How can I reuse or recycle mouthwash?
We’ve had an email from Plum:
We’ve got five bottles of mouthwash in the bathroom cupboard – all tried once but never again because they were vile! I was wondering if you had an idea if they could be used for any household cleaning tasks like brown sauce on brass.
Good question. In my experience, most awful tasting mouthwashes are very alcohol-y and alcohol does have antibacterial/antiseptic qualities — does anyone know if it would be enough for cleaning instead of rubbing alcohol?
If you don’t mind having a minty face, I suspect it could be used as a facial toner – a lot of toners have similar amounts of alcohol in them (although alcohol in toners is very drying – the best skin thing I ever did was switching away to alcohol-free cleaning products).
Any other suggestions?
How about these?
http://gomestic.com/homemaking/11-practical-uses-for-mouthwash/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1072644/how_mouthwash_can_clean_the_whole_house.html
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/cleaning/the-mouthwashtoilet-habit-rinse-spit-wash-054677 (But you have to use it as mouthwash first!)
(special use by Tom Jones) http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=4435950&postcount=6
Mix with a little baking soda and use it to clean grout between tile. Rinse well. Leaves the bathroom shower sparkly and deodorized.
use it up as disinfectant – depending on how powerful it is. Also, I’ve heard that foot problems like athletes foot etc can be cleared up by soaking feet in mouthwash.
Well this may seem obvious but it is a good way to keep your toothbrushes clean. Soak them in a half cup of mouthwash every time you clean your bathroom sink. Another use that I have seen on t.v. was to wipe down your remotes and phones with a cloth moistened with mouthwash. To remove the large amount of germs that collect on those surfaces. Any sort of antiseptic type cleaning job would be suitable and it would be fairly gentle on surfaces as it is designed for your mouth.
You might try to use mouthwash to clean glasses, windows and mirrors. But it depends on the brand, I’m afraid :-)
For those of you who may have a relative or friend who uses a respiratory/ oral suction machine, placing some mouthwash in the cannister keeps the secretions from becoming a bacterial bredding ground. It also keeps the odor at bay. When using mouthwash to clean, I do believe you should seek the sugarless variety to avoid stickiness and ant beckoning.
I meant breeding ground. Editor!
I wouldn’t recommend using the overly-burning variety of mouthwash, as it’s toxic to swallow. The foot-soak thing sounds promising.