10 Uses for Salt You've Never Used

By Ready Expert

Salt is one of the most amazing elements in nature. It can be used for many purposes including food preservation, cleaning, cooking, and more!

Part of being prepared is knowing how to use the supplies that you have - and that includes salt! Below, we've listed 10 things that you probably didn't know that you could do with salt.

Clean up a dropped egg
If you accidentally drop an egg on the floor, sprinkle some salt on the mess and wait 20 minutes. After you wait, the salt will absorb up all the liquids and will be a lot easier to wipe up.

Soothe a bee or poison ivy sting
Wet the sting right away and then cover it with salt. The salt will also kill poison ivy around your home. Simply add three pounds of salt to a gallon of soapy water. Spray it on the leaves and stems of the poison ivy.

Test for rotten eggs
Add two teaspoons of salt into a cup of water. A fresh egg will sink while a rotten egg will float.

10 Uses for Salt You've Never Used Clean your clothes iron
Sprinkle some salt on a sheet of wax paper. Slide the iron across the paper and then rub with silver polish. This method will only work with non-stick irons.

Kill the grass growing in patio cracks
Have a bunch of grass growing up through the cracks in your cement or patio stones? Just spring salt on the cracks and wait a few days and pour some hot water over them.

Keep your windows frost-free
Dip a sponge in salt water and rub it on your windows. For car windshields, instead of using a sponge, use a little bag made of cheesecloth.

Clean a cutting board
Cover the cutting board with bleach and salt. Scrub the board with a stiff brush and rinse with hot water. Repeat if needed.

Clean fake flowers
Put the fake flowers in a bag with salt. Shake the bag for a few minutes. The salt will absorb the dirt and grime.

Remove watermarks from wood
I hate it when you get those pesky water marks on your table left from glasses or bottles. Make them disappear by mixing 1 teaspoon salt with a few drops of water to form a paste. Gently rub the paste onto the ring mark with a soft cloth or sponge. Then restore the luster of the wood with furniture polish.

Remove baked on messes
Can’t get that food to come out of your favorite pan or cooking dish? Simply sprinkle salt on the baked-on food then dampen the area with water. Let the area sit until the salt lifts the food off the dish.

What do you use it for?
Comment below and let us know what you've used salt for? Meat preservation? Seasoning? What else?

12 years ago

Comments

Sandra

12 years ago at 6:44 PM

Salt will help dry up a poison ivy or poison oak rash, but putting it on the growing plants will kill other plants, and if you live near a water way, it will run into the water during a rain. "The poison oak & Poison Ivy Survival Guide" tells other ways to kill the plants.

Practical Parsimony

12 years ago at 10:58 PM

Putting salt in cracks in a patio will only make ground sterile. Do this in enough places and the runoff will kill your yard.Try vinegar, hot vinegar, or boiling water for a nontoxic weedkiller.

Jeannine Bialey

12 years ago at 7:55 AM

I use it to clean my fish tank, when it gets hard water marks. It doesn't hurt the fish, I've only ever done it on empty aquariums. I also use it to clean the dog's water bowl for the same reason.

Andrew J. Jackson

12 years ago at 5:09 PM

...and it lasts forever so there's no reason not to stock up!

DepressionEra

12 years ago at 9:21 AM

I use salt to get rid of ants. Ants will run from salt.

Jen

12 years ago at 12:38 PM

To clean coffee pots with baked-on coffee stains pour salt into the bottom of the coffee pot, add ice and a touch of water. Swirl it around and watch the burnt on gunk disappear!

Jay

12 years ago at 6:17 PM

I boil it in water n mix a yeast packet with it then pour in a disposal container to kill slugs. The slugs are attracted to the yeast smell n when they fall in the salt kills them. It's like a beer trap but the yeast smell is stronger to attract more and the salt is an instant kill. Plus wasting a beer is against my religion.

Ncpatriot

12 years ago at 7:10 AM

@Kad, interesting trivia information on the use of salt in hollow points. But given the anti-gun climate I would NOT consider adding salt to my hollow points because 1. The prosecutor will portray you as a "sadistic murderer" at your "self-defense" trial. 2. Salt corrodes metal. I don't want it near my firearm, even if it's sealed in wax.

Karen

12 years ago at 8:53 AM

If you have ants in your yard sprinkle salt around the ant hills, etc. They will eat the salt. Then when they drink water the salt expands. I found this on the internet somewhere and saw it work in my yard.

3 years ago at 11:48 AM

I use red pepper flakes on the ground around my raspberry plants the Ants don't like it, ergo they don't deposit aphids on the raspberries. It works and you can get a jar at the dollar store

Mel

10 years ago at 4:06 AM

For people working in the heat it is good to sip on salt water to prevent dehydration. It doesn't take much. As Ben Fuchs says, when it tastes good you know you need it, when you've had enough it will not taste good. When working in the boiler at the paper mill we took salt tablets. The problem with that is you bypass the tasting and your body's built-in indicator.

Daniel

10 years ago at 8:29 AM

you can use salt, to clean cast iron pans, too.

Lori

10 years ago at 6:53 PM

Mel, I am a registered nurse and I am afraid that sipping on salt water in the heat (or at any other time) will actually cause dehydration, not prevent it. Drinking a solution that contains salt causes water to leave your cells and enter the blood stream to attempt to maintain an isotonic balance when it becomes too hypertonic from drinking the salt water. A good example of this is when you sprinkle sugar on cut fruit, like strawberries. Give it about ten minutes and much of the fluid in the berry is pulled out by the sugar. Same thing happens in your body when you drink salt water when in actuality, you want the fluids traveling in to the cells, not leaving it. It's likely that that you took the salt pills in the paper mill to prevent cramping secondary to dehydration due to fluid loss from sweating. Make no mistake. Drinking salt water is dangerous and will dehydrate you. It should not be done.

Patty

10 years ago at 9:02 PM

I use it for beauty and hygiene. Scrub off dandruff, bad breath, body scrub exfoliator, skin toner, etc. i also use it to set fast color clothes dye. Add it yo bitter coffee to make it taste better. It can work as deodorant in a pinch. Salt can do a lot of damage to many things and it should be used sparingly, cautiously and wisely. A preppers first goal is to know how to use available resources properly at the right time for the benefit of as many as possible.

Ben Henderson

10 years ago at 5:58 PM

To: William My wife has used this salt, vinegar, and dish soap. Your formula seems to be for making only one quart of spray. If I am right then if you multiply each measure by 4 you would make one gallon of spray. Am I correct?

Jerry G

10 years ago at 11:50 PM

I rub salt on fresh fish I have just scaled , helps the flavor and gets rid of any slime .

angelcrest

9 years ago at 6:05 AM

We use salt on cut stumps/stalks to prevent the tree or vine regrowing. This method has finally allowed us to gain a bit of headway against 'smilax" (aka blistervine) on our overgrown rural home. Put a small pile of salt on the exposed root bundle of the blistervine. It sure slows down the vine from sending out tons of new shoots & eventually it dies out. We use this on any trees we take out that we do not want regrowing.... drill a small hole into the stump & fill with salt. Has worked very well since we discovered this a couple of years ago!

Edelgard

5 years ago at 11:37 AM

A friend of mine just yesterday mentioned to us ( we were talking about fertilizer for flowers ) that She uses a little salt in the water when she waters geraniums etc . She also soaks the egg shells in water , and waters her plants .

Abby

4 years ago at 12:46 PM

i use salt to get rid of blisters faster . salt is good for making things go away faster