24 Awesome Uses for Lemon

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I love lemons! They're gorgeous, tart, and bright-- just like me! They're also very versatile. I discovered hundreds of fantastic household uses for lemons, lemon peels, and lemon juice. Here are two dozen of my favorites. I can't wait to try them all! (Sort of.)

• Red nail polish loving divas take note: Rubbing lemon wedges on your finger nails will remove yellow and leave you with brighter nails.
• Clean a filthy microwave: Put a halved lemon in a microwave-safe bowl with about 1/4 cup of water and nuke it, uncovered, for two minutes or longer.
• Squeeze lemon juice over a fruit salad or other cut fruit like avocados, apples, and pears to keep it from browning.
• Mother Earth Living says lemons can also revive wilted lettuces:  Place the lettuce in a bowl of cold water with the juice from one lemon.
• Reader's Digest suggests burning some lemon peels along with your firewood to prevent fireplace stench. I've never smelled funky fireplace besides when my cat used it as a litter box (yikes!), but maybe that's a problem for people.
• A bowl of lemons is a cheap kitchen decorating move that looks classy!
• Make your own citrus enzyme cleaner.
• Kill weeds by spraying them with lemon juice (via TreeHugger).
• To brighten white laundry: Add 1/2 to 1cup of lemon juice to the rinse cycle of your washer. Hang clothes to dry in the sun. 
• Lemon juice with honey is great for sore throats. I usually just toss some of both in with hot tea, but Real Simple takes it to the next level: "Cut a lemon in half. Skewer one half over a medium flame on a gas stove or an electric burner set on high and roast until the peel turns golden brown. Let cool slightly, then mix the juice with 1 teaspoon of honey. Swallow the mixture." I recommend using organic lemons if you're going to consume the peels.
• Remove mineral deposits and hard water stains by rubbing a lemon wedge on affected area, rinsing, and buffing.

• Rub a lemon half covered with salt to dissolve and scrub grease-splattered messes in the kitchen.
• Folks say lemon with salt will remove rust. It didn't work on my bike, but maybe it works better on fabric and less rusty things. 
• Salted lemon will also shine copper, chrome, brass and stainless steel. How do I know? I read it on Care2.com's list of 22 Uses for Lemon Peels.
• Disinfect a wooden cutting board: Cover a halved lemon with some salt. Rub into the cutting board. Rinse with hot water.
• According to Mrs.Clean, lemon juice and salt will remove pit stains on shirts. What can't lemon juice and salt clean? 
• I have no idea if this works or not, but lots of online resources say lemon juice is a bug deterrent. Sources recommend squeezing lemon juice near doorways and windowsills, as well as leaving lemon rinds near entrances and holes. Reader's Digest also says: "Mix the juice of 4 lemons (along with the rinds) with 1/2 gallon (2 liters) water and wash your floors with it; then watch the fleas and roaches flee. They hate the smell." 
• Lemon juice gets rid of fleas on cats too (eHow explains). 
• Speaking of cats, Apartment Therapy suggests: To keep cats from using your lawn as a litter box, mix lemon peels and coffee grounds and distribute it around their favorite spots. If they don't take the hint, lay down a second batch and try moistening it with a bit of water.
• If your hands smell or are covered with germy things like raw fish or meat, try cleaning them with lemon juice.
• Make furniture polish with 1 part lemon juice and 2 parts olive or walnut oil. Only make as much as you think you'll use that same day, as this mixture is perishable. Otherwise use lemon essential oil to make one that will last longer. 
• Rub fresh orange or lemon peels over your exposed skin to keep away mosquitoes and gnats. Hmm...I can't help but imagine you'd need to rub a lot of oil off of those peels for this to work, but I guess it can't hurt to try in a pinch. (via Apartment Therapy)
• Huffington Post reports that you can clean the inside of a toilet with lemon juice and borax. 
• HuffPo also says a few drops of lemon juice added to simmering rice will keep it from sticking to the pot, making clean-up a lot easier. Yay! 

If you're like me, you're not the kind of person who always has lemons in the house. No bigs. You can squeeze and freeze lemon juice in an ice cube tray so you'll always have small amounts of lemon juice handy. You can also freeze lemon peels and wedges in freezer bags. This is a nice thing to remember when you see lemons are on sale at the grocery store or when your lemons are about to go bad.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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