Alternative Uses for Unused Toothpaste

Do you have an assortment of partially used toothpaste tubes in your bathroom? Or in the kids' bathroom? I know I found five... FIVE... partially used tubes in my kids' bathroom last week. All are perfectly acceptable toothpaste tubes. Nevertheless, when a new tube is brought into our home, it is used and the already opened one just remains in the dental hygiene drawer.

I am not throwing these away... so what can I do with them?

Alternative uses for toothpaste- I love to cook

Sometimes I find a recipe in a magazine that I want to try... and then I place it in my recipe folder or... somewhere... and it becomes lost. Now I am going to use a bit of toothpaste like sticky glue: dap the corners only and place it against the inside of my kitchen cabinet. It will stick long enough for me to try out that recipe and then, should I decide to keep it, place it in my recipe folder.

Alternative uses for toothpaste- familiar help

My son stated he will use the toothpaste to remove scratches from all our DVDs and CDs. He volunteered! I am excited about this.

Alternative uses for toothpaste- money saver

Do you know what you spend a year on your children's shoes? They grow so fast and go through them even quicker. My sister tells me she has to purchase new shoes for her daughter when the white is no longer a pretty white... my niece does not like to wear stained shoes... and yet she is always the one outside in the dirt. A money saver for my sister (who told me she had several half used toothpaste tubes in her bathrooms as well) is for my niece to spiffy up her own sneakers. The sodium carbonate peroxide in the toothpaste will act as a bleaching agent and help whiten stains.

Alternative uses for toothpaste- odor remover

Do you cook with onions? I do, a lot. By rubbing a dime size drop of toothpaste in the palm of my hands and then washing them... the onion smell or even fish smell ( my friend told me this) is gone.

Alternative uses for toothpaste- send a letter

Have you any dried out stamps in your wallet? By the same principle as in my first tip... using the toothpaste as an adhesive, you can do the same with the dried out stamp. Simple spread a thin layer of toothpaste over the back of the stamp and then press onto the envelope. Send a letter to your mom with this little trick, I am and she will love it.

Waste not, want not is one of her favorite mantras.

Alternative uses for toothpaste- stain remover

I am not talking about sneakers or even clothes here. I am not talking about stains on the walls (though toothpaste can help erase crayon marks). I am talking about fingernail stains. Sometimes, that nail polish remover can leave behind a stain... or from a leaky pen or marker or Sharpie. Not to mention dirt can stain fingernails. Take a smidgeon of toothpaste, and scrub each finger nail with an old toothbrush. (Come on, with five tubes of partially uses toothpaste in my home, I also found old toothbrushes.) Scrub away and soon the discoloration will vanish.

I am still spring cleaning... so there is no telling what my next alternative use article will be about... stay tuned.