Not everyone knows just how useful and versatile aluminium can be. Most people are unaware that aluminium is actually one of a small number of metals that actually form the crust of the earth.
Aluminium has quite several different uses, some you may be familiar with but undoubtedly we know of all the cool hacks you hadn’t thought of before, and we are certain that by the time you finish reading you will have a newfound respect for the precious “earth-crust” material.
1.Pocket-Sized Cookie Shapers
Everyone, no matter what age, enjoys making cookies, especially when they can be various shapes, sizes, and flavours, and even more so as a family activity where the interaction is important and learning can also take place through fun.
The best part of the cookie making experience is all the different shapes and sizes you can make. But you don’t have to spend money on all sorts of moulds, which can also be limiting too! Just get some aluminium foil which you can fold into a strip that you can then curve, bend, and mould into whatever shape you desire! Let your imagination run wild while you create both memories and something yummy.
2. Avoiding Melted Ice-Cream Disasters
Children are well known for not being the cleanest or tidiest of creatures, but eating ice-cream can be a particularly messy disaster as it can cause clothes stains, mucky hands, and general all-around stickiness.
The solution to the mess has been in your kitchen drawer this whole time. The next time you give your kids ice-cream just wrap it with aluminium foil which will create a type of barrier between the cone and their hands, and collect all of the dripping ice-cream in the foil instead of on their clothes and your kitchen floor.
3. Keeping Bananas Fresh for Longer
Here are a couple of interesting facts for you; bananas are actually the only fruit that never faces an insect attack, but they also contain quite high amounts of reacting agents compared to other fruits, which make it more likely to decay faster. Oddly, by breaking the air contact with aluminium foil the rotting process can actually be slowed down.
Oddly, by breaking the air contact with aluminium foil the rotting process can actually be slowed down. Wrapping the top stem of the banana with aluminium will delay the decaying process, slowing the reaction enough to allow you to enjoy your bananas for days and days longer.
4. Avoid Welcoming Cockroaches into Your Kitchen
Many of us have some cabinets in our kitchen or elsewhere where the shelves or drawers are quite deep, making it very likely that they don’t get any natural light at the back. This is most welcoming to the least favourite creepy-crawly; cockroaches.
The solution to this is placing aluminium foil on the shelves themselves which will reflect light onto all corners of the cabinet, which in turn increases the light which will decrease the number of insect visitors.
5. Low-Cost Boost to Radiator Efficiency
When it is cold outside the one consolation is coming into a warm house, but sometimes a standard radiator just doesn’t quite do the trick. Of course, it is possible to upgrade it or even buy another one, but both of those options mean more expensive electricity and gas bills.
The extremely low cost and the easy homemade solution comes in the form of aluminium and some cardboard. Just put some flaps of foil over the cardboard and place it around the heat source which will reflect heat further and increase the rate of heat distribution, increasing the efficiency of your radiator.
6. Increasing the Lifespan of Batteries
Nearly everyone has been there at some point; you are happily watching TV from the couch until that moment when you realize the batteries in the remote have run out and you need to get up every time you want to change the volume or the channel…
Well, believe it or not, aluminium can help on this front too. Putting a little ball of foil on each side of the battery can increase the lifespan of your batteries from a few days and even up to a month.
7. Dealing with Dirt or Rust
So you are all ready for an important meeting, about to grab your bag and rush out of the door until you notice a wrinkle on your shirt… Shouldn’t be too complicated, right? Just take the shirt off and iron it quickly. Easy. Unless the iron has accumulated dirt or rust. One swipe of that and your fresh, smart shirt will be a total mess.
Luckily, your kitchen has a quick fix ready. Just grab a sheet of aluminium foil, roll it into a ball, and scrub the surface of the iron while hot, and all the dirt will come off. There may be a scratch or two, but it will be worth it.
8. Moving Furniture without Leaving a Scratch
The most gorgeous pieces of furniture are often quite bulky or heavy, and trying to move them around the room can often end up in disaster as you try to drag it around the room, leaving scratch marks on your floor.
You can avoid all of that with this simple hack; Just put a layer of foil underneath each corner of the furniture. It really is just that simple. We do recommend paying extra attention to how you fold the aluminium- try to aim for thin layers.
9. Internet Problems?
When you have a lot of important or interesting stuff to do which involves Wi-Fi, it can be an absolute nightmare if you have to keep going through the process checking the cables, rebooting your system, restart your router, and often still getting no better results. The problem is often not with the actual hardware but rather a weak signal strength.
We can suggest a masterplan that may be able to help! Starting with covering a card-shaped flap with aluminium, which you then place in front of the router. The layer of aluminium should give your connection a good strong boost.
10. Glue Gun Saver
Anyone who has used one before knows just how incredible glue guns are. The hot melted glue dispensed from the gun, keeping your hands clean, is perfect for sealing, sticking, and all sorts of fun stuff. But when you finish there tends to be an adhesive layer left on the tip.
Do we really need to say this anymore? Well, we will! Aluminium foil is your best bet here. Just give the tip a little scrub and it will clear off all excess in no time, keeping it clean for the next use.
11. Re-Sealing Open Bags
Often one doesn’t know exactly how much nibbles to buy for a little gathering of friends, or you want variety and end up buying a good number of family packs of chips so that you can have a pick and mix.
Which is all well and good, until those extras left in the bag spill out of the cabinet all over the kitchen floor. We have a good solution to this problem, and you don’t even need any special equipment. Just a hot iron and a strip of aluminium foil will do the trick.
12. Cheap and Painless Pearly Whites
Many people are paying hundreds of bucks to get their teeth nice and pearly white. But what if you could get similar results without parting with your hard-earned cash and with a homemade solution?
A mixture of baking soda and toothpaste and some aluminium foil is all you need. Spread a coat of the mixture of the strip of foil and wrap it over your teeth, and leave it in place for about an hour. The difference will be noticeable.
13. Protect Door Knobs from Fresh Paint
Whatever your painting project involves, if it is a full house or just a room, there are always some spots you don’t want to touch. Using paper and tape is a great option for protecting ceilings and door frames, but what about the curvy doorknob?
Another scenario where aluminium foil can save the day; it easily moulds into the shape of the knob as well as catching all the drops of paint, and after the paint dries you can just chuck the protector in the trash and have no worries about any leftover marks.
14. Cutting Out the Mess in BBQs
Everyone loves a BBQ meal with family and friends on a lovely sunny day, but there is less love for the mess they leave behind. Cleaning the grill after a good old barbeque can take hours of hard work.
Just put some layers of aluminium on top of each other and lay them on the grill in order to prevent dripping. When you’re finished with the BBQ just add some soapy water to the same foil, give the rack a scrub, and you will clean rack quickly and easily.
15. Making Old Mirrors Bright Again
If you pick up any interior design magazine you will notice that mirrors are key in making a space seem brighter and more spacious. But with time, the reflective layer on the mirror gets affected, resulting in ugly spots appearing.
There is usually a reflective paint on the circumference of the mirror which is similar to the silver surface of tin foil. Take a strip of aluminium, tape it to the frame of the mirror and voila! Mirror healed!
16. Insect Protection with Enhanced Plant Growth
If you are someone who takes pride in their garden then you will be familiar with the dramatic and disastrous effect unwanted bugs can have on it. What you may not know is how aluminium foil can help prevent this.
This metal from the crust of the earth is an effective remedy for all sorts of insects and bacteria. Additionally, everyone knows that sunlight is critical for plant health and growth, and the foil can help spread sunlight and focus it on the plants.
17. A Helping Hand for Santa
What most people do know about aluminium is that it can sustain quite high levels of heat. But you may have not thought about how it can help keep your fireplace neat and tidy. It is amazing for getting rid of the hassle involved in removing soot, ash and all the other muck involved in having a lovely fire burning in your front room.
A few layers of foil will allow you to create a temporary platform on which to build your fire and once, Santa has eaten his cookies or well, you have -go ahead and remove the foil and you are done with the clean up, with one move!
18. Patching Clothes without Ruining Your Ironing Board
Getting a tear in your jeans is not a difficult problem to solve as you just have to stick a patch onto the ripped spot. However, there is risk involved as the spot is prone to heat and while ironing it on your clothes it can stick to the ironing board, which can ruin both the clothing and the board.
A little piece of aluminium can assist the situation. Slide a bit of foil under the hole which will form a layer of material that is heat absorbent, and that will stop any unwanted sticking happening.
19. Create Sunshine Heaven for your Plants
If you have some areas in your garden that receive less sunlight than others then the plants in the low sunlight areas don’t have a big chance of survival. Of course, one option is moving the plant, but if that is not possible then a sunbed for your plants is the next best thing.
Find a four-sided box, remove one of the sides, and then cover the remaining three sides with aluminium foil. Put the three-sided reflector by the potted plant and make sure it is facing in the direction of the sunlight. This will serve as a light-focuser for the plant, which in turn will boost the photosynthesis process crucial for the plant’s health.
20. Heal From Cold And Flu
You may not believe this but you can speed up the healing process when you get sick from a cold or the flu. The process is quite simple, but it does require quite a bit of aluminum foil. Start by wrapping your feet in 5-7 layers of foil.
Leave it on for an hour. Give your feet a 2-hour break, and then wrap another 5-7 layers around your feet for an hour. Give your feet a 2-hour break, and repeat the process one more time. You’ll be feeling better in no time! Don’t believe it? Try it out! What do you have to lose?
21. Bring the Fish In With Added Light
If you have ever been fishing you will probably know that fish are attracted towards bright sunlight. Have you ever considered using this light as bait instead of the regular worms? No, that wasn’t a riddle. We literally mean that!
It may sound a bit crazy but it has been proven to work. Just wrap a little tin foil around your fish hook, and you will soon see how glistening of the light on the foil attracts the fish to your rod.