Don’t Throw Away Your Tea Bags - Here are 17 Things You Can Do Instead!

Who does not like to have a cup of hot tea during a cold day?  This super-healthy drink can reduce stress. Most people throw the tea bag immediately after steeping without knowing that they have many purposes and can be used in different ways!

Here are 17 excellent ways in which you can use them:

Keep Hands Smelling Fresh

Meals that include spices, garlic, fish, or crabs can leave a strong smell on your hands. So, you can rub them with a moist tea in order to absorb the scent and leave them smelling fresh. To obtain the best results, make sure to use tea bags with stronger scents, like peppermint.

Compost Them

To deter pests and nurture the soil with nutrients, compost tea bags or water the plants with a brew made from the leftover tea. You can use tea bags by your choice.

Quick Mouthwash

To make your breath fresher, soak an old tea bag in warm water and use it as a mouthwash. It is recommended to use sage and rosemary tea bags or unused peppermint and spearmint tea bags.

Treat Infections

To treat fever blisters, pink eye, canker sores, and topical afflictions, just apply warm used tea bags on the affected area. You can use tea by your choice, but keep in mind that herbal teas have potent anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties.

Eliminate bad smells

Tea leaves can effectively absorb odors so they are ideal for eliminating the bad smell from the fridge, kitty litter, trash can, carpet, etc.

*Fridge: Place old used tea bags in the fridge.

*Carpet: Sprinkle dried tea leaves from your tea bags over the rugs and carpets. Let them stand for a while then vacuum them up.

*Cat litter: Mix the dried tea leaves directly in the kitty litter to prevent the spread of the odor.

*Trash: Place the tea bags in the trash container.

Soothe Razor Burn

To soothe the skin and diminish the rash, you should moisten up a few tea bags with warm water and apply them as a compress on the razor burn. It is recommended to use herbs like lavender and chamomile tea bags.

Hair Rinse

You can use old tea bags to soften your hair, rejuvenate it, and get a brand new shine. You should prepare a weak tea and use it to rinse your hair after shampooing the hair. Use tea by your choice!

A Portable Custom Air Freshener

Tea bag can be used as an air freshener. Just tie a tea bag in the car. You can also add a few drops of some essential oil and hang it up to get a natural air freshener. It is recommended to use lavender, jasmine, or mint tea bags.

Prevent Grease from Sticking to Your Dishes

The used tea bags can eliminate the grease and burned-on foods from the pots and dishes. You should soak a few tea bags in the dish, and rinse in the morning.

Enrich Your Tub

Leave the tea bag soak in the bath or just leave the bath water run over the used tea bag. It is recommended to use green, jasmine, rosemary, lavender, chamomile, calendula, white, and peppermint tea bags.

Keep Mice at bay

Mice, ants, and spiders do not like the smell of mint. This means that you can use your old mint tea bag as a natural, effective repellent.

You can place it in the cabinets, in corners, or by the doors. It is recommended to use peppermint and spearmint tea bags.

Relaxation and Anti-inflammatory Properties

Due to their potent anti-inflammatory properties, tea bags can relax the body and treat tired eyes, toothaches, sunburn, bug bites, blisters, bruises, etc.

A toothache: Put a warm teabag over the area on the outside to soothe a toothache.

Tired or puffy eyes: Just moisten 2 old tea bags and put them on the eyes. Let it stand for a few minutes.

Blister: To treat the blister, use a warm teabag.

Sunburn: Just apply a few moistened tea bags over the affected area.

Bruises: Moisten the tea bag with warm water and place it over the affected area to accelerate the healing of the bruises.

Bug bites: To take the sting out of a bug bite and soothe the itching, apply a moistened tea bag over the affected area. It is recommended to use peppermint, chamomile, lavender, and calendula tea bags.

Healthier Plants

In order to boost the growth of your plants, just put a few used tea bags in the bottom of the flower pots. This will keep the soil moist. Due to the fact that plants hate caffeine, you can use herbal tea bags.

Treat Warts

Old tea bags can effectively treat warts. Just moisten up an old tea bag with warm water, apply it on the wart and let it stand for a while. You should do this at least once daily. It is recommended to use green tea.

A Homemade Dye

You can use old tea bags to highlight the hair and get green, orange, and brown tones. Old tea bags can be used to dye cards, homemade crafts, cloth, and paper for gifts.

You can also use old tea bags to dye your hair or stain wood. Black tea will give you brown color, green tea will give you a light green shade, and hibiscus will give you reddish and pinkish highlight.

Prepare Gourmet Dishes

You can add flavor to your rice, pasta and quinoa by adding old teabags to your dishes. All you have to do is place an old tea bag in a pot with boiling water. After a while, remove it. It is recommended to use jasmine, chai, cinnamon, and green tea.

Stop Poison Ivy

To treat poison ivy or a blister from the rash on the skin, you should apply an old tea bag on the affected area. However, you can warm the tea bag with some warm water as well.

Then, apply it on the affected area. It is recommended to use peppermint tea due to its ability to relieve the itching and soothe the skin.

Storing old tea bags

In order to be sure that your old tea bags will help you to get the best results, make sure to store them properly for the time you will need them. It is recommended to keep them at room temperature for 24 hours. Then, refrigerate them.