8 Household Uses for Citrus Scraps

Polish Your Cookware

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Cleaning and polishing your brass, copper or stainless steel cookware can be such a chore. Make your life easier by using citrus scraps to scour, clean and polish your cookware! We recommend using lemon rinds and halved lemons used for juice to remove greasy stains from your pots and pans. Add a little salt for some abrasion and scrub the interior of your pot with the peel or lemon halves until it shines.

 

Wash Fruits and Vegetables

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Make some eco-friendly produce cleanser with your leftover lemons that you used for zest. Simply cut them in half and extract the juice. Then, mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice with 4 tablespoons of vinegar and 2 cups of water. Now you have your very own produce cleanser that naturally removes dirt and other impurities before consumption.

 

Fight Allergies

 

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Prone to allergies? Fight them with some tea made from citrus scraps and see the results for yourself. Save some of your leftover grapefruit rinds and use them to make grapefruit tea. It is an age-old tonic said to break up mucus and reduce allergy symptoms. To make this tea, mince the peel of one large grapefruit and boil it in 8 cups of water. Then, remove the mixture from heat and leave it to steep for 15 minutes. Remove the grapefruit rinds with a strainer and add lemon and honey for some flavour if desired.

 

Boost Your Laundry

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Boost your detergent’s power by adding some juice from zested lemons into your load of wash. Instead of using bleach, soak your clothes in either a mixture of lemon juice and baking soda or lemon juice, lemon rinds and water. Leave it to soak for at least 30 mins before washing.

For more conventional laundry products, check out Bio-home’s natural and delicate laundry detergent here. Additionally, for some handy laundry tips visit our Complete Guide here.

 

Clean Your Shoes

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Do your shoes look a little less-than-shiny? Spray them with lemon juice or rub them with a halved lemon before leaving them to sit in the sun for awhile. They’ll be looking good-as-new in no time.

 

Scour Away Tough Stains

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Skip the chemical cleaners and opt for an eco-friendly way using citrus scraps. Make your own scouring powder from grapefruit scraps by drying them out and grinding them into fine powder. Add 3 tablespoon of this powder to 3 tablespoons of borax and 5 tablespoons of baking soda, and voilà—you have your own scouring powder to clean the bathroom and degrease your oven and microwave.

 

Keep Bugs Away

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The acidic scent of orange peels repels ants. Therefore, leave a couple of orange peels in areas where you frequently find these little critters. You can even rub orange peels on your skin for an effective mosquito repellent

 

Keep Food Fresh

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Use your citrus scraps to keep sliced fruits and vegetables from turning brown. The citrus juice in the scraps will help to keep food from oxidizing, thus preventing discolouration.

To keep your olive oil fresh for months, drop a couple lemon rinds into the bottle.

Add a few orange peels to your jar of brown sugar to preserve them.