Did you know that you can use the same tea leaves to brew your tea more than once? Of course, the next brews won’t be as strong as the first one but it is totally possible. However, if you don’t want to brew them again for drinking, you could try these super cool ways in which you can reuse brewed tea leaves. And honestly, the list doesn’t even cover half of the things you can do – tea leaves are some sort of magical ingredients!
Read: Ever Wondered What Happens to Milk Packets After You Have Disposed Them Off?
Another plus point is that you can reduce your requirement of so many other products just by reusing tea leaves. You can probably eliminate air fresheners, scrubs, acne creams, mirror cleaners, eye creams, mouthwash, toilet cleaners and what not! Drink tea, save money! Check out the list below –
1. Get rid of bad smells
Dry out your teabags or tea leaves and add them to an open container. Place the container where odor is the worst. You can keep it in your fridge, or shoe or any other possible place.
2. Reduce humidity at home
Sun-dry the used tea leaves and leave them in a damp corner of your house to absorb excess moisture. Be sure to dry them outside your home, otherwise it doesn’t work.
3. Say goodbye to puffy eyes
Rinse and refrigerate used teabags and pop them on your eyes to reduce puffiness. If you’re using tea leaves, wrap them in a muslin cloth before putting them in the fridge. Green or chamomile tea is particularly great for reducing inflammation.
4. Freshen your breath
Gargling with green tea can not only eliminate bad breath, but also kill bacteria. Brew the tea second or a third time, let it cool down and simply use it as a mouthwash!
5. Relax your feet
Infuse hot water with dry teabags or tea leaves and soak your feet in. It can eliminate foot odor, smoothen the skin and reduce aches or pains.
6. Acne? Say no more!
Apparently used green tea leaves work great on acne. Step 1, bub them onto your face. Step 2, wash them off. Step 3, wait for the magic to happen!
7. Make those mirrors shine
Green tea is great for cleaning mirrors. Brew a second pot of tea with a handful of used tea leaves. Leave it to cool and use it to clean your mirrors.
8. Remove toilet stains
Throw some used tea leaves into the bottom of the toilet bowl and leave them in there for 10 minutes. Then simply flush away, the stains in the bowl should go with them.
9. Feed them to your plants
Bury the teabags (if they’re biodegradable – did you know most teabags have plastic in them?) or tea leaves at the base of your plant. The use of tea for plant growth will nourish the root system, aid in moisture retention and can suppress weed growth. Otherwise, you can simply sun dry them first and sprinkle them on top.
10. Water your plants
Soak the tea leaves in water for a couple of days. Remove the tea leaves, (rotten tea leaves attract pests), and use the tea water as fertilizer.
Bonus: Bring out the artist in you – forget watercolors or oils, try painting with tea instead! Depending upon the flavors, you can even invent your own unique color palette. Let your imagination flow.
Let us know in the comments below if you use brewed tea leaves in any other way! 🙂
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