These Unconventional Aluminum Foil Hacks Will Save You Time And Money

Aluminum is one of the most plentiful metals on the planet, ranking third on the list of the Earth’s most abundant elements, after oxygen and silicon. No wonder people started using it by the 5th century, although they didn’t know much about it at the time.

Putting historical facts aside, aluminum has a wide range of uses. You might have grown up thinking aluminum foil could only be used in the kitchen to cover up leftovers, but the truth is that this miracle foil can be used in tons of additional and practical ways.

Now, this isn’t your typical article on basic “hacks” for a product. Rather, this is a full-blown list of all the things you can do with this ultra-handy staple even outside of the kitchen. So without further ado, be prepare to be impressed and excited, as you learn about the many (albeit some unconventional) ways that aluminum foil can make your life easier, all while saving you a boatload of money…

Preserve Your Bananas

All fruit faces the threat of exposure to some type of elemental or pathogenic factor that can make it go bad quickly. Bananas are one fruit that almost never suffers from an attack by insects. However, this doesn’t mean your bananas are totally safe. You know all too well the certain doom of decay. As soon as you buy bananas, it’s a fast journey towards black.

No one wants to eat bananas once they’ve started to oxidize and break down. Aluminum, however, might just save you from gooey bananas. Aluminum has the ability to slow down the banana’s process of decay by blocking exposure to the air. Simply wrap the stem area that holds the individual bananas together. This will allow you to maintain your banana bunch for several more days, or even a week.

Shed Some Light On Your Cabinets

Do you have a cabinet with deep shelves? While great for providing maximum storage space, chances are that not a lot of light is going to reach the back, leaving you with some dark corners. Deep, dark corners that can attract some unwanted guests, like roaches and other creepy crawlies that you don’t want in your home. Is that a pan you’re grabbing, or is it something else?

But, what can you do about it? That’s just how those kinds of shelves were made. Well, not so fast. If you line your shelves with aluminum foil – shiny side up – you could eliminate those dark corners once and for all. Aluminum is shiny and reflective, so it’ll bounce light into every corner and eliminate the shadows, making it less likely that you’ll be an unwitting host to bugs.

Custom Cookie Molds

Everyone can relate to the joy of making cookies, and decorating them in the company of loved ones is the high point of many people’s holidays. Perhaps the most fun part of the process is getting to choose what shapes you cut your cookies into.

Relying on packages of premade cookie-cutter shapes can get boring. It’s way more fun to make any shape you could possibly want. With aluminum foil, this is made very easy. All you need to do is fold strips of foil, making them a bit stronger, but still able to be bent into any shape or form you could possibly dream of.

Ice Cream Management

Children are often very messy eaters. Whenever you give a kid food that is able to run or drip, you always run the risk of coming back to them covered in it. Ice cream is perhaps the most common example of this. Give them a cone of soft serve and you’ll soon find it’s dripped all over their shirt and pants. If only there were a way to catch the drips before they fall.

Well, actually, there is. Using aluminum foil, wrap a makeshift cone over the actual cone. This creates a barrier between the child’s hand and the cone. This way, when the ice cream melts, the liquid seeps into the aluminum cone rather than falling on them. Now your kid can be as messy as they want without the risk of completely ruining their clothing.

Radiator Improved

On a cold day, sometimes all you want to do is curl up next to the radiator. However, sometimes the heat emitted from your simple radiator just isn’t enough to keep you warm. Upgrading to a stronger machine is one option, but this can hike up gas and electric bills. Rather than spending more money to get warm, you could just use some aluminum foil.

Get some pieces of cardboard and cover them completely with aluminum foil. Place these around the radiator, and they’ll help to reflect the heat. This will extend it to the whole room, and multiply the strength of the heat itself. Doing this simple hack will help improve the efficiency of the radiator; get the room warmer faster; and make you more comfortable in the process.

Dirty Iron

Imagine you need to iron something at the last minute, and notice that your iron is covered in dirt. If you use it as it is, you’ll simply ruin your clothing, making it necessary to wash it again. This situation is tricky, especially when you’re in a hurry. Luckily, once again, aluminum foil comes to the rescue, to save your clothes from dirt and damage.

Simply take a piece of aluminum foil and roll it up into a ball. Scrub this foil ball all over the surface of the iron; the foil with help to remove all of the dirt from the surface. The only downside is you may scratch up the surface of your iron a little bit. But it’s better than using an iron that’s going to ruin your clothes.

Scratch-less Moving

Large pieces of furniture are always a struggle when they need to be moved. Besides the fact that they’re heavy, the bigger concern is how easy it can be to scratch up the floor if you’re not careful. If you don’t have someone to help you carry it, you’ll be forced to drag the furniture across the floor, which is a recipe for disaster.

What should you do? Instead of dragging the furniture directly across the bare unprotected floor, place pieces of aluminum foil under each leg. This will help to create a buffer between the furniture and floor, and will limit the possibility of scratching. Your furniture will get moved to where you want it, and your floor will be saved in the process.

Spotty Wi-Fi

When you have lots of work to do on the computer, nothing is more frustrating than a poor Wi-Fi connection. The sudden loss of signal leads to rebooting your computer, restarting the router, trying to figure out what cables connect to the box, and so on. And, you might find that all of the experimenting still doesn’t help. You may find that you simply have weak signal.

You might be surprised to find out that aluminum foil can often help to strengthen the Wi-Fi connection. Simply construct a folded card flap, and cover it completely with foil. Place this little gadget directly in front of the router. The aluminum foil will help to strengthen the signal emitted from the box, and allow it to reach farther.

Glue Gun Cleaner

Glue guns can be a very useful tool for a variety of projects, including arts and crafts, and repairing small things. However, there are some issues which can arise with a glue gun when using it. Sometimes, after using the gun, a layer of glue will be deposited on the tip, building up over time to create a thick film.

This can make it difficult to use the glue gun over time, as the deposits will eventually cover the opening. Aluminum foil can help to clean up the surface to make it easier to use. Simply ball up a piece of foil, and use it as a scrubber. It’ll help to scrape away all of the extra glue remnants, restoring your glue gun to its proper function.

Reseal Your Plastic Bags

You know how your chips never quite taste fresh again once you’ve opened the bag? Sure, you can use a “chip clip” to hold the bag closed, but air still gets in, causing your chips to get stale and a little bit chewy faster than you might be able to eat them. No one wants chewy chips with their salsa and guacamole.

A stale chip – or any plastic – bag situation can be easily fixed with an iron and a strip of aluminum foil; no fancy (and expensive) resealing machines needed. All you need to do is tear off a strip of aluminum foil, and fold it over the open end of your bag. Then, take your iron and press it over the top of the foil. The heat from the iron will melt the bag back together and your chips will stay crispy and fresh until you’re ready to use them again.

Paint Protector

When you are painting a room, you always need to protect some areas of the room from being painted, such as the metal accessories on the door frames, and light switches. Tape is generally the go-to option for protecting these areas. However, in the more curvy parts of the room, tape can get a little tricky to work with. For instance, trying to cover a door knob with tape might prove difficult, requiring several pieces to make a rounded shape.

Instead, you could simply make your own shape around the doorknob using aluminum foil. Because the foil is so thin and flexible, and can be formed into pretty much any shape you want, it’ll make protecting your door knobs or locks much easier. Once the paint has dried, simply remove the foil and no residue will be left.

Barbecue Made Easy

It’s always a fun time to get the family together and have a barbecue. However, what isn’t so fun is the cleanup that comes after everyone leaves. While barbecue is delicious, it’s also very messy. The grease that drips during the cooking process can create a thick film around the inside of the grill. Cleaning the grill can take hours, depending on what was made. 

However, creating a protective barrier within the grill before you start cooking can significantly reduce the need for cleanup. Simply layer a few pieces of aluminum foil on the grill so that the excess grease isn’t able to drip onto the charcoal and make a mess. After you finish grilling, you can even use the same foil with some soap and water to clean up the rack.

Prevent Aliens From Reading Your Mind

This is for those of us who are a little more in touch with the paranormal world. Do you know all those movies that show how aliens can come to Earth and read our minds? Well, there are actually people who wear foil to protect themselves from such dangers. Yes, this is a real thing.

Now, considering how much you probably loved these aluminum foil hacks, let’s move on to another super handy household staple that has tons of hidden uses. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to show you all the plastic wrap hacks you’ve probably never thought of. Word of caution – don’t let your kiddos get a hold of plastic wrap…

Restore The Shine To Your Mirror

Mirrors have long been a staple in interior design. They can add a feeling of luxury to just about any room. But, their purpose is just as practical as it is decorative. A good mirror can reflect some much needed light into a dark space, and even add the illusion of more depth to smaller rooms. Over time, though, you might notice the shine starting to wear off, and see scratches start to appear.

Don’t fret, though; you can easily restore the shine to your mirror with some aluminum foil and tape. Gently remove your mirror from its frame and locate the scratch on the back. Cut a piece of aluminum foil that’s a little bit larger than the scratch, tape it in place, and return the mirror to the frame. It might not be as shiny as before, but it sure is a lot more cost effective than re-silvering your mirror.

Protect Your Plants

In a beautiful garden, one of the biggest threats to your plant life is various insects that eat at the plant material, and increase the rate of decay. There are many steps you can take to try to limit this, such as mulching around your plants. However, aluminum foil can provide additional support against critters, and can enhance the benefits of the mulching.

Aluminum has the ability to inhibit various pathogens, including insects and non-beneficial bacteria. An additional benefit, as has been described before, is that the foil will help to provide extra sunlight to your plants by reflecting the light toward them. Using aluminum foil, you can protect your plants and supply them with needed extra light all in one go.

Boost Your Phone

You know how some people use a DIY aluminum foil dish or pair of rabbit ears to amplify a weak Wi-Fi or cable signal? Well, there are some who think you can do the same thing with the Wi-Fi signal on your cell phone. Keep in mind that this isn’t verified, but testing it out for yourself won’t harm you or your phone.

This is probably one of the most straightforward hacks out there. Simply take a small piece of aluminum foil and form it around your phone over the Wi-Fi receptor. You’ll have to know where that is on your phone model, but a quick internet search can help you there. Who knows? Soon you might be streaming cat videos at lightning speed. Or, maybe nothing will happen.

Fireplace Clean-Up

Lighting a fire in your fireplace is such a cozy way to warm up on a winter evening. The only downside to this is that burning wood can get very messy. Lots of ash and soot build up during the fire and need to be cleaned out, so as to not build up more and more over time. Trying to sweep it up is tedious, and can brush some soot into the air, which isn’t ideal for your lungs.

Aluminum is able to withstand very high heat, and can make a simple, yet effective, floor along the bottom of the fireplace. All of the ash will collect right on the foil. After the fire has died, you can simply pick up the foil with all of the debris, and remove it from the room. As an added benefit, you can use this wood ash in the garden to increase potassium in the soil.

Patching Pants Without The Stick

Unfortunately, your favorite pair of jeans is bound to rip one day. Luckily for you, these days you can always fix those jeans right up with an iron-on patch. However, when ironing the patch on, things can go awry very quickly. It’s very easy to iron a patch right onto the ironing board, creating a sticky situation – literally.

However, just a small piece of foil can keep this from happening. Simply put a few pieces of aluminum foil under the opening in the jeans. This layer of foil will absorb the heat, and prevent sticking in unwanted areas. After the patch is ironed on, just take the foil out, and your jeans are ready for action.

A Plant Sun-Bed

If your plants are struggling to survive due to a lack of exposure to sunlight, you’ll have to figure out a solution quickly, or your plants probably won’t last very long. Of course, the best option would be to simply move the plant. However, this isn’t always possible, especially if the plant is in a large, heavy pot. Making a sun-bed for your plant could be the perfect solution to this issue.

Aluminum is a great reflector of light waves. Find a cardboard box and cut one of the four sides out. Cover what’s left with aluminum foil to create a makeshift reflector box. Place your reflector next to the pot, in a position that allows it to catch the light. This will focus more light toward the plant and boost its growth.

Fish Bait

Those of you who’ve gone fishing in the past may be familiar with the fact that fish tend to be attracted to bright lights. Instead of using bait to catch them, it’s possible to attract fish to your hook using only light. As mentioned in some of the other items on this list, aluminum has the ability to reflect light.

Now you’re starting to catch on. This concept has actually been used successfully by thousands of fishermen for many years. Simply wrap a small piece of aluminum foil securely around the hook. You’ll quickly find that the fish in the area are increasingly attracted to your line due to the reflection of light they see in the water.

Paint Cap

Those who paint will definitely be able to relate to the frustration that comes with losing the cap to your paint tube. This often leads to not being able to use the paint, as the opening dries up, clogging the top with a hard layer of paint. Many will try to cut the tube open to access the paint located inside, while some just give up and throw it away, wasting all of that unused paint.

If you lose a cap, aluminum foil can be a perfect solution to making a new one. Just fold up a piece and place it on the tube, pressing it tightly against the top to minimize as much oxidation as possible. If you do it well, the aluminum top will block off all access to the air, and the paint will stay perfectly good.

Custom Frying Pan

Everyone enjoys going camping with friends or family. For some, the most exciting part is the cooking, using minimal equipment and cooking right over an open fire. This way of cooking feels so primal and is a nice, kind of wild escape from everyday life. Some chose to lug a frying pan with them to put in the fire and cook various foods.

While this works, it’s not always ideal to put a pan right onto the coals, as you can burn the bottom. Also, it’s best to pack light when you’re trying to get away. Instead of bringing a pan, you can just pack some aluminum foil and make a makeshift pan on the spot. Stack a few pieces of foil together to strengthen it, then shape the foil into whatever shape you need for the pan, and place it right onto the coals.

Vinyl Tile Fixed

If you have vinyl tiles in your bathroom, you may have noticed that some of the tiles tend to pop out over time. Many people will automatically get a new one and replace it, thinking that the tile was faulty. In reality, often times the adhesive just dried up and cracked off, making the tile come out of its place. The tile itself, though, is perfectly fine.

Put the tile back in its place. Then, put a piece of aluminum foil over the tile and place a hot iron on top. The aluminum will help to radiate the heat down under the tile. This will warm the adhesive, allowing it to stick once again. This, in turn, will secure the tile back into its rightful spot on the wall.

Credit Card Protector

Nowadays, more and more people are getting credit cards that allow them to tap the card reader rather than swiping and entering a pin. These cards can be more convenient, but they also pose more risks for being ripped off. Because they are easy to scan, it’s much more accessible for a thief to tap it to their device and steal money right from the card.

Luckily, the mechanism that allows the card to be read by tapping is disrupted by aluminum. Therefore, you can wrap your card in aluminum foil to keep it safe by making a small pouch and putting the card inside of it. This way, no one will be able to sneak any unauthorized tappings, and you won’t find any surprise charges when you get your next bill.

Photography Hack

For a beginner photographer wanting to take their work to the next level, one of the main factors that separates their amateur work from professional photography is the quality of the lighting. There are, of course, higher-quality flashes, but these can get very expensive, setting you back quite a bit just for a little extra light. Don’t fear, aluminum is here.

Take a piece of cardboard and wrap it with a few layers of aluminum foil. This board can be used to focus all of the ambient light in an area toward the main subject of the photo. This provides more light, and helps to produce a beautiful image. Using material worth only a couple dollars, you can take your photography to the next level.

Matchsticks Kept Dry

Matches are a very critical tool in some cases. For instance, when you go camping, without the ability to start a fire, you may have a hard time keeping warm, and getting yourself a hot meal. In order for matches to be viable, it’s essential that they remain dry. If even a little moisture gets on them, they might not light.

Therefore, if you want to take an extra precaution, aluminum foil can help to preserve their quality. Take just a small piece of aluminum foil and wrap it around the head of the match sticks. You could also just wrap all of the match sticks together, then take one out of the foil at a time as needed. This extra protection will keep any surrounding moisture out of the matches.

Scissor Sharpener

Many of us can relate to trying to use scissors and ending up with creases in your paper rather than cuts. This is because scissors that have worn down and become blunt over time simply will not cut well. Continuing to use these will require much more time to get good cuts, and you may just wind up getting some new scissors. But you really don’t have to.

Take a piece of aluminum foil and just start cutting it with your scissors. Though it may look like nothing is happening, each cut is sharpening the scissors slightly. After just a short time, you’ll see that the scissors are making better cuts. This method might sound like it won’t do anything to help this situation, but try it out and you’ll be surprised by the results.

Soap Bar

Soap, of course, is used to help us stay clean. However, when a bar of soap is overused and sits in its own moisture for a considerable length of time, it can sometimes feel like the soap needs to be cleaned too. It’s ironic, but soap can get pretty nasty over time. Luckily, aluminum foil provides a very simple solution to this issue.

Simply place the soap on top of a small piece of foil after it’s been used. How it does this is a bit of a mystery, but the aluminum foil helps to dry the soap out, and keep it strong and in its shape, rather than starting to fall apart or get too flexible. The aluminum foil also absorbs some of the less than ideal chemicals that are contained within the soap. This helps to make it a bit gentler when used on the skin.

Jewelry Polisher

Over time, even the brightest jewelry has a tendency to become a bit dull in its appearance. When you’re looking to dress your best, you want your jewelry to be as shiny as possible. Unfortunately, polishing jewelry isn’t quite like cleaning clothing; you can’t just put it in the washing machine and expect it to come out good as new.

Instead, place your jewelry into soapy water along with a piece of aluminum foil. It may seem like nothing is happening at first, but pretty quickly, the shine will return to the jewelry. The aluminum creates a type of chemical reaction with the metals in the jewelry, restoring the original shine and brightness that’s been worn away over time.

Paintbrush Preserved

When it comes time to paint a room, or even an entire house, it’s not very likely that you’ll finish the entire job in one day. Often, you’ll have to take a break for the night and start again the next day, as the job can be quite tedious and time-consuming. Cleaning the brushes every time you take a break can get annoying, particularly when you know you’re going to pick up the brush again soon after.

Instead of washing the brushes over and over again, simply wrap a piece of aluminum foil around the brush and squeeze it tight, so that the air can’t get to the paint in the brush and dry it out. The aluminum also has other properties that will preserve the paint during the time that the brush isn’t being used.

Amplify Your Outdoor Solar Lights

Outdoor lighting is essential for enjoying your backyard, porch, or patio after the sun goes down. Solar lights are the perfect, energy efficient solution – plus, they’re 100% eco-friendly. But, sometimes the light from your solar lights just doesn’t quite reach far enough and can leave you stumbling around in the dark. So, how do you fix it? Enter (you guessed it) aluminum foil.

Just like using aluminum foil to reflect light into the dark corners of your shelves, it can also bounce and amplify the light coming from your outdoor lights. To create a wider and brighter beam of light, create an angled foil cone, topper, or ring to attach to your solar lights, and be amazed at just how much brighter your outdoor space will be.

Cake Embellishments

When decorating cakes, what really sets a professional quality cake apart from a regular homemade cake is the fancy embellishments, like flowers or animals. High-end cake shops obviously make these out of frosting, using very special techniques. However, even if you aren’t a practiced cake decorator, you can still achieve some beautiful embellishments. How, you may ask? Well, it’s easier than you might think.

Take pieces of aluminum foil and fold them into whatever shape you would like. Then simply cover the form with frosting, and it’s ready to place on the cake. It won’t be as professional as what you’d get from a cake shop, but it’ll still turn out beautifully. Just make sure that your guests don’t try to eat the foil.

Hair Curling Made Safer

Curling your hair is always a fun way to change up your look. However, using a curling iron can really damage your hair if it’s used excessively or improperly. They can even burn your hair right off, or burn your skin if you’re not careful. Curling irons can get super hot and can be quite dangerous, even for the highly practiced user.

Aluminum foil can help to conduct the heat, and protect you from applying too much heat in a concentrated area. Take pieces of aluminum foil and wrap them around the curling iron. In no time, you have a protective barrier on your iron to help lower the likelihood of burning yourself, or doing some serious damage to your hair.

Smartphone Stylus

A stylus is a nice gadget to use on a smartphone. They can, however, get quite expensive for some of the fancier types. If you utilize aluminum foil, you can save a lot on a stylus. Simply take a piece of aluminum foil and wrap it around a normal pen or stick of some sort, and you’ve got a perfectly usable stylus.

It’s a little surprising, but the aluminum is able to register with the touch screen. Most of the styluses used for touch screens are made of rubber in order to mimic the properties of human skin. But something about aluminum seems to do the trick as well. It isn’t that surprising really, as this material seems to have almost unlimited uses.

Cleaning Rusty Chrome

Chrome is a common metal used to give a nice shine, as well as added weather resistance, to various metal products. It’s commonly used on refrigerators to give a sleek, modern look to a kitchen. However, like many metals, chrome can lose some of its shine over time. After a while, the metal surface can start to look a bit dull.

Eventually, after this happens, the metal will often begin to rust. However, as we’ve seen in some of the other items on this list, aluminum foil is a helpful tool for stopping rust in its tracks. Simply take a piece of foil and form it into a ball. Use the ball to scrub away any rust from the metal. You’ll find that it dusts the rust off very easily.

Non-Stick Alternative

When frying foods like eggs, or a steak, in a stainless steel pan, the food tends to stick to the pan, making it hard to get it out, and leaving burnt bits at the bottom. Sometimes this leads to food that isn’t cooked how you want it. It also makes for a tricky clean-up, often requiring soaking before the burnt-on food will start to come loose from the pan.

But all of these problems disappear when aluminum foil comes into the picture. Simply line your pan with a layer of foil, wrapping the whole pan in it. This forms a quick and easy non-stick surface. After you’re finished cooking, you can just take the foil off and throw it away. This way, there’s absolutely no need to scrub the pan.

Oven Kept Clean

When cooking in an oven, it’s inevitable that, over time, some foods will spill onto the bottom. This spillage may seem benign at first, but over time food can build up and burn on the bottom, leaving a burnt smell and a dark, dirty appearance. By protecting the bottom of the oven, you can prevent any of this from happening, and help to maintain the beautiful appearance of a new oven.

It’s as simple as placing a few sheets of aluminum foil along the bottom inside of the oven. Anything that spills over will land on the foil rather than the base of the oven itself. Every once in awhile, when some food has accumulated on the foil, remove it and add new pieces. This way, the oven will stay in perfect condition forever.

Pie Crust Protection

When making a pie, it’s essential to keep the top of the crust in perfect condition after it’s been baked, in order to make the best possible presentation. When a pie is removed from the oven and simply left out, the crust can change shape or even start to fall apart if it’s not properly protected and cared for.

The solution might just be an aluminum foil wrap. Instead of leaving the pie exposed, cover your pie crust with aluminum foil after it’s been baked. This will help to keep the crust warm, and it’ll also assist in preserving the shape that you worked so hard to create in the first place.

Custom Cake Pan

When making a cake – for a child’s birthday party, for example – it can be super fun to make it in a customized shape. You can make a cake in the shape of a car, an animal, or even the child’s favorite cartoon character. Unfortunately, cake pans don’t come in every possible shape. So why not make your own? All you’ll need is a little bit of aluminum foil.

Form whatever shape you want with the foil. Put your custom mold inside of a normal cake pan in order to hold it. You will want to look at a picture of the desired shape while you’re constructing it in order to get it just right. The birthday boy or girl is sure to be absolutely amazed by how their cake comes out.

Freezing Leftovers

When you can’t finish a meal, and know you won’t eat it in the next few days, freezing leftovers can be a great option to save your food for a future date. You can freeze food in a number of different materials, but storing food in aluminum foil proves best for a few reasons. Aluminum helps to maintain the smell and flavor of the food very well. It sort of traps all of the aromatic compounds within the container.

Other methods like plastic freezer bags may allow some of the flavor to reduce over time, leading to a much less exciting meal when you eventually eat it. So next time you have some leftovers to save for later, be sure to whip out the trusty aluminum foil. You’ll thank yourself in the future when you take the food out, reheat it, and can hardly tell that it’d been stored.

Preserve Your Steel Wool

Steel wool is such a valuable tool for the kitchen. It can get any hardened gunk off of surfaces, especially burnt bits in a pan. Once you start using one, you’ll never go back. The only downside to steel wool is that it sometimes starts to rust after just a few uses. Many people see this and automatically throw it out, thinking they couldn’t possibly stop the rusting once it’s begun.

However, this isn’t quite the case. This method might sound a little crazy, but it really works. Wrap the rusty steel wool in aluminum foil, and place it in the freezer. This helps to increase its life and preserve it longer than it’d last otherwise. This may save you money in the future, as you won’t need to buy new steel wool constantly.

Stay Warmer In Your Sleeping Bag

Say you’re camping with your family or friends and you’re looking forward to finally crawling into your sleeping bag at the end of the night. But it’s getting way colder than you thought, and your sleeping bag just isn’t insulated enough to keep you from shivering all night long. So long as you packed a little aluminum foil, there’s no need to worry.

Wrap the outside of your bag with a few sheets of aluminum foil to stay nice and warm through the cold nights. Sure, it might be a little crinkly when you move, but a little extra noise is a small price to pay for valuable heat retention on frigid nights in the wild. To cut down on noise, though – and keep you from getting too sweaty – you can just wrap the end and the middle for maximum warmth around your feet and midsection.

Paint Roller Pan Alternative

Cleaning out paint pans can be a real pain. In fact, it’s why hardware stores sell liners for them. The cheap, disposable plastic liners are a real lifesaver for your not-so-cheap metal pans, but aren’t so lifesaving for the environment. Fortunately, there’s a much more eco-friendly and cost effective alternative. Next time you’re using a pan for your paint roller, try lining it with a few sheets of aluminum foil instead.

Not only will the foil work just as well as a plastic liner, but it will also take up far less space in your trash bin when it’s time for cleanup. You can even create your own DIY paint pan out of aluminum foil. You’ll want to use enough foil to make it sturdy and leak-free, but you won’t have to worry about where to store the paint pan when you’re done.

Prevent Your Paint From Forming A Skin

So, you’ve lined your roller pan with foil (or DIY’d a pan) and your room has been painted. Now it’s time to cover and store the leftover paint. That is, if you have a mallet to tap the lid back on, and if you didn’t accidentally throw the lid away altogether. You know you can’t leave the can open. The paint will dry out and you’ll be left with a colorful (and useless) brick.

If that sounds like something that’s happened to you before or might happen in the future, as long as you’ve got some aluminum foil in the kitchen, you can avoid paint disaster. Just tear off a piece of foil to fit over the can and push the lid firmly over the foil, creating an airtight seal. If you don’t have the lid, simply secure the foil with a large rubber band. No more dry paint.

Homemade Platter

If you’re going to a party and bringing along an elaborate dish, you’ll need a platter to be able to transport and present it. If you don’t have a large enough platter, you may have a difficult time getting the food to its destination safely. If you’re in a pinch, you could simply construct your own makeshift platter out of aluminum foil.

Simply get a piece of cardboard and wrap the whole piece in aluminum foil. It’s really that easy. If you’re making something fresh out of the oven, the foil will even help to keep the food warm, as the foil holds the heat a little better than a simple plate. If you don’t like how it looks with the metal exposed, you could also cover your homemade platter with a towel to improve the presentation.

Beautify Your Outdoor Space

You’ve put up some pretty lights, created a cozy seating area, and even added a few decorative plants. But, you feel like it’s still missing something. Maybe even a little extra glow. Look no further than your kitchen drawers. You can add a little aluminum foil to just about anything outside to make it sparkle and shine like you’ve always wanted.

From lining a post with foil to making little reflective decorations that you tie up with string, it’s so easy to give your patio or porch a little something extra. You can even make half-globes to attach to your lights to bounce more light around your space. It’s such a simple DIY, but it can add that perfect, festive touch to any party…or do it just for your own enjoyment.

Keep Your Seedlings Organized

If a garden is something you’ve always dreamed of starting, aluminum foil can help with that, too. Sure, you could just go to your local plant nursery and buy a bunch of small plants that are already growing. But the costs can rack up pretty quickly, and you never know exactly where that plant came from. Try starting your garden from seeds instead, and use some foil to keep your seedlings organized.

Cover each seedling with a piece of aluminum foil with holes poked in it. A toothpick or even a pen will work. As your seedlings grow, you’ll start to see them pop out of the holes. Plus, covering the soil with foil is a great way to keep the moisture in, which is crucial to growing strong, healthy plants from seeds. Once your seedlings are ready, gently tear away the foil and transplant in a new, bigger container.

Tree Trunk Protection

Having trees in the yard always adds a beautiful element to any home. However, although trees are a great addition to the garden, they can also attract some creatures you might not want hanging around near your house. Mice, rabbits, and even foxes sometimes use tree bark for food or shelter, especially during the long, cold winter months.

Besides attracting the unwanted animals, their activity can also disrupt the development of the tree. One option to prevent animals from hanging out at the base of your trees is putting aluminum foil around the base. Simply tear off long pieces of foil and wrap them around the bottom of the tree. At the end of the season, you can easily remove them.

Make A Sling For Your Multi-Cooker

There’s nothing more frustrating than cooking a roast in your Instant Pot, multi-cooker, or pressure cooker and having no safe or easy way to pull it out. You could use tongs, but then you run the risk of tearing up your food. Aluminum foil can come to the rescue once more. You can easily make a sling out of a few strips of foil.

Tear off two sheets of foil that are long enough to dip into the insert of your cooker and still have another four or so inches on either end sticking out. Now, fold your sheets of foil in half again and again, until you have two long, thick strips of foil about half an inch wide – about the width of a tape measure.

From there, simply place them into the cooker in an “X” pattern, and place your food on top of the “X”, tucking the ends into the cooker while it’s in use. Finally, once your food is done, simply grab the ends of the strips and lift your food out.

A Makeshift Scarecrow

Did you know that some garden pests are sensitive to bright lights? If you have fruit bearing plants – like an apple tree or strawberry bush – that needs protecting from birds, insects, and other hungry critters, dressing your beloved garden up with some reflective aluminum foil might be the exact type of armor your plants need. Just cut out a few fun shapes and string them up like a protective barrier.

The light alone, though, may not deter particularly hungry creatures, so make sure to use all different sizes and shapes that can easily move if disturbed. The movement should be enough to scare away most uninvited guests. Soon your garden will be the talk of the animal kingdom and they’ll all be saying the same thing: “Dude, you don’t want to go in there.”

Static Reducer

Whenever you use a dryer for your clothes, you’re bound to get some static build-up on the clothes, leading to shocking yourself, as well as some crazy hairdos. Of course, dryer sheets help to mitigate some of these effects. However, dryer sheets are known to contain many harmful chemicals that you probably don’t want on your clothes, as they’ll be touching your skin.

One alternative to dryer sheets is balled up pieces of aluminum foil. Simply toss the balls into the dryer with your clothes while they are drying. The magic will happen while the machine is running through its regular cycle. Additionally, you can throw some tennis balls into the mix as well. These will help to speed up the drying process.

Wi-Fi Signal Booster

Is your internet connection slower than you would like it to be? Here’s what you do: fold some tin foil into a parabolic dish if you want to boost your wi-fi signal from your router. Sure, it can look strange, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do in order to see cats on YouTube at high speed.

Random wi-fi fact: contrary to popular belief, WiFi is not a health problem. There is a common thought that WiFi signals are dangerous. But in fact, WiFi signals are a lot safer than mobile phones are. There have been no reports about any illnesses related to WiFi signals. So maybe that can calm your nerves maybe a little bit.

Bed-Wetting Efficiency

Training your small children to use the toilet is a difficult process. Even when they’ve become proficient at using the toilet, many kids continue to wet the bed while they’re sleeping. It’s a perfectly normal part of the development process while kids are growing up, but it can get a little annoying to try to clean up the mattress each time.

Some methods are likely better than others for cleaning up a mattress. But no matter what you do, over time, your child’s mattress will develop stains. To simplify the cleanup process, and preserve the quality of the mattress for a longer time, lay sheets of aluminum foil between the mattress and the sheets. It may sound kind of weird to sleep on top of aluminum, but it’ll make cleaning up after your kids much easier.

Wrinkles Away

When you’re looking to impress others with your outfit, it’s very important to have a perfectly smooth shirt or blouse that’s free of any wrinkles. This is sure to make an impression. Unfortunately, even when you leave the house with a perfectly pressed top, you never know how it might change and wrinkle over the course of the evening. Also, over time, clothes develop some wrinkles that stick around and become more and more difficult to get out.

These issues can be remedied very easily with the use of aluminum foil. Take the cloth cover off of your ironing board and wrap the board with foil, and then place the cloth cover back on. Then, simply iron on the board as you always would. The aluminum helps to absorb the heat from the iron, creating a hotter environment and making for a more wrinkle-free result.

Poached Eggs

You can make poached eggs in little pouches made out of plastic wrap. What you do is drop the pouches in boiling water and cut them open to serve. Line a tiny cup with plastic wrap and coat it in oil. Crack an egg inside, gather up the sides, and twist it into a pouch, then tie it up. Drop the pouches into boiling water to cook and when they’re ready just cut the wrap with scissors and serve.

What’s a poached egg? It’s an egg that’s been cooked, outside the shell, by poaching it (as opposed to simmering or cooking it in boiling liquid). This method is favored for eggs because it can yield more delicately cooked eggs than using higher temperatures as with boiling water.

A Tablet Protector

Like many of us these days, using a tablet is the new cookbook. It’s so much easier to watch a tutorial on how to cook something online than to read a cookbook. But that means your tablet might get all messy. All you have to do is wrap your device with saran wrap, and it will be the protective layer you need. Oh, and the best part is that your touchscreen will still work!

Random plastic wrap fact: it was discovered in 1933. The chemical in plastic wrap was first used as a spray in wars to protect fighter planes and other military gear from water. In 1949, the company Dow Chemical created the commercial plastic wrap that buy today.

Keep Paint From Drying Out

 

When it comes time to paint, keep a roll of plastic wrap handy. Add several layers around the handle to improve your grip and prevent blisters too. You can also wrap the paint roller tightly in plastic wrap which will help prevent the roller from drying out. All these tricks and you can call yourself a pro!

Random plastic wrap fact: Plastic wrap was originally made with the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic. PVC is known for being hard to recycle and its toxicity has been questionable over the years. Yet, low density polyethylene (LDPE) is becoming a lot more common these days, and manufacturers have been continually working on improving their products to create totally non-toxic food wraps. That’s a step in the right direction.

Removing Adhesive

If you’re anything like us, we love saving glass jars instead of throwing them out. The only issue is those pesky stickers that just don’t come off no matter how much we scrub! But you can easily remove the sticker by completely soaking it with warm water and dish soap. Wrap the wet container with saran wrap after and let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Remove the wrap and then wipe it clean. Voila!

Random fact about plastic wrap: Plastic wrap is also known as ”Glad ,” ”cling film,” “saran wrap,” “cling wrap” and ”food wrap.” It wasn’t developed as a food wrap until 1949, when it was used in the food industry for the first time. By 1953, it was available for home use.

Rolling Out Dough

You can neatly roll out dough between two sheets of plastic wrap so you won’t have to wash your cutting board afterward. And any way to clean up less is a winner in our books. Some people like using parchment paper, but the rigidness of the paper can sometimes make it more difficult compared to the plastic wrap. Once you do it one time, you’ll find yourself using the hack every time.

Random fact: An industry research group found that in the past six months, 80 million Americans used at least one roll of plastic wrap. More than 5 million Americans went through more than 10 million boxes. Supermarkets and shipping account for the additional three million tons of plastic wrap that companies made this year.

Save Ice Cream From Freezer Burn

Freezer burn is one of those annoying things that happen to the best of our foods that find themselves in the freezer. And it would be a shame if you didn’t eat your favorite ice cream after it got “burnt” by the freezer a bit. All you do is place some saran wrap directly on top of the ice cream itself as well as around the inside of the carton. This will seal the ice out and prevent it from forming on the ice cream.

Random fact about ice cream: The most popular flavor is vanilla. After that comes chocolate, strawberry, cookies n’ cream, and then all the others. Ice cream cones were invented in 1904 for the World’s Fair in St. Louis. The large demand forced ice cream vendors to find help from waffle vendors. Together they made history.

Keep Bananas From Going Brown

It really sucks when you buy bananas, then two days later, they’re brown, and you have to go out and buy some more. And buying fewer bananas, means you run out of them too quickly. What a dilemma! So, if you want the solution to this problem, you just found one. To keep your bananas fresher and longer, put some plastic wrap around the stems. It slows down the browning process so you can enjoy them longer.

Random banana fact: The type of banana you see and buy in the supermarket is called the Cavendish banana. This banana that was originally the preferred variety was the Gros Michel, but it became extinct by 1960, thanks to a fungus called Panama disease.

DIY Kids Cups

Any parent with a young child knows that giving them a grown-up cup is a disaster waiting to happen. And not everywhere you go do people have kids cups! Enter: saran wrap. It’s a perfect hack for toddlers. Take a regular cup, put some plastic wrap tightly over the top of the cup and poke a straw through it. It will create a strong seal that keeps the liquid from spilling. You’re welcome!

Random sippy cup fact: If you are using disposable sippy cups with your kids, you shouldn’t reuse them because they’re not made for repeated use. You should avoid sippy cups with plastic straws. Straws are hard to clean and they are a common breeding ground for bacteria. So you should replace the straw after each use.

Organize Jewelry

When moving, packing can be a real headache. And if you have jewelry, it’s an added nightmare. You can’t just throw it all in a box because it will take you years to untangle it. Next time you move, lay out some plastic wrap. Lay your jewelry on top of it, and press another sheet of on top of the jewelry and on the bottom of it. This is going to keep your jewelry in place and not slide around.

Radom jewelry fact: the tradition of engagement rings wasn’t around until romantic Maximilian of Austria gave his lover, Mary of Burgundy a ring as a promise of their impending nuptials in 1477. This tradition caught on and now engagement rings are a multi-billion dollar industry.

Keep Refrigerator Shelves Clean

Cleaning the refrigerator is tedious and no fun whatsoever. But this hack will change your life! All you have to do is take plastic wrap and line the shelves of the fridge with it. It actually sticks perfectly to the shelves, so it’s not going to move around and drive you crazy. So if something spills, just tear the wrap, throw it away, and reapply!

Random refrigerator fact: Albert Einstein is the co-inventor of the refrigerator. Einstein and his former student, Leo Szilard, received a patent for it in 1930. Coolants used at the time were toxic, so Einstein had the idea for a simple, single-pressure refrigerator when he read about how a sleeping family was killed by leaking refrigerator coolant.

Protect Clothes From Liquids

It happens sometimes when you travel somewhere where you gain elevation, in which anything liquid will explode from the pressure and pretty much get all over your clothes and whatever you’re around. There’s a great solution for this rare, yet serious, occasion. Take the lids off the bottles of the substance, then place a piece of saran wrap over the top and screw the lid back on. It’ll prevent the liquid from spilling out.

Random fact about suitcases: Despite all the ideas for wheeling luggage around in the early 1900s, it wasn’t until Bernard Sadow came alone that rolling luggage became an option. He attached four rollers to the base of a suitcase and patented the idea in 1970. Ever since, the world embraced the idea of a wheeled version of luggage.

DIY Fruit Fly Trap

How annoying are fruit flies!? Doesn’t matter how fresh the fruit is, they just keep buzzing around. So this is what you do if you have a fruit fly problem. Cut up some fruit and put it in a bowl. A few pieces will do. Then put some plastic wrap and cover the lid of the bowl, then poke a small hole in the top. The flies will get trapped inside the cup, which means you won’t have them flying around you anymore.

Random fruit fly fact: They get their name from their strong attraction to ripening or rotting fruit. The fruit serves as both a food source as well as a place to lay their eggs. Fruit flies typically reach 3-4 mm in length and live for 40 to 50 days.

Marbled Nail Polish

If you want to get a cool nail polish style without going to the salon, you should try this hack. Start by painting your nails a base color. Then, once your nails are completely dry, paint over them with a new color. While the topcoat is still wet, crumble up some saran wrap and place it on top of your nails. When you remove it, you’ll see the marbled effect. Not too bad!

Random nail polish fact: Painting nails goes back to 3000 BCE. There is archaeological evidence that the Ancient Babylonians painted their nails before they went into battle with a solid gold manicure set. And in Ancient China, in the Ming Dynasty, people used formulas made from beeswax, egg whites, gelatin and vegetable dyes.

Ice Cubes In The Dryer

You can forget the iron or steamer by using ice cubes in the dryer instead if you want to get wrinkles out of your clothes. Put two or three ice cubes in the dryer with one or two pieces of clothing and then place it on the hottest setting. The ice melts and turns into steam, which gets the wrinkles out. This trick isn’t so effective with heavier clothing, but it works wonders on lighter fabrics. The best part is that you only need to set the dryer for about 10 minutes or so.

Random ice fact: sea ice alone comes in all kinds of varieties, and Arctic and Antarctic sea ice have their own vocabularies. Brash, frazil, nilas, and pancake ice are some of the varieties found in both. If you’re near the poles, you should be able to distinguish an iceberg from an icefoot, bummock from a hummock, and a floe from a floeberg.

Vinegar’s Many Uses

The kitchen staple can be a wonderful tool on cleaning day. If you have a collection of cloudy drinking glasses, don’t bother scrubbing with traditional soap. A little white vinegar will get those water stains out. For glasses, soak them in diluted white vinegar or just dunk a rag in the vinegar and clean as usual. This trick also does wonders for your coffee carafe and even dirty faucets. Vinegar also cleans dirty blinds!

Fun Fact: did you know that the name vinegar comes from the French words, “vin aigre?” They literally mean sour wine. Around 5,000 BC, the Babylonians used vinegar as a condiment and a preservative. The Babylonians are also credited with adding herbs and spices to flavor it.

Bread Isn’t Just For Eating

It happens to the best of us – we drop glasses sometimes. But picking up all those pieces is not easy, not to mention dangerous. The hack? Use bread! Yes, bread. Just put a bit of water on a piece of bread to make it damp and press it on the floor where the fragments of glass are. It’s a lot easier than trying to sweep up every last piece with a broom.

Random bread fact: Bread is often tied to religious expression and communion. For example, hot cross buns commemorate Lent and Good Friday; Greek Easter bread is set with eggs dyed red to denote the blood of Christ, and then there are Jewish families who celebrate the coming of the Sabbath on Friday evening with challah.

Shaving Cream To Clean A Mirror

Did you know that shaving cream works as a glass cleaner too? If you apply regular shaving cream to your mirror and wipe it down with some paper towel or a rag, you can rid the mirror of smudges and streaks. But that’s not all – it will also keep the mirror from fogging up during a shower for a few weeks! This trick will also be of use when cleaning your glasses and car windows.

Random shaving cream fact: an early form of shaving cream was used in Sumer around 3000 BC. The substance combined wood alkali and animal fat that was applied to a beard as a shaving preparation. By the early 20th century, bars or sticks of hard shaving soap were used.

Lemons Are Natural Cleaners

Microwaves – they get their share of dirt inside of them! But instead of scrubbing and scraping, you can get a better clean by using a lemon. Squeeze the juice from a lemon into half a cup of water and drop the remaining lemon in. Put the lemon water mixture into the microwave for three minutes (long enough to come to a boil). The mixture, steamed, will now fill your microwave. Let it sit for five minutes, open the microwave, remove the bowl, and wipe the inside. Voila!

Random facts about lemons: Lemons are native to Asia and are a hybrid between a sour orange and a citron. Lemons trees can produce up to 600 pounds of lemons every year. Lemon trees also produce fruit all year round.

How To Rinse Your Blender

Instead of having to disassemble your blender and clean all those sharp blades by hand, there’s a much simpler hack that’ll save you time, effort, and a real headache. What you do is fill your blender halfway with hot water, pour in some dish soap, close the lid, and turn it on. It’s basically like a mini version of a dishwasher!

Random blender fact: the blender was patented in 1922 by Stephen Poplawski who was the first one who put a spinning blade at the bottom of a container. His beverage mixer was developed for the Arnold Electric Company. It is recognized as what is called a blender in the United States. But it is called a liquidizer in Britain.

Grapefruit Is Another Natural Cleaner

Grapefruit is another citrus fruit that does wonders on cleaning day. And it can be perfect for when you need to clean the bathtub. First, turn the water on and get your tub fully wet. Cut a grapefruit in half, put a lot of salt on the fruit, and begin scrubbing! The citrus and the salt removes soap stains and other messes while also leaving a pleasant smell. You can do the same on sinks, faucets, and fixtures.

Grapefruit may help reduce body fat in some people when it is mixed with other compounds such as caffeine, grapefruit polyphenols, and other antioxidants that are found in the berry family of fruits. And yes, grapefruits are technically considered to be part of the berry family.

Soap To The Rescue

You know when that sock drawer gets stuck, and every time you open the drawer, it becomes a chore? Well, you can use something as simple as a bar of soap to fix it. Simply slide the bar along the drawer glides. It will essentially act as a lubricant, letting the opening of the drawer become easy again and not something that will annoy you every morning.

Random facts about socks: The oldest known pair of socks is about 1,600 years old. They weres excavated at the end of the 19th century from the cemetery of ancient Oxyrhynchus, a Greek colony on the Nile in Egypt. The socks were made from red wool and have split toes so they could be worn with sandals.

DIY Sprinkler

If you’re someone who is looking to be more “green” and you actually care about the environment, then you should try this hack. It’s yet another thing that can be done with an empty water bottle. Take that bottle of soda and put it to some good use! If your sprinkler broke, or maybe you haven’t yet gone out to buy one, you can use this soda bottle instead, and it works well.

But it’s more of a temporary solution. Create a sprinkler from an empty soda bottle by piercing it with holes. Attach the neck of the bottle to your garden hose and there you go. Your very own DIY sprinkler. It’ll last up until you go and get a real one.

Rubber Bands For That Pesky Screw

Do you have a bunch of rubber bands hanging around in your drawer and you have no idea what to do with them? Well, this hack is something that many people find useful. And it’s something that happens all the time when it comes to screws.

The screw is stripped, and it makes screwing it in or out almost impossible. The next time this happens to you, don’t lose your mind just yet. Try placing a rubber band on it first. Put the rubber band flat against the screw head and fit the tip of the screwdriver over the rubber band and into the grooves. It will fill in the gaps in the screw, giving you the traction needed to turn the screw.