Ditch The Smelly Feet
Do your feet stink? It happens to a lot of people for various different reasons. But whatever your reason is you need a way to beat foot odor.
And you can beat it. By simply putting used tea bags in your shoes. But also by soaking your feet in water with old teabags. When you soak your feet you are actually doubling your use because old teabags are also great to use in detox baths too. So do these two things and you should be on your way to beating foot odor.
Genius Things To Do With Your Used Tea Bags
Published: Sep 30, 2019 by · This post may contain affiliate links ·
For many people, tea bags are a one-use item. One bag equals one cup of tea. Then the used bag goes in the trash bin, right?
Well not quite. While you may not relish the idea of using the same bag to brew more than one cup of tea, there are still plenty of other uses for those little packets of damp tea leaves.
Read on and discover eighteen genius ways to reuse your old tea bags
From Diy Skin Care To Flavor
After brewing a warm cup of tea, tossing the tea bag into the trash is the most natural thing to do. The first thought that comes to mind isnt, Heymaybe I could reuse this thing! We totally get it. But rather than letting the remnants from your Spiced Apricot or Apple Spiced tea go to waste, why not put them to good use? Here are some crazy, yet incredibly clever, ideas to get you started.
1. Take Grains to the Next Level
Tired of boring, flavorless rice? Tea can boost the flavor profile of your grains without any extra salt or seasoning. Simply place a leftover tea bag or two in the boiling pot of water and let it do its thing. Then cook rice as usual. Youll be left with a subtle tea flavor thatll fool your family for gourmet.
Ready to get cooking? Strut out green- or ginger-tea-flavored rice in our recipe for Shrimp with Ginger-Chili Sauce, or liven up Pan-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables with lemon-tea-flavored rice.
2. Make a Face Scrub
When your face needs a little TLC, pop open a tea bag and exfoliate away. While tea is typically digested, it can also be used on the skin. Tea is said to help shrink large pores and provide a healthy glow. Simply pour the contents into a bowl and add 1 heaping teaspoon of honey. Gently rub the mix onto your face in circular motions. Let it sit for 5 minutes and then rinse off with warm water.
3. Neutralize Garbage Odor
4. Make Affordable Fresheners
5. Relieve Swollen Gums
6. Reduce Puffiness Around Eyes
8. Repel Pesky Rodents
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Natural Dyes For Eggs
Dye eggs naturally with used tea-bags for Easter, making them safer for kids and adults to color and eat. Herbal tea adds taste to eggs, so people allergic to any herb should not use it for coloring, notes The Daily Tea. It is possible to get a wide range of color with used tea bags. Mixing teas with some extra ingredients increases the range, so that there is no need for chemicals at all. Just a few shades include light yellow , grey , and lavender . Teas can also be mixed in equal parts with juice to produce other colors.
For 12 eggs, 4 to 5 cups of dye are needed. The Kitchn outlines an easy process for making the dye – it involves boiling additional coloring ingredients with the used tea bags and adding vinegar after straining and cooling. The color of the mixture should be darker than your desired egg color.
Uses For Old Tea Bags In The Garden:
The best way to take advantage of leftover tea bags is to start in the garden, yard, or flower beds!
Many of these aspects of tea leaves are very beneficial for all types of plants.
For using tea bags in the garden, be sure the tea bags are made from paper. Do not use plastic tea bags or ones that might have staples.
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Uses For Used Tea Bags You Probably Didnt Know
1. Eliminate Foot Odor: Great for athletes and anyone on their feet a lot, soaking your feet for 30 minutes a day in black tea may result in fresher feet. Believers say its the tannins, or tannic acid, that creates a hostile environment for bacteria and/or acts as an astringent which contracts tissue, including sweat glands.
2. Shine mirrors: Re-soak used tea bags in warm water. Dip a clean cloth in the tea and wipe mirrors, then dry with another cloth.
3. Coax your compost: Re-soak tea bags and pour resulting liquid and tea leaves on the compost heap. This is said to speed up the composting process and attract acid-producing bacteria for acid-rich compost. Many plants grow best in acid-rich soil, including azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangea, calla lilieseven pine trees.
4. Improve potted plant health by scattering some used tea bags atop the drainage layer at the bottom of the planter before planting. Tea bags retain water and leach nutrients into the soil.
5. Sparkling toilets: Some attest to the use of used tea bags as stain removing agents. Remove leaves from the used bags, toss into the bowl and let sit for a few hours. Then flush.
6. Deodorize fridge: Out of baking soda? Used tea bags can work just as well to absorb odors. Place them in a dish in the back of the fridge and compost after a couple of weeks.
8. Tenderize meat: Used tea bags can be soaked again in liquid to tenderize a tough cut of meat.
- Beth Herman
Ditch The Onion Hands
Ill share this with you all. I cooked supper last night and it included onions. I cleaned up supper, washed my hands, and went on with my night.
So as I was lying in bed last night I caught a huge onion smell. It was still my hands! You know how to avoid that from happening to you? Rub your hands down with used tea bags after cooking with onions. That way you wont have to smell onions all night like I did.
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Use Tea Bags To Reduce Swelling
Some herbs have natural anti-inflammatory properties. If you had a rough night of sleep, try placing cold bags of green tea over your closed eyes to help reduce any puffiness. After a few minutes, youll look refreshed and ready for the day.
Another method to use tea to reduce swelling or irritation is to brew the tea, and apply the damp tea leaves directly on your face as a mask. Make sure that the tea isnt still hot when you put it on your face.
Use Brewed Tea On Your Hair
Rinsing your hair with brewed tea is a great way to get its benefits. Black tea is a good tea to use on your hair, but there are plenty of other kinds of tea that have different benefits. Rose tea will work to make your hair softer.
To use tea on your hair, brew the tea in water, making sure to use a lot of tea so the infusion is strong. When you are in the shower, pour the tea over your hair.
Make sure that the tea is not still hot when you are applying it to your head. Let the tea soak in for a few minutes, and rinse it out with a little bit of water.
Make sure you use any shampoo beforehand, as shampooing your hair after you rinse it with tea could remove any of the elements that are going to benefit your hair.
Another option is to add some of the tea to a spray bottle, once it has cooled down. Then, you can keep it for about a week and spray a little bit of it on your hair after you get out of the shower.
You wont need to rinse it off, as you will just use a little bit of the spray. Use your hands to work the tea spray through the ends of your hair.
Dont use a brush or a comb to spread out the tea in your hair. If you brush or comb out wet or damp hair, it can cause breakage and split ends.
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Add Shine To Wooden Floors
Tannin in black tea is useful also for wood floor care. It cleans the wood more gently than vinegar or soap as well as enhances the color of the wood and helps disguise scratches.
Wooden floors should be swept clean before the tea treatment. As noted by Apartment Therapy, to make the tea, you’ll need to boil 1/2 gallon of water and steep the used bags for 10 to 15 minutes, then cool and mop. The number of bags to use varies based on the color of your floor – anywhere from 4 to 12.
After The Last Dunk Why Not Put Those Used Tea Bags To Work For You Check Out This List Of Household Uses
In our quest to reuse, recycle, and re-imagine, its always a plus to find new uses for something. Even better if it makes our lives easier in the process.
The once- or twice-dunked tea bag usually went right in the trash. But no more! Try these ideas for your used tea bags to help with some tasks around the house.
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Can I Put Tea Bags In The Garden
So the question is, Can I put tea bags in the garden? The resounding answer is yes but with a few caveats. Moist tea leaves added to the compost bin increase the speed with which your pile decomposes.
When using tea bags as fertilizer, either in the compost bin or directly around plants, first attempt to identify if the bag itself is compostable 20 to 30 percent may be composed of polypropylene, which will not decompose. These types of tea bags may be slippery to the touch and have a heat-sealed edge. If this is the case, slit open the bag and discard in the trash and reserve the damp tea leaves for composting.
If you are unsure about the make up of the bag when composting tea bags, you can toss them into the compost and then pick the bag out later if you are feeling particularly lazy. Sounds like an extra step to me, but to each his own. It will be patently obvious if the bag is compostable, as the worms and microorganisms will not break down such a substance. Tea bags made of paper, silk, or muslin are suitable composting tea bags.
Restore Shine To Your Hair
You can use tea to make your hair shiny and smooth! Use a couple of used tea bags to brew a strong tea, then allow the tea to cool completely. Before a shower, pour the tea into your hair until its completely saturated. Allow the tea to sit for about 10 minutes, then hop in the shower. Shampoo and condition your hair as normal. Your hair will thank you the tea treatment!
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What Happens When You Bury Tea Bags In Your Garden
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Composting tea bags is a âgreenâ method of disposal and terrific for the health of all your plants, providing organic matter to increase drainage while maintaining moisture, promoting earthworms, increasing oxygen levels and maintaining soil structure for a more beautiful garden.
Beside above, which plants should I put tea grounds in? Sprinkle your used tea leaves around the base of acid-loving plants, including your tomatoes and roses. Tea leaves contain all the big three nutrients ,as well as some trace minerals. Sprinkle the used leaves on the soil and gently scratch them in. Of course, you can also add tea leaves to your compost pile.
Also Know, what happens if you plant a tea bag?
Burying your tea bag near the roots of your plant will help it to have regular access to water, as the tea bag will retain water and help the plants stay healthier. The acid in the tea helps to speed up the decomposition process of other things in the soil, which makes tea bags especially useful in compost piles.
Which tea bags do not contain plastic?
Tetley â They have confirmed their stringed tea bags are plastic free. Lipton â Their Quality Black and Intense traditional tea bags are made from Manilla hemp and cellulose fibres. They are compostable but not recyclable. Qi Tea â Their tea bags are completely plastic free.
Why Reuse Tea Bags
Before we get into our list of 27 ways to reuse tea bags, you might be wondering why you should even bother. After all, arent most tea bags recyclable? Well, unless you make your own tea bags, thats only partially true.
Once youve made a cup or kettle of tea, you probably toss your tea bag in the trash, or maybe into the recycling bin. But did you know that only part of the average tea bag is made from biodegradable paper? The rest is often made from harmful plastic.
The original commercially produced tea bag was made of a fine gauze cloth, but manufacturers eventually moved toward using cheaper paper and small amounts of plastic to help with mass-production. The plastic is generally used to seal the tea bag shut. It might not be a huge amount, but it will sit in the environment for an eternity.
So dont add to our environmental issues, if you dont have to. Keeping your teabags and reusing them could be the perfect solution. Take a look at the list below and see if any of these uses appeal to you.
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How To Use Tea Bags In The Garden
Learn How to useTea Bags in the Garden as a stop plant infections, Natural Fertilizer, Decomposition of compost, Reduce the waste, for Acid lover plants, Keeps bugs away, Tea bags help keep moisture. The use of Tea Bags can boost your garden, but with some precautions. After the use of bags, moisture leaves of tea are added to the bin of the soils, from which the pile of manure is decomposed very fast. Nature Bring is giving you information on how to use tea bags for the development of the Garden. We all start the morning with your tea every day and throw the tea bags we use. Do you know the tea bags that you throw off have a beneficial effect on your garden?
Use As A Carpet Refresher
Let a few old tea bags dry out, then remove the leaves. Add the leaves into a large handful of baking soda, then sprinkle over any dingy or not-very-fresh spots on your carpets.
Leave the mixture on for around 20 minutes, then vacuum the area thoroughly. The tea and baking soda work to absorb odors and trap dirt, so your carpets look like theyve been given a new lease of life.
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For Hair And Skin Application
A brewed strong tea may help the used tea bag serve another purpose. But after you brewed it for the second or the nth time, you can still use it on different parts of your body. After a nice cup of your leaf tea, ready your tea basket to hold your overused tea bags.
Used pre-brewed tea bags can become a deodorizing hand scrub. After working on smelly ingredients in your kitchen while having a cup of tea, you can just rub the used pre-brewed tea bags against your hands.
This will remove the scent of garlic, onions, ginger, and even fish! Whether you want to wash your hands with water or not, it will now depend on you.
Add warm water to the used leaf tea bag and soak your feet. The warm water and the remaining components in the dried leaves can neutralize bad foot odors, soften calluses, help heal wounds faster, and nourish your dry skin. Have a cup of tea while waiting for a few minutes.
Boil water and let it cool for a bit. This time, youll use the pre-brewed tea bags in an antioxidant bath. Whether its a weak tea or strong tea, used or not, the tea bags still contain a sufficient amount of antioxidants good for your skin.
Let the hot water produce brewed tea and include a fragrant tea like jasmine for additional aromatherapy effects.
Apart from the antioxidant content, the herbal components of teas also holds anti-inflammatory properties. It reduces inflammation that can heal razor burns, sunburned skin, stings, wounds, and bruises.
Compost Your Tea Bags
Most tea and tea bags are compostable! If you have a compost bin, you can put the whole tea bag in there, provided that it doesnt have any staples. If your tea bag is stapled shut, you can simply remove the staple and dispose of it, then place the rest of the tea bag into your compost bin.
Some companies use plastics in their tea bags, so you should do a bit of research before putting the entire bag into your compost bin. If you find out that there is plastic in your tea bag, you can still cut it open and add the loose tea into your compost. Just make sure that you put any plastic or metallic items into your regular garbage bin.
Loose-leaf tea just needs to be removed from whatever container you store it in. Chances are, the container that your loose-leaf tea is in is designed to keep the tea fresh for as long as possible, and isnt compostable.
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