Check out the original post 19 Alternative Uses for Toothpaste #cbias on
I haven’t done one of these posts in a long, long time, but this post on alternative uses for toothpaste is sponsored by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. That being said, all opinions in this post, as in all posts on Bewildered Bug, are honest and my own. #CollectiveBias
When I was first given this challenge, I thought – my, this will be an interesting one. As someone who has to cook allergen free for myself, there is quite a lot of experimentation done in my kitchen with alternative ingredients, and no, not all my recipes reach onto this blog (in fact, most don’t!). What if I was able to transfer that to the everyday, though? What if I were able to take an ordinary product, such as Colgate toothpaste, and use it to do something OTHER than brush your teeth? So with a little bit or research, I found that toothpaste is quite a versatile product, and decided to actually try these alternative uses for toothpaste to see which are actually true!
The first step, of course, was to run to the nearby Waitrose to grab new toothpaste. The Luv Luv is very picky about his toothpaste, so there was no way I could steal his “gourmet” toothpaste to polish cutlery or get rid of pimples, for example. So I hopped over to Waitrose on a Saturday afternoon, bought new toothpaste and ran back home to experiment! I was (and am) actually really excited to try many of these – my scientifically based mind went down memory lane to chemistry experiments in high school. Man I enjoy being hands on!
Although most of the uses that I discovered are cleaning of some sort, I was still intrigued by the amount of uses that toothpaste has. I was not able to try ALL of these, but did manage to get a few done.
Cleaning with Toothpaste
1) Cleaning silver jewellery
This was a biggie for me because I have a metal allergy that decides to pop up particularly in my ears. So all my earring have to be either sterling silver or 14 K gold and above. So I wear silver earrings EVERY day (since gold does get expensive…) and they do get grungy after a while. To avoid buying expensive jewelry cleaners, just for jewellery, why not try toothpaste? Ideally, you rub toothpaste into the jewelry and leave it to soak in overnight, then wash off in the morning. Apparently, if done too often it will take off the top layer of fine metals, though, so don’t do this too often.
I did not leave my silver earrings in overnight – but only for about half hour and the pink guck that was somehow gathering on the metal did mostly come off. I think I would leave the jewelry for a maximum of an hour or two, depending on exactly how gunky the jewelry has become.
2) Cleaning cutlery
The Luv Luv has this ANNOYING (and disgusting) habit. He is a tea addict (and coffee but this is beside the point). He is also a boy. Which means he’s gross every once in a while. So when he drinks tea, he tends to keep his teacup all day without washing it. That’s fine – I’ve gotten used to it and we have reached to a compromise on it. But he does it to my teaspoons too – you know, the pretty little set I bought at Debenhams when I moved to London? The ones with the grooves and little metal imprints on them? You know, those imprints that get stained if they sit in tea all day? Yeah. Those. And THAT we did not compromise on. So I bought some cheap teaspoons from the dollar store, but they stain just as easily, and it’s difficult to get tea stains off of anything, much less teaspoons, so, enter the toothpaste and a small, hard brush (like the denture brush that I found in the pound store!).
I’m amazed. The toothpaste did what no other cleaner in my cleaning arsenal has been able to do! Not only did the toothpaste remove the tea stains, but it completely made all the cutlery, INCLUDING the pound store specials, shiny and gorgeous. I may just decide to sit down next weekend with a tube of toothpaste and all the cutlery in my drawer and go to town!
3) Cleaning shoes (both leather and running shoes!)
The bug does not do shoes, but I decided to try this out for those of you who do. Toothpaste is supposed to be able to remove scratches from leather and to clean running shoes thoroughly. Lucky for you, my leather shoes are grungy and gross and my running shoes are still remembering my trip to Jamaica a few years ago.
It worked quite well to cover scratches in my leather boots, but the only thing I found was that the leather lost its shine, so I may go back in with my Vaseline to moisturise it a bit. Leather should be treated similarly to your skin, and the toothpaste was really drying on my skin, as well as the leather, so, although it covered scratches really well, I would still follow it with a leather moisturiser of some sort.
As for my running shoes, only the base of mine are waterproof, so that was the only area I could really apply the toothpaste to. I tried applying it to the fabric but it wasn’t quite working at all, and I didn’t want to soak my shoes through and through. What the toothpaste did do well, though, was to clean the base of my running shoes marvellously. They shone, almost like new – and this is after years of trying to get Jamaican mud (which apparently stains…) off of them!
4) Cleaning and whitening refrigerator seals
This is an area not many people think about, but you’d be surprised how grungy they get, even though you don’t seemingly use/touch them!
5) Cleaning sinks, faucets and drains
The Luv Luv, like most men and children, believe that the idea of “cleaning up the kitchen” means only “washing the dishes”. The sink and drainboard never get cleaned, the counters are never wiped down and the stove never gets wiped down either. So a lovely dull layer of gunk ends up on the surface of the kitchen sink and the drainboard, the faucets end up with calcium stains (especially thanks to the hard water in London), and the drains usually end up with a brown ring around them. I usually use Cif to clean these up, but decided that I would give toothpaste a go this weekend.
I found that toothpaste was amazing for polishing these puppies, whether it be a grungy kitchen faucet or a smeary bathroom one!
6) Cleaning calcium spots off of shower enclosures.
When I first moved to England I noticed that most apartments (flats) have that ridiculous acrylic tiny “shower enclosure” about the width of my thigh. So I’ve had to mount a shower curtain at every flat. It still gets water spots, however, and even my crazily-obsessed-with-cleaning-Mom who took a to at it when she was here on holiday was not able to get them all out using traditional cleaning methods and elbow grease.
I was amazed to see that the toothpaste, with very little elbow grease, did as good a job as my Mom in removing the calcium stains from the acrylic shower enclosure – I may very well during my weekly deep clean!
7) Removing stains from carpets
Red wine, gravy, mud, kid stains…carpets get pretty dirty in the day to day. My apartment has cream carpets – a color I’ve actually not seen since the day I moved in and probably won’t see until I steam clean it when I move out as per my lease. There are no specific stains on my (now khaki) carpet, other than general wear and tear, so I could not test this one, but I would love to hear what you think if you try it! Apparently you have to apply the toothpaste to the stain and scrub it with an abrasive brush, then rinse immediately. It is supposed to work particularly well on lipstick, grass and ink stains. Whitening toothpastes are to be used with caution because of their bleaching properties.
8) Cleaning cell phone screens
Did you know that cellphones are considered one of the dirtiest places in your home (in conjunction with your purse, switches and door handles, kitchen sinks, keys, computer keys and remote controls )? I have both an iPhone and a large-screen work phone and they both get grungy upon use because of the large touch screens. Muck from my fingertips, makeup and grease from my face against the phone when I speak into it and God knows whatever else gets onto the screen.
I was SO scared to try this, just in case it did something horrible to my phone(s), but I pulled up my big girl panties and I did it – and you know what? My phone still works!!! Oh, and it was shiny and clean like I’ve hardly ever seen. I wonder if it’ll help repel dirt and grease in future – I guess only time will tell.
9) Cleaning water rings off of furniture
Another one of those “why don’t men listen?!” quandaries – guess he must be listening because I couldn’t find any around the house to clean, and God knows I usually have many, many, MANY of them on various flat surfaces around the house.
10) Removing crayon from walls
I don’t have kids, but I imagine this to be one of the most frustrating things that most kids can come up with. I’m thinking this should work and work well, though. After all, toothpaste has little microscopic gritty bits (that’s my scientific explanation) in them and that will help clean off something like waxy crayon from slightly textured wall surfaces. Give it a go and let me know?
11) Cleaning piano keys
Oh man I’ve heard this one quite a lot – and my piano is an ocean away at my parents’ house, so I can’t test it… but I hear it works really well from friends.
12) Cleaning plastic patio furniture
A scrub brush and some toothpaste should be a great addition to your spring cleaning pack. Especially to get that greasy stuff that magically appears on plastic patio furniture.
Removing Odours with Toothpaste
13) Removing strong cooking odours from your hands
When you cook something with fish, garlic, onion….have you smelt your hands after? Now I have heard many ways on how to get these smells off of your hands from rubbing them with stainless steel to washing them in lemon, but the toothpaste idea is a new one for me.
11) Skunk smell remover
If it could remove garlic from your hands, then it should be able to at least disguise skunk smell from your pets, n’est pas? My puppy, Tish (RIP), used to have an obsession with skunks and has been full blown sprayed at least three times (that I know about). I have to tell you….skunk STINKS. As in I’ve never experienced an odour like it – and it just sticks to everything, so you need to get rid of it as soon as possible if you don’t want your entire house to smell like skunk for months on end. The problem is that for big fluffy dogs like my Tish, tomato juice just does not cut it and skunk remover only gets to the first layer of her multiple layers of fur. The toothpaste, at least you can rub it in a bit deeper and get to the roots of the fur and get the smell out for good immediately. Just be sure to rinse often as the toothpaste *may* start burning or irritating the delicate skin of your beloved pet.
Beauty Solutions with Toothpaste
12) As hair gel (gel toothpaste only)
Now when I read this, it suggested that for babies and toddlers, who have very thin or very little hair, a dab of toothpaste in the hair will help you keep barrettes in. I’m extending this. My hair is extremely silky to the point where it does not even hold bobby pins without loads of hairspray and some teasing (which, in my mind, defeats the purpose of the bobby pins). The thickness, components and quality of the gel toothpaste is similar to hair gel, so works similarly.
13) Shrinking pimples
I think we have all heard this one, no? When you find that horrible little pinkish bugger popping up after your nightly cleansing, instead of screaming, crying or attempting to pop it (as I do – do as I say and not as I do), just apply a dot of toothpaste, leave it on overnight and your pimple is supposed to disappear. I don’t get many pimples unless I cheat on my dairy-allergy, but I do pick and tragically I mark extremely easily, so I haven’t had a reason to use this recently. I have tried it in the past though, when I was younger, and did not find that it made much difference, BUT, I think if you buy those little circular band aids and cover the toothpaste with it after applying it to the pimple, you will be able to keep it on all night for it to be effective. I’ve also read that you have to use toothpaste that does not have harsh chemicals nor whitening agents – so plain old toothpaste is ideal for this. I’ve also heard good things about mouthwash and pimples but that may be a follow-up post to this.
14) Cleaning errant hair dye from your hairline and ears
It is not hair dying time, unfortunately, but how annoying is it when you have a brand new hair color and then notice this shadow of brown around your hair line and on the tops of your ears? It sort of spoils the whole “new hair colour” high, doesn’t it? I think prevention is better than a cure, in many cases, however and I have found that putting a layer of Vaseline around your hairline and on your ears prior to dying your hair keeps your skin dye free. Just in case you have forgotten, however, toothpaste is a good cleanser to use to get the stains off.
Using Toothpaste Around the House
15) Filling small holes
I believe the correct term for filler is spackle, and this is basically using the toothpaste as spackle. This is probably especially useful for renters – after putting up your picture on the wall, it’s a cheap and easy way to fill holes left by nails and picture hangers when you are moving out. Using a white toothpaste to match the walls, fill the hole as you would with spackle. It will harden and behave like plaster – so don’t worry you’re not cheating your landlord
16) Remove scratches from DVDs and CDs.
I may be the only person in the world who still own some of these, but DVDs and CDs do get lightly scratched. Instead of throwing them out, apply a think coat of toothpaste and gently rub with a clean cloth from the center to the edges of the CD. Move in straight lines along the radius of the DVD or CD only. If you rub in any other way, even in circular motions, you can erase the data on the disc. The toothpaste will fill in the scratches and clean off the surface so that your DVD or CD is working properly again. This is obviously not going to solve all the issues you may have with DVDs or CDs, but for light scratches it should work.
Other Random Uses of Toothpaste
17) Cleaning and clearing up goggles
For those of you with kids, or those of you who are sporty and brave enough to go diving, and for any of you who use goggles for any other reason, a smear of toothpaste rubbed into the goggles and washed off will prevent them from fogging up during use and will keep them clean and clear.
18) Keeping mirrors de-fogged
My Father visited me in January of this year and one of the comments he made was about how foggy my bathroom gets after the Luv Luv showers. The Luv Luv has always taken scalding hot showers (and still maintains gorgeous skin – not sure how and am more than a little jealous), and bathrooms always get misty after he showers. The bathroom in this flat, however, gets misty and foggy, no matter who showers. Perhaps it is because I take long showers, perhaps I take hotter showers than I used to, but the mirrors are unusable after a shower – and very often you need those mirrors after a shower.
So I fogged up my mirror on purpose, then I let it clear up on its own and then cleaned the entire thing with toothpaste, then rinsed. Then I fogged it again. There was a significant difference, but the mirror still fogged up. I’m wondering if I leave the toothpaste on for a longer period of time if it will work better, since I just rubbed it in and immediately rinsed it off. I may try this again at some point soon because I think the results were promising.
19) Keep insects out of planters
Apparently the gritty pieces of toothpaste are from ground up crustaceans and fossils. As gross as that sounds, that means that, although it is harmless to plants and most animals, insects, for some reason, cannot cross it. So if you’ve having a problem with insects attacking your garden, a line of toothpaste around the bed should keep them away from your plants.
Let me know how successful you have been with using toothpaste in alternative ways. Have you tried any of these? Are there any important ones that I’ve missed?
- ...just trying to navigate through this obstacle course called life...
