Rice is a staple, readily available food eaten the world over. In fact, there probably aren’t many kitchen cupboards that don’t house a couple of bags of this extremely useful basic food. Rice isn’t just useful for cooking however, it has a number of fantastic properties that make it a fantastic problem solver around your home. Here are 14 ways you can use rice to solve common issues efficiently, and cheaply.
1. Stop Tools from Rusting
Rust happens due to metals being exposed to the moisture in oxygen over a long period of time. As we know, however, rice is great at soaking up spare water, so adding a few handfuls to your toolbox can keep your spanners and hammers dry and rust-free for longer.
2. Save Wet Electronics
If your phone, tablet or other small electronic device gets a bit wet – don’t panic. Remove the battery if possible, and then place all wet pieces of the device in a bowl of rice and leave it over night. The ability of rice to soak up excess moisture, as long as the accident wasn’t catastrophic, should be enough to save your precious electronic piece!
3. Clean Glass Bottles and Vases
This is a really simple trick that a lot of people don’t think about, despite it solving a common issue that we all have – cleaning bottles and vases with narrow openings. How do you get a cloth, scrubber or your hand inside to scrub away grime? Well, rice might well be the solution you have been looking for! Pour a handful of dry rice in to the vase or bottle, and swill it around in slightly soapy water for a few minutes. That will remove the muck and grime so you can simply pour it out.
4. Soothe Your Muscles
If you have some aches and pains from a hard day on your feet, or even a more serious muscle strain, then harness the power of rice to ease your discomfort. Simply fill a clean sock with rice, while being careful to leave enough room for the rice to move around and contort to your body shape. Tie the end of the sock with string, microwave it for one minute (you can pop it back in for longer if you need it hotter) and voila, your hot compress is ready! This works so well because rice is great at maintaining heat.
5. Check if Oil Is Hot Enough
If you want to check whether your oil is hot enough before you use it for frying then just drop a few grains of rice into it. If the rice pops up to the surface and starts to cook, then you can be sure that your oil is good to go. This is actually a much more reliable gauge than a deep fry thermometer.
6. Ripen Fruit Quickly
Have you brought some fruit that’s taking its time to ripen, but you want to eat it today? Speed up ripening time by popping the fruit in a container with a few handfuls of rice. This trick can work wonders really quickly, so be sure to check the container regularly to ensure the fruit doesn’t over-ripen.
7. Clean Your Coffee and Spice Grinders
Spice and particularly coffee grinders have a horrible habit of picking up plenty of dirt, grease and dust over time. Rice, however, rises to the rescue once more, because if you run half a cup through the grinder, it will remove any grimy build ups. You will need to grind the rice until it is pulverized – and as an added bonus it will help sharpen the edges of the blades too.
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