36 Tricks From Our Grannies That Still Work
Mercy KamburaThis post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
As time unfolds, it unveils precious treasures. Our grandmothers embody a wealth of wisdom and life lessons, offering insights ranging from beauty tips to household hacks. There is much to gain by absorbing the knowledge they carry.
Try these tricks from our grannies that are still as functional as they were decades ago.
1. Rubber Bands for Pen Proper Grip
Teaching a child how to grip a pen is not easy; ask the kindergarten teachers. Our grannies’ trick was to place a rubber band around the wrist and attach a pen or pencil with the cap or eraser facing them. Flip the pencil around 180 degrees and let them hold it normally. It’ll stay in place.
2. Graffiti for Car Dents
If you’re unlucky to get a dent in your car, repairing it can be pretty expensive. Turns out you can get creative with the dent and make a piece of artwork with the dent instead.
It’d be advisable to geat creative or get an actual artist to avoid making a worse mistake if you decide to go this route.
3. Embroidery for Patches
Clothes and furniture will undergo some wear and tear at some point, and today’s generation gets rid of staff as soon as a little tear appears.
If your pair of jeans or couch has a tear, do some embroidery stitch on the patch. This not only seals it, but also gives it some color and make-over.
4. Boiling Eggs Best Practice
You know how gross and inconveniencing it looks if you have witnessed a cracked egg boiling. One old trick is adding a salt pinch to the boiling eggs.
Saltwater keeps the egg white from spreading around even if the egg breaks.
5. Baking Soda to Fight Grease
Grease is stubborn to get rid of, but our grannies have the oldest trick in the book to fight against solid grease stains—baking soda.
Be it on kitchen utensils or fabric, soaking the item in baking soda is the best way to take care of the stubborn grease stains.
6. Brightening Underarms
Dark underarms are a fashion faux pas and can be quite embarrassing. Brightening dark underarms doesn’t have to cost you a fortune; the good old potato does the trick.
Cut a potato in half and rub the juice on your underarms.
7. Cleaning A Blender
With all the blades inside, a blender is not the easiest thing to clean. It doesn’t have to give you a headache; just put in some warm water and dishwashing liquid and give it a blitz.
8. Saving Dried Nail Polish
With the advent of gel polish, many people may not be using traditional nail polish. But if you still do, and your bottle has dried, add some nail polish remover and give it a little shake, and it’ll return to normal consistency.
9. How to Freeze Sauce
Pre-cooking and freezing food helps save a lot of time, but storing something like homemade sauce can be problematic.
Pour the sauce over parchment paper and separate it with skewers to make it easy to use once it’s frozen.
10. Instant Fire Extinguisher
Fires can break out without a warning, especially in the kitchen. If you don’t have a fire extinguisher ready, pour some baking soda on the flame, and it’ll go out instantly.
11. Quick Stain Removal
If a stain is left on for too long, it runs the risk of setting and getting more challenging to remove. Pour some bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) on your fabrics or carpet and let it sit for a short while.
You can then wash the fabric as you usually would.
12. Making Nails Stronger
No one likes brittle nails or nails that peel easily. If you want stronger, healthier nails, cut a slice of lemon and put it in water. Dip your nails in the lemon water for about 10 minutes, then dry them.
Your hands will thank you for it.
13. Cleaning The Iron Box
As the iron box (bottom) grows older and irons more clothes, the bottom gets dirty and cakey. The easiest way to make it shiny and functional again is by setting it to maximum heat. Pour some salt onto a newspaper and rub the hot iron on it.
14. Sauce in Muffin Trays
If you have some leftover sauce you’d want to use later, freeze it in a muffin tray.
Once frozen, take them out, store them, and defrost them whenever you need to reuse the sauce.
15. Stained Mugs
Coffee is excellent for booting adult brains every morning, but its ability to stain mugs is not a welcome result.
If your mugs are stained, wiping them with baking soda takes care of that problem quickly and effectively. (Baking soda seems to be a winner in many departments today!)
16. Aspirin to Cure Sick Roses
If your green thumb is not working and you seem to kill more flowers than you’d like to admit, an good old aspirin can help. Add aspirin to the water to revive wilting roses and carnations.
This also helps keep the flowers in a vase fresh for longer.
17. Vinegar for Dahlias
Aspirin is not a cure for all flowers. If you have wilting dahlias, some vinegar mixed in the water will save them.
18. Salt for Daffodils
Your pantry has the cures for most flowers, and salt is ideal to help struggling daffodils.
Stir some salt in the water and revive them.
19. Stinking Fridge Remedy
Due to all the foods stored in it, a refrigerator sometimes gets an unpleasant odor. Pour some baking soda into a bowl and place it in the fridge to restore its freshness.
Baking soda is excellent at killing strong orders. Seriously, if you don’t have baking soda at home, you have so many reasons to get some now.
20. Smoothing Rough Elbows
Elbows tend to get dragged a lot of different surfaces, and they end up looking dry and a little rough. If you want to make your elbows smooth again, mix some bicarbonate of soda or coconut oil and rub on your elbows.
21. No Rolling Pin? No Problem
Nothing should hinder an opportunity to bake or fry a nice piece of dough, not even the lack of a rolling pin. A glass bottle makes an excellent rolling pin if you can’t find yours.
22. Cleaning Sofas
A dirty sofa makes a living room look untidy and uncared for, however much you try. To create a sofa cleaner, combine water, alcohol, cleaning vinegar, baking soda, and fabric softener and spray onto the stained parts of the sofa.
It’s good to be careful with these chemicals, though. If you have specific cleaning needs, consider using commercially available products designed for those purposes or seek advice on safe and effective alternatives.
23. Making the Perfect Dough Circles
Cutting the perfect circle out of dough doesn’t have to be hard work when you have glasses in the house. Simply use the size you want the circles to be, press down on the dough and viola! The perfect circle.
24. Cleaning Stained Pots
You must have noticed the pattern, baking soda is a household superhero. On top of everything it can do, baking soda is also excellent for cleaning stained cooking pots.
To get the shine back on your greasy pots, pour some baking soda and vinegar, let it sit for a few minutes, and then scrub it as usual.
25. Potatoes for Bug Bites
If you have a wound or an insect bite, rubbing a sliced potato on it will give you instant relief. Potatoes have an anti-inflammatory effect and are excellent for small wounds too.
26. Eliminating Shoes Odor
Shoes can get a lot stinky and embarrassing. To remove the stink in your shoes, put some salt in an airy bag and stuff them inside the shoe overnight.
27. Removing Onion Smell
Chopping onions is unpleasant on two accounts—they make your eyes water and your hands stink.
Soak the hands in water for a few minutes to wash off the smell of onions.
28. Baking an Edible Bowl
Making edible bowls may look like hard work, but our grannies demystified it for us. Simply turn your muffin tray upside down and drape the dough over it. Bake as usual, and you have an edible ice cream, taco, or soup bowl.
29. Shaving Chocolate
How do you shave off thin slices of chocolate to use on your ice cream or baked goodies? A cheese grater is a wonderful tool to shave off chocolate.
30. How To Get Broken Egg Shells
Shells get into the egg sometimes, and the easiest way to grab them out of the slippery mixture is by dipping your fingers in cold water and then pushing it to the edge.
You can also use a piece of the shell to grab it.
31. Banana Pancakes
Pancakes are great; fruit pancakes are even better. If you have been thinking of making some banana pancakes, Grandma’s recipe is simple. Peel some overripe banana into a bowl and mash it, then add flour and eggs as you’d make normal pancakes.
32. Getting Rid of Silver Tarnish
Silver jewelry is beautiful, and it gets some dross over time. To get it shiny again, heat water until boiling, add a piece of aluminium foil, and stir in baking soda.
Put the jewelry in the mixture and watch as it gets shiny again.
33. How to Clean A Microwave
Microwaves get a lot of food spills, and it’s advisable to clean them regularly. Put some lemon slices in a bowl of water and microwave them. Wipe the microwave afterward and enjoy the new glow.
34. Orange Peel Window Cleaner
Make some awesome cleaner by adding vinegar to orange peels. Let the mixture sit for about two weeks, and then dilute it.
You’ll also benefit from the beautiful citrus scent.
35. Bread Knife in Hot Water
If your bread is always crumbling when you cut it, dip the knife in hot water and then cut again.
36. Unclogging a Showerhead
Showering with unnecessarily low water pressure is annoying. If the showerhead is clogged, put some white vinegar in a plastic paper and tie it to the showerhead.
You can let the vinegar stay on overnight, and the shower will be cleared by morning.
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