Find out how to use lemons around the house.
Using Lemons to Clean, Freshen, and More!
Lemons are good for more than just adding flavor to recipes: They’re also very useful around the house! Here are some of the best uses for lemons and lemon juice.
Household Uses for Lemons
For Health
- For a sore throat or bad breath, gargle with some lemon juice.
- After a shampoo, rinse your hair with lemon juice to make it shine. Mix the strained juice of a lemon in an eight-ounce glass of warm water.
- Suck on a lemon to settle an upset stomach.
In the Kitchen
- Clean discolored utensils with a cloth dipped in lemon juice. Rinse with warm water.
- Toss used lemons into your garbage disposal to help keep it clean and smelling fresh.
- Use one part lemon juice and two parts salt to scour chinaware to its original luster.
- Rub kitchen and bathroom faucets with lemon peel. Wash and dry with a soft cloth to shine and remove spots.
- Fresh lemon juice in rinse water removes soap film from the interiors of ovens and refrigerators.
- Fish or onion odor on your hands can be removed by rubbing them with fresh lemons.
- To get odors out of wooden rolling pins, bowls, or cutting boards, rub with a piece of lemon. Don’t rinse: The wood will absorb the lemon juice.
- Clean copper pots by cutting a lemon in half and rubbing the cut side with salt until the salt sticks. Rub the lemon onto the metal, rinse with hot water, and polish dry.
Outdoors
- Save lemon and orange rinds to deter squirrels and cats from digging in the garden. Store rinds in the freezer during the winter, and then bury them just under the surface of the garden periodically throughout the spring and summer.
- A few drops of lemon juice in outdoor house paint will keep insects away while you are painting and until the paint dries.
- Mix one tablespoon of lemon juice with two tablespoons of salt to make a rust-removing scrub.
Miscellaneous Uses
- Remove scratches on furniture by mixing equal parts of lemon juice and salad oil and rubbing it on the scratches with a soft cloth.
- To make furniture polish, mix one part lemon juice and two parts olive oil.
- To clean the surface of white marble or ivory (such as piano keys), rub with half a lemon, or make a lemon juice and salt paste. Wipe with a clean, wet cloth.
- To renew hardened paintbrushes, dip them into boiling lemon juice. Lower the heat and leave the brush for 15 minutes, then wash it in soapy water.
- To remove dried paint from glass, apply hot lemon juice with a soft cloth. Leave until nearly dry, and then wipe off.
- Create your own air freshener: Slice some lemons, cover with water, and let simmer in a pot for about an hour. (This will also clean your aluminum pots!)
- Before you start to vacuum, put a few drops of lemon juice in the dust bag. It will make the house smell fresh.
- Get grimy cotton socks white again by boiling them in water with a slice of lemon.
Want to grow your own lemons? Check out our Citrus Fruit Growing Guide for planting, growing, and harvesting advice.
What are some of your favorite lemon hints and tips? Post Below!
Catherine Boeckmann
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Hello there lemons are wonderful deodorisers, as one gets older under arms skin darkens slightly, after showering a cover of lemon juice not only smells good but it bleaches out dark patches. I live in the english countryside and in spring I surround the outside of my house with lemon juice, I have not seen an ant in my home for years. Sue.
Love to read all the uses of lemons.
Very helpful list!
But paint? Which paint? Oil-based? Latex? That's important.
This is great information. All of my coffee pots have turned completely brown.
I have never tried lemon but I think it will work.
Thank you
At least once a month, I run a little bit of bleach water thru my coffee maker then a pot of regular water and it works wonderful. No funny after taste either
I guess when you have your own lemon trees it's different.
To me, using citrus pulp for anything other than yummy purposes is, oh, such a waste. But I do keep the peels, align them on paper until they dry to a crunch, then store them in cardboard box(es). The ones I do not use to make "tea", I use as dish-detergent-sponges: soak them in the pots while the pots need soaking, then use them as disposable dish sponges. Usually they do the job. If they can't, I add baking soda like Kelster5. Next time I'll try salt like hsmom2004. When they're used up as dish-rags, they go to clean the garbage disposal. Haven't bought a dish sponge or detergent in over three years. My hands look and smell fresh, not like the onion and garlic I clean and chop every day. My Kitchen smells like a citrus orchard. I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner, and how come not everyone does this since stone age?? Good to meet you :)
I've heard it works good on fleas too....I tried it once....used some lemon juice and water in a spray bottle and sprayed it on the area and no more fleas...
In place of real lemons or juice, I use dry, unsweetened lemonade powder for just about EVERYTHING. I clean food odors from my hands, chopping boards, etc. I make lemon meringue pie with it-add to taste to cooked vanilla pudding (yours or store-bought. Make lemon jelly, lemon cookies-use your imagination! Put just a touch of it in your cake icing. Soak your fish in it before cooking. Sooo inexpensive, and convenient! If you haven't already done all this, you're gonna LOVE me!
wonderful in place of over the counter deodorants!
It's true!! I haven't used deodorant in over six months since switching to lemon juice. Wayyyy better, keeps me and my clothing fresh!!
