When I was growing up, my parents reused and recycled almost everything. All items were used until they were falling apart. My dad would wrap his sandwiches in wax paper until the paper was in tatters before he would use another piece.
Plastic wasn't used much either in the house. Since we had every size Mason and Ball jar ever made for canning purposes and making
jelly and jam, they were great for storing leftover food. If anything got stored on a plate, then
aluminum foil was used to cover the plate. Nothing ever went to waste in our dirt poor household. The motto passed down to my 7 siblings and I was "waste not, want not!!"
I still use aluminum foil for almost everything. It is strong, durable, and efficient. It comes in all kinds of sizes now, not like when I was a kid and you had to tear off a tiny piece for a tiny item. Best of all, when it wears out, I just throw it in the recycling bin with the aluminum cans. I like it so much that I thought I would compile a list and share with you all the things to do with this handy item besides keeping food warm, so please join me after the break.
- When my scissors get dull, I layer about 7 pieces of foil and cut through them, and the scissors are sharp once again.
- I often forget to take my gold wedding ring and my silver cross ring off my fingers when I am doing dishes or grubbing around the house, so I put them in aluminum foil and put in some salt solution and leave it overnight. The next morning they look like new.
- Sometimes I go on a baking streak, and I find my brown sugar has gotten hard. To soften the sugar, I wrap it in foil and bake it in a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes. To keep it soft, I leave it wrapped in the foil and enclose in a labeled ziploc bag.
- Ball up some foil and use it to clean the gunk off your grill. It cleans just as well as a wire scrub brush.
- Makes great gift wrapping paper in a pinch and can be decorated as you wish.
- I use foil to clean the baked on gunk off my pots and pans. It works just as well as a steel wool scrub pad.
- Wrap your hardware and doorknobs in foil so that they don't get dripped on when you are painting.
- Half way through the baking process, take a length of foil and wrap around the edge of your pie, securing with a metal paper clip. This will prevent your crust from browning too much.
- Roll a double thickness of heavy duty foil into a cone shape, snip off the end, and use as a pouring funnel.
- Use it as a temporary piping bag or pastry bag by rolling it into a double thickness and leaving just a tiny hole at the pointed end. Fold down the top of the cone so nothing oozes out or twist the top closed.
- Put a length of foil on your oven rack to catch spills. Many pizzas have instructions that tell you to bake the pizza on the rack, but what a mess that can make. Putting the pizza on cooking sprayed foil will save a big mess.
- Since I love grilled vegetables, especially mushrooms, I top them with some butter and whatever herb or spice I am in the mood for, wrap them in a foil packet and give them to my husband to put on the grill with the steaks.
- To prevent stuck on food in my baking pans and cookie sheets, I will line them with foil. It cuts down on cleaning time and leaves my pans looking just as good as they did when they went into the oven. Rinse off the sheets if they are not to disastrous and save them for another baking session, or rinse them off and put them in your recycling bin.
- To prevent static electricity in your clothing, throw a small crumpled up ball of foil into your dryer.
- For clothing items that can't take direct heat, such as rayon, silk, and wool, you can get the wrinkles out by placing a piece of foil on your ironing board. Put the garment over the foil, and pass 3 inches above the garment several times with the iron, holding down the steam button the entire time. The wet heat from the foil with rid the garment of wrinkles.
These ideas are some of my favorites, and ones that were used in my childhood home as well as in my home now. I think that as long as they make aluminum foil, I will use it. Foil will be a staple in my household forever I think!! After all, it is recyclable too and is easily kept out of the landfills. What do you use aluminum foil for?
Judi Roaman: We Talk Endlessly About the Next President,…
Reader comments (Page 4 of 5)
I don't know where I first heard of this use for foil, but it works. If you have a cat that insists on sitting on the dining table or other objectionable place, lay sheets of slightly wrinkled foil over the surface. They don't like the appearance or the feel of the foil on their paws and quickly learn to avoid the area. Mine are not too bright, so they stay away even after the foil is removed.
ReplyUse it to cover expensive buttons on expensive clothes when you send them to the cleaners.
ReplyI really enjoyed all the valuable hints. Wish I could figure out how to email the article to myself. Although I spell pretty well, I am a complete failure when it comes to computer science.
ReplyI put a sheet of aluminum foil on my ironing board, under the cover. The aluminum foil reflect the heat from the iron back onto whatever you are ironing. Makes ironing anything go twice as fast!
ReplyYou have some great ideas here. However, I shiver at the thought of wrapping precious gold or other jewelry in foil with salt! It just seems like that would be corrosive! I'm no chemistry major (or minor, for that matter) so if someone could enlighten me on why that would NOT be harmful to gold, I'd sure appreciate it.
ReplyI shiver to think of subjecting my precious gold or other jewelry to a tomb of aluminum foil and salt. I'm no chemistry major and maybe that's why I'm ignorant as to how this combination actually cleans, but is not corrosive. Could someone explain that to me?
ReplyOne other point: I happen to agree that people who publish on the Net should have a good command of the English language, complete with correct spelling. I think all computers now come with software through which we can run our publications before posting them. And, yeah, you know, communication is, you know what I mean, so that we understand, like, each other. Certainly that last sentence was communication. However, I think everyone would agree it was written very poorly.
There are some good ideas here, leaving out the jokesters, of course. I would like to reply to the person so afraid of the supposed connection between aluminum and Alzheimer's. This has been disproved and although there is not one definite cause yet, you can very safely use deodorants/antiperspirants containing aluminum hydrate and the ever-handy foil for all sorts of uses. The worst that can happen in connection to food is that the foil imparts a metallic taste to things containing acids, like tomatoes, etc.
ReplyFound items very interesting
ReplyA, you're absolutely right! aluminum is toxic. Never cook in aluminum pots or use deodorants or antacids that contain it and minimize handling it. It is soft and easily transfers to food and skin. Just rub some on a piece of white paper and note the black streak. In the body it is absorbed by the bones and displaces calcium. It accumulates in the brain and is implicated in Alzheimers - this relationship has been known for 50 years, but the medical establishment still pretends the causes are unknown! Caveat emptor!
ReplyMore on aluminum Alzheimers connection: Try this on for size Sue - http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/152/1/59
Replytips four and six ar essentiall the same ;)
ReplySome excellent suggestions there. Thanks for that!
ReplyAluminum foil is also good for making little rockets. Here’s how: Get a box of wooden kitchen matches (or regular matches will do). Wrap the match head in Aluminum foil. Now take the match with the wrapped head and put the match close to the edge of a flat surface with only the wrapped match head extending out. Now the flame of a lighter or lit match to the wrapped match head. In about 5 seconds the match will fire and streak forward about 4 to 10 feet through the air, with a zzsssft sound, leaving behind a beautiful trail of acrid smoke just like the shuttle does. Practice a few times until you get your method perfected. Then you can challenge your friends to a contest to see whose match will fly furthest upon ignition. Great fun for the 10 to 13 year old bunch. Caution, this should be done only under adult supervision and at someone else’s house. Unless of course, you want it to be your house that is in danger of leaving a trail of acrid black smoke and you finding yourself with a sore bum sleeping at your neighbor’s house that night.
ReplyRegarding the Aluminum foil these are indeed "Good" suggestions, I'll grant. But, "Awsome" is a bit dramatic in these cases. I can't imagine any of the novel home uses of aluminum foil ever qualifying for the use of "awsome" in their descriptions. Had I known what you were to present I doubt that I would have stopped by. But, I was tricked by my curiousity of anything "awsome". Now here we have the destruction of another fine word by our illiterate society. I thought your little treatise on the use of Aluminum Foil was awsome dude.
Replysend the foile to outer space.!1
ReplyUpload a file to www.beinspace.com give it a name a and a link to your site
And this information will live for ever in outer space.
'Symptoms and Diseases of Aluminum:
ReplyFlatulence,
headaches, dry skin, weak and aching muscles,
senility, spleen pain, stomach pain, liver
dysfunction, kidney dysfunction, neuromuscular
disorders, osteomalacia, colitis, anemia,
Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
hemolysis, leukocytosis, porphyria,
heartburn,
memory loss, numbness, paralysis, Parkinson's
disease, excessive perspiration, leg twitching,
cavities, colds, behavioral problems, constipation
The kidneys eliminate Aluminum from the
body and so people with renal problems are at risk
of Aluminum toxicity. All infants have reduced renal
function and may not be able to effectively excrete
excessive Aluminum.
~Dr.Russel Blaylock
tinfoil needs a lot of energy to produce, so use it only if there is no other choice!
ReplyI know that the internet can be a contentious place, but I have never seen such an innocuous article being called out for so many ridiculous reasons.
Reply". . . misuse of word "I". There are other errors; but, they were so distracting that I didn't read the entire article." Hey, dear, are you aware that this should have been written "...misuse of the word 'I.'"? A period ALWAYS goes inside quotes. (Unless you are British.) And WTF is up with the gratuitous use of the semicolon? Your last sentence was punctuated completely incorrectly.
See, we can all play this game. I wonder how you can read anything on the internet. This article was not a terribly bad offender as far as the web goes. Too bad that you missed out on some interesting information because of the 'grammar," when you are as bad an offender. And a whiner, to boot.
You would add a great deal of credibility to your column if you would learn English grammar, proof read your work, and correct the errors before publishing it. Case in point: last sentence of first paragraph >> misuse of word "I". There are other errors; but, they were so distracting that I didn't read the entire article.
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Hey, dear, are you aware that this should have been written "...misuse of the word 'I.'"? A period ALWAYS goes inside quotes. (Unless you are British.) And WTF is up with the gratuitous use of the semicolon? Your last sentence was punctuated completely incorrectly. See, we can all play this game.
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Don't forget about the misspelling of 'proofread' or the fact that '>>' isn't appropriate punctuation. At least the author constructed real sentences.
The FDA and a lot of European organizations have been making the call to remove aluminum from products that can come into contact with the human body. Obviously you would have to be exposed to a lot for a long time to get something as serious as Alzheimer's, but any first year chem student can tell you that it's a /BAD/ substance to put into your body.
ReplyBut hey, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow too. I smoke cigarettes so I shouldn't be talking :P