Multi-Purpose Foods: Surprising Non-Edible Uses for Foods and Drinks

These favorite foods, drinks, and ingredients aren't your standard one-trick ponies. Find out how some people claim to use them outside the kitchen (or, perhaps, on the kitchen floor) to clean, deodorize, decorate, and so much more!

Uses: Acne remedy, skin soother, deodorizer

Use this breakfast staple to keep you healthy inside and out. Oatmeal is a favored home remedy to treat acne and soothe iritated skin. Plus, you can use it to neutralize odors (place an open container of oatmeal in the fridge).

Oatmeal is great for eating, too. Check out these fabulous recipes:
Overnight Oatmeal
Banana-Oatmeal Pancakes with Maple-Rum Syrup

Use: Tarnish remover

Give your copper and brass fixtures, pots, and pans a ketchup cleaning. The condiment can help remove tarnish. Dab some onto a soft cloth and gently rub. Then rinse with warm water.

Are you a fan of ketchup on your food? Check out these homemade ketchup recipes. Plus, get more eco-friendly kitchen cleaning tips.

Uses: Calm rashes and stings, freshen laundry, preserve flowers, repel insects, shine hair, remove mold, ease a toothache

Is there anything vodka can't do? The liquor is useful in the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, and even outdoors. To find out how to use vodka for all of its surprising non-drinking uses, check out these explanations and instructions.

Save some vodka for the drinks. Check out these vodka mixed drinks.

Use: Car fuel

When it's time to fuel up, do you head to the local gas station or restaurant? With some modifications, used vegetable oil can power diesel engines.

Use: Deodorizer

It's a familiar scenario: You walk into the kitchen and your nose crinkles. There's a less-than-pleasant smell. You check the garbage. Already emptied. That leaves one culprit: the garbage disposal. Banish the stink with a little help from the fruits in your fridge. Drop citrus peels down the disposal and run it.

Reward yourself for "cleaning" the disposal. Enjoy a citrusy dessert! Try one of these luscious lemon desserts.

Uses: Lubricant

Got a pesky zipper that just won't budge? How about some squeaky doors? Attack those problems with olive oil: apply the cooking oil to the teeth of the zipper and the door hinges. Plus, check out more surprising uses for olive oil.

Use: Snow/Ice Melter

When a major snowstorn threatened the East coast in early 2011, one New Jersey county sprayed a unique substance on sidewalks before the snow started piling up: a mixture resembling pickle juice. The briny liquid acts like salt, melting ice and snow. Test the theory: Next time your steps are snowy or icy and you're out of sidewalk salt, head to fridge, finish up the pickles, and dump the liquid outside.

Which pickles should you eat before you make use of the brine? Try one of these top-rated small-batch pickle brands.

Use: Stop a bleed

When a bleeding cut just won't clot, some people report using cayenne pepper to help. Supposedly by sprinkling the spice on the cut, it helps advance the clotting process.

These great recipes get help in the flavor department thanks to cayenne:
Spicy Southern-Fried Chicken
Cocoa, Chili, and Vanilla Spiced Nuts

Uses: Shine floors, dissolve adhesive bonds

Does your wood floor look a little dull? Here's a trick: mix nine parts warm water with one part white vinegar, then wipe down the floors. Once the floors are shiny, you can attack the annoying sticky residue left behind on products after a label is removed next. A bit of vinegar will act as a solvent to help you remove the adhesive.

Get more eco-friendly kitchen cleaning tips.

Use: Hair dye

For the high school girl who wants to change her look without a long-term committment (or spending lots of her hard-earned babysitting money), Kool-Aid is more than just a sweet drink. A simple mix of Kool-Aid powder, water, and conditioner becomes a cheap at-home hair dye. Want to give it a try? Check out these directions posted on wikihow.com.

Kool-Aid has been around since 1920. Find out more about the history of Kool-Aid. Plus, get the real story behind the drink's famous mascot: Kool-Aid Man.

Use: Clean cast-iron pan, remove red wine stains

Perhaps a new low-sodium diet has left you with a surplus of salt. It won't go to waste. To clean a cast-iron pan, add 2 tablespoons of oil and place on medium heat. Once the pan is heated, pour in 3 tablespoons of salt. Next, using a tong to hold a paper towel, scour until clean. Then, rinse and coat with vegetable oil to cure.

If you spilled some red wine on clothing, pull out the salt and try this removal technique from Real Simple: Cover the stain with salt. Let it sit for a few minutes, then slowly pour boiling water onto the stained area from roughly six inches above it. Let the clothing sit out until the stain is gone.

Trying to reduce salt in your diet? Check out these low-sodium cooking tips.

Use: Christmas tree decoration

Throughout history, Christmas trees around the world have been decorated with different foods — nuts, fruits, gingerbread. The popcorn garland is an American tradition that still exists. To assemble: make a batch of popcorn; thread a needle; string popcorn by piercing the center of each piece until you have a string long enough to garland your tree; tie the end of the string and cut it from the spool; hang the garland!

We don't recommend preparing these wonderful kernels for the tree. They'll never make it to the string once the decorators get a taste!
Lemon-Parm Popcorn
Popcorn with Dried Oregano and Lemon

Use: Tile cleaner

Attack the tile in your kitchen by scrubbing it with a mixture of two gallons of water and a half a cup of baking soda. It's an easy, eco-friendly way to clean tile.

Baking soda is great for, well, baking! Put it to use in these sweet recipes:
Lemon-Blackberry Cake
Honeycombs

Use: Flower preserver

When they want to help their tropical flowers last, some florists turn to cooking spray. A light spray on each bloom can help prevent the flower from drying out.

Use: Hide scratches

Have a shallow scratch in your hardwood floor? Try this quick fix from Real Simple: Rub shelled walnuts into the scratch. The oils from the shell will help hide the scratch.

When the floor is fixed, crack open the nuts to use in these tempting dishes:
Arugula, Potato, and Green-Bean Salad with Creamy Walnut Dressing
Martha Stewart's Walnut Cookies