink stains from a burst ink pen in your pocket by soaking the stained item in cold salt water.
72. Laundry – Remove oil and grease stains from clothes by rubbing salt into the stain to cut the grease before washing.
73. Laundry – Remove rust stains from fabric with salt and lemon juice (or cream of tartar as a substitution).
74. Laundry – Remove yellow underarms stains from clothes.  (This is caused by staph bacteria growing in the clothing fibers.  The bacteria causes the fabric to turn yellow and is especially noticeable on white clothes.) Make a homemade staph stain killer by mixing salt and boiling water and cleaning the stained underarms, collars, or necklines with the mixture.
75. Laundry – Wash cotton and linen fabrics in salt water to add a shiny coat to the fabric like when they were brand new.
76. Laundry – Whiten old wash cloths or towels by boiling them in baking soda and salt.

Pest Removal with Salt

77. Pest removal – Keep raccoons out of your garbage by sprinkling salt around your trash cans (they don’t like the taste of salt).
78. Pest removal – Salt will kill moths.
79. Pest removal – Salt will kill slugs and snails.
80. Pest removal – Use salt on flat surfaces to repel ants. I use it as a barrier line on my front doorstep and along the garage door opening during peak ant season; they can’t cross it.

Preserving Food with Salt

81. Preserving food – Adding salt to an opened gallon of milk will keep it from spoiling as soon.
82. Preserving food – Cheese. Add a little salt to your cheese packaging (ziploc bag, plastic storage container, store package, etc.) so that it doesn’t mold.
83. Preserving food – Fruits (apples and pears). If you’ve peeled fruit and don’t want it to turn brown from oxidation, dip it into salt water.
84. Preserving food – Milk.  Add just a pinch of salt to milk before freezing.
85. Preserving food – Vegetables (potatoes). Dip your potatoes in salt water after they’re peeled to keep them from oxidizing.

Substitutions with Salt

86. Substitutions – Use salt in place of dish detergent if you run out.  Add to hot water.
87.  Substitutions – Use salt in place of toothpaste if you run out.  Wet your toothbrush first, then salt it.  The abrasiveness of the salt will clean your teeth until you can get more toothpaste.

Make Foods Taste Better with Salt

88. Taste – Chocolate. Salting chocolate desserts and cocoa drinks.
89. Taste – Coffee.  Add to coffee grounds cut decrease the acidic taste.
90. Taste – Meat. Salt your meat to bring out the flavor.
91. Taste – Oranges and grapefruits.  Salt brings out the citrus taste, while topping it with sugar or sweetener tempers the natural zing of citrus.
92. Taste – Watermelon.  Bring out the watermelon’s flavor by salting it.

Winter Uses for Salt

93. Winter – Frost windows for the holidays by mixing epsom salt with old beer until dissolved.  Wipe on your winter windows to “frost” them.
94. Winter – Keep a bag of salt in your car in case you get stuck in the snow. Sprinkling salt (or kitty litter) in front of and behind your tires will help you get traction.
95. Winter – Remove ice build up from sidewalks and driveways in winter by sprinkling on the ice evenly.
96. Winter – Wash window sills with salt water to prevent frost build up.

Other Salt Uses

97. Crazy car trick?  Extend the life of a car battery by adding 1 oz. of epsom salt and water to the battery cell.  Does this work?  Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried it!
98. Make a “vase base” for faux flowers.  Instead of using beads or florist foam in your next flower arrangement, try this salt tip instead.  Fill the vase with salt, insert the stems in the place you want them to stay permanently, then add cold water in the vase.  The salt and water mixture will harden, holding your faux flower arrangement in place just the way you like it!
99. Old wives tale? Legend has it that you can soak the bristles of a straw broom in hot salt water before you ever use it to make it last longer.  Is this an old wives’ tale based in superstition or does it really work?

There you have it – 99 amazing using for salt!  If you have more tips on household salt uses, please leave them in the comments below.