Yesterday I promised to show you my favorite multi-purpose tool in my house. Here it is–the old toothbrush. I cannot clean my house without one (at least one), and I find more ways to use old toothbrushes all the time.
- I keep one by each sink. They're great for scrubbing the gunk that builds up around the faucets. (Equally effective in the shower for the same gunk.)
- I keep one in the laundry room for scrubbing stain remover into stains.
- I use them dry to dust grooved and/or carved surfaces–the piping on the couch cushions, keyboards, moulding and trim pieces.
- They're great for cleaning mud and other, uh, foreign objects from shoes.
- They're the only tool I've found to easily clean window tracks.
- Boredom buster–give kids an old toothbrush and a bucket full of suds so they can "clean" their toys, piggy bank coins or even rocks from the yard. Hours of fun, I tell you.
- I keep one of the kids' old toothbrushes (with a suction cup on the bottom) on the side of the tub. The kids use it to scrub under their nails during bathtime.
Of course, all this heavy duty work takes a toll on the bristles. But we're pretty good about using new toothbrushes every three months, so we just rotate them through the cycle. The new ones are for brushing teeth, the recently used ones are for cleaning and playing, the heavily used ones get tossed or recycled, if possible.
(Note: the adult toothbrushes in the photos are recyclable. They're from Preserve, and not only are they recyclable when you're done with them, they're made from recycled yogurt containers. Love that.)
What do you use your old toothbrushes for?
