Tea isn’t just one of the most popular drinks in the entire world with a history dating back thousands of years, it’s also a surprisingly useful tool for cleaning your home.
Granted, it’s not the most versatile cleaner and you certainly wouldn’t use it for everything, but there are a few very specific uses that’ll have you wanting to brew a pot and leaving your traditional cleaning solutions on the sidelines.
Popular sites like Tea Perspective have talked about using tea for headaches, but they neglect the topic of using tea to clean altogether, and that’s a shame because tea can be really helpful for the cleaning tasks that we’re about to discuss.
Since even the most popular tea blogs seem to ignore this topic, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to bring you the cold hard facts about using tea to clean.
Tea has a high level of astringency, which makes it very useful to cut through grease and dominate dust. This comes from the high levels of tannins in tea (The part of the tea plant that becomes bitter when you let it steep for too long.)
Tea for cleaning mirrors and windows
Tea can give you a great streak-free shine on your windows and mirrors. Simply brew a strong pot of tea (Strong would be about 5 tea bags per 1 liter of hot water.)
You don’t have to worry about burning the tea and having it become bitter, which happens if you let it steep for too long since you’re not going to be drinking it.
None the less, you can let the tea bags sit in the water, just off a boil, for about 5 minutes. Then, let it cool down to room temperature, and simply dip a washcloth into your teapot and wipe away – you’re all set! It’s that easy.
Teabags for the toilet
Really! When you’ve got a stubborn stain on the toilet that just doesn’t want to wash away, try using one of those used tea bags from #3, and giving the toilet a scrub with that.
People say it works like a MIRACLE, we’re not exactly sure how, but it probably has something to do with the abrasive texture of the tea bag. In any case, if it works it works, right?
Bonus: People also put used tea bags in the fridge to help eliminate odors instead of (or in addition to) baking soda.
Furthermore, if you’ve been handling fish, or cutting up garlic in the kitchen, washing your hands and rubbing them with a tea bag can help to eliminate the smells. So versatile!
Tea for cleaning hardwood floors
When you imagine a stained teacup and how it can get marked up with the brownness from many cups of tea, it might seem weird to use it to actually clean things, but rest assured – it can do a great job, especially when it comes to hardwood floors.
The best part isn’t just how good of a job it does in cutting through the dirt and debris on the floor, but also the magnificent shine, and the fact that it’s all natural.
None the less, we do want to caution you that all floors are different, so please start with a smaller test area, like in your closet.
Apartment Therapy recommends using 8 bags of black tea per ½ gallon of water. They also recommend leaving the bags to steep in the off-boil water for 10-15 minutes. Then it’s just a matter of getting out the mop and going to town.
Do you enjoy using non-typical things to help you clean different parts of the house, or do you prefer to stick to the traditional products that have been designed to fill these roles?
Let us know, and we’ll make sure to follow-up with more and more useful information about all aspects of keeping a clean home.
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