Innovative Alternative Uses for Toothpaste

Most people think of toothpaste just for brushing teeth and cavity prevention. Yet, there are a lot of other ways that you can use toothpaste that you may not be aware of. Being the case, here are just some creative tips for using toothpaste for cleaning to beauty that may surprise or even shock you.

Toothpaste for Cleaning

If you have a patent leather handbag or shoes that get a mark or scuff, you don’t have to live with it. An easy solution is putting a small amount of a non-gel toothpaste on a soft cloth to gently rub it out. This magically lifts the mark without damaging the shoes or handbag.

Any white rubber soles on shoes like sneakers for instance has a tendency to scuff. Try the same technique of a little non-gel toothpaste with a soft cloth and rub. If the scuff still persists, grab an old toothbrush and use a bit more of that toothpaste to brush it out.

Toothpaste is also capable of stripping furniture polish buildup and taking water ring marks off. In fact, toothpaste does that deep cleaning so well that it can take off that build up and water ring as well as the finish.  I caution you to use it very sparingly.

Nothing is more frustrating than a small carpet stain. Tiny problems like accidentally dropping some makeup like foundation can be solved with some non-gel toothpaste and taking a small scrub brush to it or an old toothbrush, depending on the size. Don’t squeeze out too much at first to see how colorfast the carpet fibers are before squeezing out more. I tried this on a small forgotten spot that carpet cleaner didn’t lift. To my surprise, it removed it better.

DVD’s over time can get light scratches to ruin how they play. The next time this happens, you should try taking a little dab of non-gel toothpaste and placing on a soft cloth. Start from the center of that DVD and work your way with toothpaste, gently rubbing until you get to the edge. Afterwards, use a fresh wet soft cloth to wipe off the toothpaste. The important part is to use a lint-free cloth and dry thoroughly. This gently helps buff those annoying scratches to give the DVD an improved, smoother surface.

Kids love to color with their crayons, which is great to inspire their artistic creativity. The problem is if those little artists don’t stick to drawing on paper and use your walls as their canvas. Crayon marks on painted walls to wallpaper can be gone before you know it just grabbing a squeeze of non-gel toothpaste and a soft cloth. Rubbing the area may take a little effort, but it does come out.

Those of us with pets may have encountered a nasty run in with a skunk at one time or another. If so, you may have tried everything from tomato juice to special washes to help remove that foul stench from your poor beast without any luck. After this happened to my neighbor’s dog, that neighbor began a quest of researching how to get rid of the skunk’s perfume. The next time I saw him walking his dog, he told me the most unbelievable thing. He wet poor Harvey down, then rubbed some non-gel toothpaste over the dog’s body where the skunk sprayed him. Somehow, the flouride in the toothpaste locked onto the stench after a few minutes to soak up the odor. The dog was so happy that he stopped howling long enough to allow his master to finish giving him a bath.

Surprising Uses for Beauty

Chopping onions and garlic always leaves their lingering scent on hands and nails. For those times you don’t have lemon juice to remove that odor, rubbing your hands with toothpaste and then washing also works wonderfully to freshen them.

Discolored, yellow nails also can be helped if you rub a little of a non-gel whitening toothpaste formula over them.

Strangely enough, misbehaving hair can also benefit by a little dab of toothpaste for those rare occasions when running out of hair gel from the type of water-based adhesives they use.

These are just a few unusual ways that toothpaste can also be used to help you out of a fix. If there other tricks you have, please share.