The dishwasher has become a staple of every American home. They really do make clean up in the kitchen easier. However, there are a few more uses for a dishwasher than you may have expected. And here’s a few of those life hacks to help you bring out the full potential the device.
Dust Air Vents
It can be pretty difficult removing dirt and grime from your air vent cover. Not to mention, if you don’t wear a mask you could inhale a lot of dust. So just put the vent in the dishwasher. They’re durable enough to survive the cleaning cycle after all. You can also use the dishwasher to clean your metal fans.
Ripen Avocados
Avocados can be solid for days. Then, all of the sudden, they’re mushy and completely inedible. But your dishwasher can help with this problem. Just put your avocados on the top rack. Turn on the regular dishwasher cycle and run it for ten minutes. Then, voila! Your fruit will be perfectly soft, with a texture excellent for being used on toast.
Rejuvenate Silk Flowers
Silk flowers wouldn’t ordinarily seem like something you can put through the dishwasher. Even the manufacturers warn you not to. Although, it’s still safe to put a bouquet of fake roses on the top rack to rinse. If you’re going to rinse them this way, don’t put anything else in the dishwasher. And make sure the cycle is moderate. After the flowers dry off, they’ll look brand new.
Wash Vacuum Attachments
Sometimes you need to clean your cleaning equipment. There are a lot of attachments to vacuums in particular, and they can collect quite the amount of dust. To prepare your attachments for the dishwasher, brush off any large clumps of dirt first. You’ll probably have to take the top rack out of the dishwasher to be able to fit in all of the pieces. Add detergent or a detergent tablet and run a cool rinse cycle. Then just wait and all your vacuum parts will be clean again.
Wash Car Parts
You can’t fit the whole car in a dishwasher, but you can at least get some parts of your car cleaned off if they’re too dirty. Plenty of them can survive a cycle in the dishwasher and it’s certainly more tedious to try to hand scrub them. Cup holders and rubber floor mats are some of the more obvious things you can clean. But then you can move on to things like hubcaps to clean off the grime.
Bake A Lasagna
Now this one’s going to sound really weird. You probably never would’ve expected you could bake a lasagna in a dishwasher. After doing the pre-prep for baking it, wrap the lasagna tightly in tinfoil. Put it on the top rack and put it in a heated dry cycle. Also, make sure to skip the rinse cycle, or else your meal might get waterlogged. By the end of the cycle, your meal will be ready and perfectly steamed.
Scrub Shoes
Whether you trample through mud on a daily basis or simply accumulate dirt over time, every shoe could use a good wash every once in a while. And the dishwasher is the perfect way to clean it. Make sure to remove any fabric liners beforehand and lay them horizontally in the dishwasher. Although, if you’re cleaning flip flops, put them on the top rack. This also doesn’t work for crocs.
Boil Eggs
Eggs are another thing you can make in a dishwasher, at least the boiled kind. Put an in a container and fill it up with water. Make sure to put the lid on and that it’s airtight. Then just put the container in the dishwasher, in a way so that it won’t topple or open mid-wash. Make sure to use a normal or extra strength wash cycle as well. A normal cycle produces a soft-boiled egg and the extra strength will make a hard-boiled one.
Clean Makeup Brushes
Experts say that you should wash your makeup brushes at least once a week. Well, using your dishwasher will take away all the hassle while you do something else. Pour your soap into the detergent compartment and add up to ten milliliters of bleach into the designated area. Then, just put your makeup brushes, or any other makeup tools you may have, in the dishwasher. Run them through a normal wash cycle and they’ll be clean by the end of it.
Steam Vegetables
This one might make a bit more sense as far as food goes. After all, every dishwasher uses high heat and water to clean. So steaming vegetables in your dishwasher doesn’t seem like that big of a stretch. Chop your veggies of voice and put them into a mason jar, pouring a cup of water over the top. Then seal the jar and put it on the top rack of the dishwasher. You’ll have perfectly steamed vegetables by the end of a normal wash cycle.
Keep Food Warm
Timing your meal prep for a feast to make sure everything’s warm can be a real hassle. But your dishwasher can help with that. Place cooked food in the top rack and set it to a heated dry cycle. Your meals will be kept at the perfect temperature until it’s time to eat.
Sanitize Sponges
Of course the tool you use to clean everything will get incredibly dirty, itself. But rather than throwing it out, use your dishwasher to help sanitize it. Putting it through the washing cycle actually kills 99.9 percent of all germs on the sponge. Just tuck it in on the cutlery basket when you wash the rest of the dishes. A normal cycle with a heated drying session should do the trick.
Keep Toys Clean
Children are known to be pretty dirty. Their fingers in particular always seem to be sticky. While ordinarily you might consider throwing those toys in the washing machine, the dishwasher is just as effective. It doesn’t matter if they hard plastic or soft. Just line them up on the top rack and run them through a wash cycle. This also applies to bath toys. You should make sure to clean your kids’ toys at least once a month using this method.
Wash Baseball Caps In The Dishwasher
Baseball caps get smellier and smellier the more you use them, assuming you use them at the proper time. That being in the summer to shield you eyes. You’ll start to sweat into them. But to clean them you can’t just throw them into the washing machine or else they’ll lose their rigidity. And using odor sprays is a temporary fix at best. As it turns out, you can put your hats through the dishwasher. Putting them through the top rack will give them a gentle clean and they’ll even retain their shape.
Clean Out Keyboards
Keyboards are great. Too bad they always get food and dust in their nooks and crannies. People can use smaller brushes to try to clean out the keyboard, but the dishwasher is a surefire way to clean it out. Obviously, disconnect any wires from the keyboard first. Put it in without any soap and run it through a cooler wash cycle. Then just let the keys dry out for the next three days.
Self-Clean With Kool-Aid
Hey! Kool-Aid! Sometimes the inside of your dishwasher needs some cleaning. Yep, Kool-Aid can help with that. Out a packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid lemonade in the detergent dispenser. This is the only kind with the ability to fight limescale deposits. Then just turn your dishwasher on and run through a was cycle. It’ll be clean and it’ll have a lemony fresh scent.
Clean Sports Equipment
Young kids play plenty of sports. Or maybe you play sports yourself. Either way, you’re bound to have a lot of sports equipment. Well, if your pads and sneakers get too dirty, you can throw them in the dishwasher. Put a mouth guard in a cutlery holder and your padding in the plate rack. Just put them through a wash cycle and everything will be clean.
Scrub And Rinse Fruits And Vegetables
Cleaning potatoes before cooking can be a real hassle. So let the dishwasher take care of it for you. Put the potatoes on the top rack and put them through a detergent-free rinse cycle. This works with other fresh produce as well. As long as you put them on the top rack, even fruits like peaches can survive.
Cook Salmon
This is another food you can cook, as long as you make sure to avoid using any soap in the dishwasher. You should also make sure not to allow the dishwasher to activate any drying agent. And you really can’t check while the salmon cooks. Put a salmon filet, a sprig of rosemary, and half a lemon in a piece of tinfoil. Wrap it up and place it on the top rack. Then set it to run with hot water and a heated dry cycle.
Wash Plant Pots
There are a lot of people that own potted plants. And sometimes those pots can get infected and kill the plants with disease. However, you can put those through the dishwasher to ensure the plants’ survival. Remove any lumps of dir from plastic or terracotta pots first, then you’re safe to put them through the dishwasher. This is especially important if a previous plant died of disease in that pot.
Clean Ovens With A Dishwasher Tablet
And this one’s a bit farther away from the dishwasher, but it still uses a part of the dishwasher. Or at the very least, a cleaning agent. But it can be really easy to clean your oven with a dishwasher tablet. Cooked-on grease on the door? No problem! Swab the door a bit with a damp cloth, then buff out the door with a wet tablet. They also work on shower screens for removing soap stains.
