9 reasons why you shouldn’t throw away your orange peel
It will bring many more benefits, and in matters not related to cooking. The essential oils found in the peel can work wonders.
The most that many of us do with citrus peels is to dry the peels so that the room smells good. But that’s not all you can do with it! For example, astrologers advise even decorating a Christmas tree with slices of dried oranges.
1. Anti-odor remedy in the refrigerator
Smells in the refrigerator are very easy to start, and sometimes it can be quite difficult to exterminate them. There are at least 15 ways to get rid of unpleasant odors without the help of household chemicals, and orange peel is one of them. You need to put the peel in a bowl, cover it with salt and refrigerate. The salt will absorb excess moisture and unpleasant odors, while the orange peel will refresh the scent inside. Change the freshener as soon as the salt becomes wet.
2. Cleaner for wood surfaces
Use fresh orange peel instead of furniture polish and other chemicals. It can be used to make a great wood spray that will literally make your shelves and doors shine. And it’ll smell good, too. The recipe is as follows: fill a half-liter jar with citrus peels up to half, fill to the brim with 10 percent vinegar. Let it sit in a dark place for two weeks. Then pour the product into a spray bottle and the furniture spray is ready.
3. Polish for steel objects
Faucets, for example, or a sink: when water splashes on them, there seems to be no dirt, but cloudy whitish spots remain. The view, of course, deteriorates. And if you just rub a metal surface with a peel, then citrus essential oil will cover the metal with a thin film that will protect it from water. The view will immediately become much cleaner.
4. Wardrobe sachet
When there are too many items in the closet, clothes put away for seasonal storage are bound to take on a musty smell. And if the house is also damp, then the smell appears in a matter of days. Scented sachets, crammed into different corners of the cabinet, help to solve the problem: just put the peel in gauze bags – and the sachet is ready. By the way, nylon tights or socks will perfectly replace gauze. And at the same time, you will get rid of pantyhose with puffs.
5. Hair serum
Vitamin C, which is found in oranges, works wonders for the immune system. But with hair too! To make a homemade orange mask, you just need to toss the orange along with the peel into a blender and beat well. Apply the resulting puree to the hair along the entire length, hold it for 10 minutes, rinse it off – the mask perfectly moisturizes and smoothes the curls.
6. Salvation from sugar lumps
It is especially sinful with the tendency to form lumps of cane sugar: it just sticks together tightly, even if you split it with a hammer. If you put an orange peel in a container with sugar, the lump will disintegrate by itself. And if you put it in advance, the lump will not form at all.
7. Sink odor remover
When it draws from the drain with the “aroma” of the sewer, you don’t want to be in the kitchen at all. For the figure, this may be useful, but in front of the guests it is a shame. An easy way to get rid of the smell is to grate the orange peel directly into the drain. Just do not overdo it so that it does not clog. The essential oils and juice contained in the crusts will deal with both grease and dirt that poison the atmosphere in the kitchen.
8. Insect repeller
Citrus peels contain limonene, a substance that is deadly to flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Even the ants are afraid of him. Therefore, pieces of orange peel, spread out on the windowsill in summer, will be a good protection against annoying gnats.
9. Excellent kindling
If the crusts are collected and dried, then you will no longer need the ignition liquid. Thanks to essential oils, orange peels are very flammable and burn just like the newspapers we usually use for kindling. But they do not burn as quickly as paper, so firewood also has time to catch fire. Plus, an orange-scented bonfire is exquisite!
10. Body scrub
In winter, a particularly topical thing is that the skin dries out, peels off due to the working heating. But you need to exfoliate it very gently – for example, with an orange scrub. The recipe is as follows: grate the peel of one orange as small as possible, mix with 3/4 cup sugar, add a spoonful of olive oil and four tablespoons of cosmetic essential oil, such as almond or shea butter. The scrub is ready to use immediately!
11. Means for whitening teeth
Orange peel works the same way as banana peel in this regard. You just need to lightly rub your teeth with the inside of the skin. But be careful if your teeth are prone to sensitivity.
12. Excellent fertilizer
The peel contains a lot of vitamins, essential oils, potassium and phosphorus – they are useful not only for people, but also for plants. To make fertilizer from orange peels, you need to grind them, pour them into a 1 liter container – so that the container is one third full. Then fill the crusts with boiling water to the top, leave to infuse overnight. In the morning, the infusion must be filtered – the vitamin liquid for watering the plants is ready.
In addition, a similar infusion can be sprayed on plant leaves from pests. And in the country, the peel can simply be buried in the ground to enrich the soil.