I used to think a tea bag was done the second it left my mug, but I’ve learned that these little pouches actually have a whole second life around the house.
If you spend too much time in the sun and end up with a painful burn, a used black tea bag is one of the best ways to cool things down. The tannic acid in the tea helps take the sting away almost immediately. You just rinse the used bag in cold water and press it right onto the red skin.
It works just as well for those minor burns you get while cooking dinner. Instead of reaching for a chemical spray, a cold, damp tea bag can stop the throbbing and help the skin start healing faster. It’s a cheap, natural fix that I now keep handy in the kitchen whenever I’m using the stove.
Most of us deal with those mornings where we wake up looking exhausted with dark circles under our eyes. I started keeping my used black tea bags in a small container in the fridge just for this reason.
Putting the chilled bags over your eyes for about ten minutes uses the natural tannins to pull out the puffiness and make you look refreshed. It’s a lot cheaper than those high-end eye creams that usually don’t work anyway. Another effective use is for treating warts, especially with green tea.
Because green tea is full of antioxidants and has antiviral properties, holding a cooled bag on a wart for fifteen minutes twice a day can actually help stop it from growing. It’s one of those old-school home remedies that sounds strange until you actually see it work for yourself.
When it comes to cleaning, I hate using harsh chemicals around my food, and that’s where tea bags come in surprisingly handy. If you’ve got a pan with stubborn grease that just won’t budge, try throwing a few used tea bags into the soaking water.
The tea helps break down the fat and grime, which makes scrubbing a whole lot easier and leaves the kitchen smelling fresh instead of like soap and oil. You can even take that cleaning power outside to your garden.
Brewed black tea can actually act as a natural weed killer if you apply it directly to those annoying plants popping up between your patio stones. It’s a much safer way to keep the yard looking tidy without worrying about toxic sprays getting into the soil or affecting your pets.
Finally, once the tea bags have done their work in the kitchen or on your skin, they still have one more job left in the dirt. You can bury used bags near the roots of your favorite plants, especially roses and ferns, to give them a boost of nutrients.
The organic material helps the soil hold onto moisture and feeds the good bacteria that help your garden thrive. If you don’t want to bury them, you can just toss them straight into the compost pile, as long as the bags are made of natural fibers.
It’s a small change in your routine, but it’s a great way to reduce waste and get the most out of something you already paid for. Next time you finish a cup, don’t just dump the bag in the trash; save it for one of these tricks and see how much easier it makes your daily life.
