Are you a tea-lover and can’t do without your two to three mugs a day, to keep you going? And the result – lots of tea bags in the trash? The next time you’re about to trash that tea-bag, stop yourself. A used tea bag can be put to many creative uses. Let’s discover 20 different ways to repurpose used tea-bags.
1. Add Flavor To Your Tea
If you like a stronger brew, adding a few of your used tea bags to the next cup you brew can do the trick. The used tea will add a bit more flavor to your tea. This can be done with teas of any variety except white teas, which are too fragile to be used again.
2. Give Your Pasta A New Flavor
A used tea bag can be used to lend flavor to many other foods. The next time you’re trying to boil some pasta, try hanging used tea bags into the pot that you’re using to boil water and see the water acquiring flavors from the teabags. Remove the teabags before adding the pasta, or rice and get your pasta or rice to have a uniquely different acquired flavor. A few combinations to try could be chamomile tea with rice, green tea with pasta or cinnamon tea with oatmeal.
3. Use It In Your Garden
Boil used tea bags and use the weak brew to water your plants to protect them from fungal infections. You can open the tea bags and mix the damp leaves with the top layer of soil to fertilize it and to keep garden pests away. Used tea can also be used with your compost to add more nutrients for the plants. You may need to take out the metal staples from the tea bags before you do this.
4. Keep Your Home Odor-Free
Used tea is a great odor-remover. It can be mixed with your kitty’s litter to keep it from spreading odors. It can also be used inside the refrigerator to keep your refrigerator smelling fresh. Lining trash bins with used tea bags at the bottom helps to keep them from smelling bad.
5. Concoct Your Own Air Freshener
You can fashion your own DIY air fresheners by adding a few drops of essential oil to dry and used tea bags. These can be used in your home, office or in your car. Since tea bags come with a string, it is easy to hang them anywhere. When the scent wears off they can be refreshed by adding a few drops of the essential oil again. Tea bags also help remove odors from their surroundings and make perfect odor removers and air fresheners.
6. Clean Dirty Dishes
Soaking used dishes and pans in warm water with a couple of used teabags thrown in, will help loosen the grease and food particles off the surface and make washing easier and pain-free.
7. Make Your Own Hand Scrub
Some foods like garlic, onions and fish have a strong odor that tends to stick to your hands after you handle them. You can use a pre-brewed tea bag to scrub these scents off your hands.
8. Nourish Your Feet
You can use pre-brewed tea bags and add them to some warm water and soak your feet in it to get rid of foot odors, soften calluses and nourish your skin.
9. Soothe Irritated Skin
Used tea bags can help heal minor skin irritations and sooth the skin. They can be applied over the eyes to ease discomfort from tired eyes. They can also help with sunburn to reduce inflammation and redness. They can also be applied over stings and bites to draw out the toxins and infections and reduce the pain.
10. Draw Out Infections
Warm and moist pre-used teabags can be used on minor skin infections like cold sores, pinkeye, canker sores etc. to draw out the infection and speed up the healing.
11. Use It To Condition Your Mane
Use pre-brewed tea bags to make a weak brew and use it to give your hair a rinse with it after shampooing your hair. It will condition your hair and give it a brilliant shine.
12. Add Shine To Wooden Surfaces
You can use tea brewed from used teabags and use the liquid to give wooden surfaces a shine and a polished appearance.
13. Make Your Own Glass Cleaner
You can re-brew used tea bags and use the weak liquid to spray onto glass surfaces to remove dirt, fingerprints and grime from it. Wipe clean with a lint-free cloth to have the surfaces shine like new.
14. Use It For Dyeing Paper And Cloth
You can give white paper or cloth rustic beige, brown and orange hues by steeping used tea bags in water and using the brew to soak them in.
15. Use It On Smelly Shoes
Inserting a dry tea bag (used, of course) into your sneakers takes away any odors that the shoe may have. You can use this remedy to keep your shoes smelling fresh every time you wear them.
16. Treat Sore Gums
If you suffer from gum swelling and bleeding, you can use a used tea bag to bite on just as you would do with a gauze pad. The tea bag will help clot the blood and provide pain relief.
A Word Of Caution
Wet tea bags cannot be kept at room temperature for very long. If you want to keep them for a while, you will need to refrigerate them to keep them from getting spoiled. If you ever feel that there’s an odd odor emanating from your used tea bags, err on the side of caution, and toss them and before using fresh ones.
