Salt and bay leaves are worth their weight in gold at home: here are the many ingenious uses
The benefits of salt and bay leaves are numerous, including for taking care of your home or your linen. But how can you use them in this context?
What are the unsuspected uses of salt and bay leaves at home?
Salt and bay leaves can be used in various ways to maintain your home.
Surprising uses of salt for home maintenance
Salt to preserve the colors of clothes and linens
Coarse salt
To protect the colors of your new clothes and prevent bleeding, coarse salt is your ally. Before washing your colored clothes for the first time, soak them in a basin of lukewarm water, then add 5 tablespoons of coarse salt. This will allow the colors to better resist machine washing. Note that coarse salt can also be used to revitalize the colors of your clothes that are starting to fade. To do this, soak the garment in question in a basin of cold water with coarse salt. You will need a tablespoon of salt for every half-liter of water. You can also soak your white tablecloths and any other white linen in salt water to revive their whiteness and restore their shine.
Salt to eliminate scale in the home
Salt is a natural anti-scale agent, effective in removing traces of limescale. To descale joints and taps, mix the juice of half a lemon with a little salt. Apply this paste to the scaled surfaces, leave to act for a few minutes, then scrub and rinse. You can also pour a glass of salt into the toilet bowl, leave to sit for 10 minutes, then scrub the walls with a toilet brush. This will allow you to remove traces of limescale and stains. Thanks to its anti-scale action, coarse salt is also a natural softener, which softens the water in the washing machine to soften the laundry.
Unexpected uses of bay leaves for home maintenance
Bay leaves
Bay is a shrub whose aromatic leaves are very popular in cooking to flavor sauces and marinades. Bay is also known for its antifungal, antiseptic and antibacterial properties. In addition to their culinary and medicinal virtues, bay leaves have other unsuspected uses, particularly in home maintenance.
Bay leaves to repel household pests
The smell of bay leaves is very effective in keeping away certain parasites and pests that invade the kitchen and pantry, such as ants, cockroaches, flies and mice. Simply scatter a few dried leaves around the kitchen, on pantry shelves, or around containers where food is stored. You can also place one or two bay leaves inside jars of flour or cereal to protect them from moths that lay their eggs in the seeds.
Bay leaves to deodorize the home
Bay leaves are effective in combating bad odors in the house or cooking odors. Simply put a few bay leaves in a pot of water and boil the mixture for 15 minutes. Diffuse this scented vapor in all the rooms of the house to deodorize them. An effective tip for diffusing a very pleasant, soft and subtle scent.
How to use salt and bay leaves together?
To effectively repel pests from the house, it is advisable to use these two condiments together. Mix a little coarse salt with a bay leaf in a bowl of water. The smell released by this mixture will serve as a natural insect repellent. You can also soak cotton balls in this solution and place them on the windowsills to be able to air your house without fear of an invasion of flying insects.
In conclusion, thanks to these two ingredients, you can not only repel insects from your house, eliminate bad odors, but also maintain your laundry.