Mouthwash Re-purposed

03 April 2008
Did you know mouthwash can be used for lots of things? I had a lot of bottles of wintergreen flavored mouthwash that no one would use, so I did some research and found some nifty uses for it. These are things I have personally tried so far.

If you have a bed wetter in your family, mouthwash can come in handy! I sprayed it on a wet mattress after a night time accident, then blotted with paper towels and re misted. Instead of a urine smell, there was a nice clean scent. I also tried a capful in a load of clothes, including the wet pajamas, and it worked beautifully. I realize you would not want to use it as a laundry additive very often as it wouldn't be cost effective, but I was out of vinegar. Vinegar is my solution of choice for both mattress and laundry disasters. So, in a pinch I know this will work great!

You can also clean your toilet with it. I was skeptical when I first read this, but after trying it I'm a believer. After all, it's designed to kill germs. I actually used it to clean our entire bathroom. As a cleaner I have no complaints, I just do wonder if it kills all the germs that lurk in a bathroom. So, although everything looked clean, I went back over it with actual bathroom cleaner. Again, this would be good if you were out of cleaner.

The last thing I tried was mopping the kitchen floor. To be honest, my floor has never been this clean. It looks beautiful and the kitchen smells great!

So, I had fun experimenting. Although I have since restocked my vinegar supply, I think I'll stash a bottle in the laundry room for emergencies. The bottle I used to experiment is under the sink waiting for the next mopping day. I think there are lots of other things you could use mouthwash for, I just haven't gotten around to trying them yet. As I said before, it is definitely not the most cost effective thing to use as a multipurpose cleaner, but when you have about 10 bottles everyone hates one must get creative.


**Note: I realize that I could have just given these bottles of mouthwash away, but I had a good reason not to. Our family dentist suggested we stop using Crest Pro Health, as it was causing brown spots on some patients' teeth. I did not feel that I should pass along a product that was causing problems, so this is why I decided to "re purpose" the mouthwash.

Edited for clarification. Our dentist does recommend using mouthwash, he likes Listerene, he just advises against this specific type. He did actually suggest using the Night Time Crest Pro Health, so I guess it's not all bad. I also looked this up on the internet and found quite a bit of info. For more information, I suggest checking here and here.

1 comment:

Mom2fur said...

If it was a few days ago, I'd expect to see "April Fool's" at the end of this, LOL! I'd be a little iffy about a mouthwash you can use to clean your toilet, even if my dentist didn't say it caused brown spots on teeth.
Then again, I've used shampoo to get grease stains out of clothes!