A couple of aspirin can do more than alleviate your headache -- they also help cut flowers last longer, remove laundry stains, and even ease the sting of mosquito bites. Try these tips at home!
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(Safety tip: If you have aspirin allergies do not use these methods.)
Flower Power
Freshly cut flowers are lovely; if only they'd stay fresh a little longer. Well, they
can with a little help from the contents of your own medicine cabinet (we're talking
real aspirin, like Bayer --
not ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or other common pain relievers). The next time you get a fresh bouquet, crush a few aspirin tablets using the back of a spoon and add the powder to a vase filled with water. The salicylic acid in the aspirin will help keep the water clean and free of flower-damaging bacteria.
Stain Removal
Aspirin can also take the headache out of doing the laundry -- especially when dealing with stubborn
protein stains like sweat, egg, and antiperspirants.
-
For sweat and antiperspirant stains: Crush a couple of aspirin and mix them into a half a cup of warm water. Use the mixture to saturate the stain and then let it sit a couple of hours. Launder as usual and the stains will be gone! (For really tough stains you may have to either soak longer or re-treat the area).
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For an egg stains: Scrape off as much of the stain as you can and make a paste of crushed aspirin and water. Working from the back side of the fabric, spread the paste over the stained area and work it in with a soft toothbrush, then rinse it with some warm water.
Pest Control
Insects who want to bite and sting often stay around into the early fall. But the itch of mosquito bites and bee stings can be soothed with -- you guessed it -- aspirin. Wet the pill and set it on the bite for instant relief.
SEE ALSO:
Keep Dandruff at Bay with Aspirins (Lifehacker)
6 Smart Uses for Old Plastic Bags (Real Simple)
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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)
Will your cream work on snake oil salesmen.
ReplyIt makes a GREAT facial scrub!!
If you have a sore throat sucking on an aspirin like a sweet tart, it has a bitter taste (at first), will numb the sore throat. It's very effective and may aid in lowering any fever you have also.
ReplyFor a sore throat, try substituting adult aspirin with children's aspirin.....the orange flavoring is much easier to take than the bitterness of adult aspirin.
When you have a toothache, if you will put an aspirin on your tooth it will dull the pain, too!
ReplyThe part about underarm stains on shirts is so true. I put 2 aspirin in each washload to prevent understains from appearing. If a shirt has had an underarm stain on it, most of the stain will wash out with the application of the aspirin. I have been doing this for years, yet friends and family laugh at me, saying that it is silly - until they try it themselves, then it's another story.
Replyyou can also crush aspirin, add a little water to make it a paste and put it on zits to dry them up.
ReplyJackie (Moms) Mabley said an aspirin could be used as a sure fire birth control method. All a woman had to do was hold it between her knees all night.
ReplyNever use aspirin directly on toothache or sore throat as advised here. It is an acid and you can cause more harm than good!!!!!!!!!!
Reply