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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In the mornings I drink a hot cup of organic green tea with fresh lemon juice.
Lemon juice can also be used for highlighting hair, after a day out in the sun. So I've read.
It can also be used as a fruit and veggie wash. Mix 1 tblsp of lemon juice and 2 tblsp of vinegar to 1 cup of water in a spray bottle. Just spray and rinse
In the morning, I drink a glass of warm of water and and I add half a lemon and a teaspoon of honey. That gives me the best energy and helps with digestion as well
I make a paste from lemon juice and bakinf soda, I srub down my white counter tops. It gets all the stain off! I have a recipe for a shower to shower spray.... it calls for lemon oil, vinager and water but I'm going to try using the juice instead ( much less expensive). Does any one know if I can put the lemon peels in the vinager and let it sit a few days and that will make the essencial oil?
Lemon water is helping me with acid reflux. It Cleans my stomach and neutralizes acid.
How can lemom juice neutralize your stomach... it is acidic like stomach acid is acidic.....??
no because the lower the pH, the greater the acidic, and pH of hydrochloric acid is 1.5 ( i think) which is more acidic. so when lemon is added to water and since water is neutral, it becomes less acidic, so when you drink a mixture of water and lemon, it neutralizes the stomach acid.
Lemons aren't acidic they are alkaline. So the alkalinity cancels out and balances stomach acid.
Thank-you for your fabulous post as many of us suffer with acid reflux. I am definitely going to try this.
Read what the FDA allows manufacturers to put in processed foods, then wonder why so many people have acid reflux and other digestive and health problems.
Hi, i was experimenting on my lemon scraps, scraped the rind and boil everything in water for 10 mins, you will smell the freshness in the house. When it cools down, mash the lemons and strain them to its pulp, pour the juice into a stinky drain and miracle works. No more stinky odor coming out of it.
