8 Things We Never Knew Sugar Could Do Around The House
Grab a bag of
organic, unbleached cane sugar and put it to use.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY GAYVORONSKAYA_YANA/SHUTTERSTOCK
You may be trying to eat less sugar or at least staying within therecommended
sugar intake, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should
ban it from the house altogether. To start, it makes a great exfoliating face
scrub, as we revealed with our DIY Facial
Cleansers For Every Skin Type. It’s also a handy addition
to your cleaning arsenal because it’s cheap, nontoxic, and absorbs odors—but
that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Click through the slideshow to see the
unexpected ways you can use sugar around the house every day.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY DMYTRO VIETROV/SHUTTERSTOCK
1. Keep Cut Flowers Fresh
Sugar can lend a hand in keeping your fresh-cut spring flowersperky
by giving them some of the nourishment they’re missing. Expert gardeners at
the Brooklyn
Botanical Garden recommend mixing a teaspoon each of sugar and
bleach, plus two teaspoons of lemon or lime juice, with a quart of lukewarm
water and adding it to the vase. (The bleach keeps bacteria from building up,
and the citrus adjusts the pH so it’s easier for the stems to absorb the
water.)
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PHOTOGRAPH BY CHEPKO DANIL VITALEVICH/SHUTTERSTOCK
2. Heal Wounds
Rubbing sugar into open wounds like bedsores, ulcers, and
amputations can decrease pain and significantly speed up healing, according to research done in British hospitals.
The sugar helps to dry out the wound, which promotes tissue healing, and
dehydrates bacteria that could cause infection. In fact, packing sugar into a
laceration is an old folk remedy that’s still widely used in developing areas
of the world, and the research suggests that it may be even more effective than
some modern antibiotics.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY KLEVO/SHUTTERSTOCK
3. Clean A Coffee Grinder
If you’ve got an electric coffee grinder, you can also use it
grind up fresh spices, but you definitely don’t want your morning dark roast
tasting like cumin the next time you to grind some beans. So how do you clean
it since you can’t submerge your grinder in water? Easy—grind up some sugar
instead. The sugar will absorb oils and
odors trapped in your grinder so your coffee won’t have any
unwanted flavors.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY MARINA KUTUKOVA/SHUTTERSTOCK
4. Keep Cheese From Getting Moldy
Sticking a couple of sugar cubes in with your artisan cheddar can
keep it from getting moldy. Apparently, the sugar will attract moisture
and mold spores, therefore, diverting them from the cheese.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY AKKARADET BANGCHUN/SHUTTERSTOCK
5. Remove Grass Stains
Got stubborn grass stains on
your jeans from kneeling by the flowerbeds? Mix two tablespoons of sugar with a
little water to form a paste, and rub it into the stain. Let it sit for about
an hour before washing normally, and your jeans will be good as new.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY WAIVEFAMISOCZ/SHUTTERSTOCK
6. Stop Hiccups
Swallowing a teaspoon of sugar can actually halt your
hiccups. Experts think the trick works because dry sugar is
difficult to swallow, and it modifies the nerve muscles that are causing the
diaphragm to contract spasmodically when you hiccup.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY ANGEL SIMON/SHUTTERSTOCK
7. Get Cooking Odors Off Your Hands
The scent of onion or garlic can linger on your hands for hours
after cooking, no matter how many times you wash. Sugar absorbs odors and
oils—plus it exfoliates—so it’s way more effective than just soap on its own.
Scrub your hands with about a spoonful of
sugar and some dishwashing liquid, and you’ll be good to go.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY ANNA KUHMAR/SHUTTERSTOCK
8. Keep Cookies Crisp
If you like a snappy
gingerbread or a crunchy peanut
butter cookie, add a couple of sugar cubes to your storage
container. Sugar attracts moisture, so it’ll prevent your crispy cookies from
going limp.
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