This article originally appeared at Drink of the Week
By barkeep
These are real uses for vodka in Russia. I originally posted this last year after a friend sent it to me. Some how I managed to delete it while updating the photo. Never drink and code, I guess. So back by popular demand: 15 (other) uses for vodka...
1. To remove a bandage painlessly, saturate the bandage with vodka. The solvent dissolves adhesive.
2. To clean the caulking around bathtubs and showers, fill a trigger-spray bottle with vodka, spray the caulking, let set five minutes and wash clean. The alcohol in the vodka kills mold and mildew.
3. To clean your eyeglasses, simply wipe the lenses with a soft, clean cloth dampened with vodka. The alcohol in the vodka cleans the glass and kills germs.
4. Prolong the life of razors by filling a cup with vodka and letting your safety razor blade soak in the alcohol after shaving. The vodka disinfects the blade and prevents rusting.
5. Spray vodka on vomit stains, scrub with a brush, and then blot dry.
6. Using a cotton ball, apply vodka to your face as an astringent to cleanse the skin and tighten pores.
7. Add a jigger of vodka to a 12-ounce bottle of shampoo. The alcohol cleanses the scalp, removes toxins from hair, and stimulates the growth of healthy hair.
8. Fill a sixteen-ounce trigger-spray bottle, and spray bees or wasps to kill them.
9. Pour one-half cup vodka and one-half cup water in a Ziploc freezer bag and freeze for a slushy, refreshable ice pack for aches, pain or black eyes.
10. Fill a clean, used mayonnaise jar with freshly packed lavender flowers, fill the jar with vodka, seal the lid tightly and set in the sun for three days. Strain liquid through a coffee filter, then apply the tincture to aches and pains.
11. To relieve a fever, use a washcloth to rub vodka on your chest and back as a liniment.
12. To cure foot odor, wash your feet with vodka.
13. Vodka will disinfect and alleviate a jellyfish sting.
14. Pour vodka over an area affected with poison ivy to remove the Urushiol oil from your skin.
15. Swish a shot of vodka over an aching tooth. Allow your gums to absorb some of the alcohol to numb the pain.
Comments
Best uses of vodka ever! (I try not to drink the stuff.)
Mar 24, 2011 at 1:43 PM
This is great! One of the best things I've learned from your site!
Mar 24, 2011 at 3:36 PM
Sounds like Walgreens should bottle it, put their label on it, and then stack it on the shelves next to the Witch Hazel.
Mar 24, 2011 at 4:07 PM
That's just out-rite alcohol abuse! That would be the day, you would see me, wasting perfectly good Vodka. The only one I might agree with, is for a tooth ache, but be assured, there will be no spitting out of the Vodka, LOL , and Tom, I could never imagine you filling a bottle with Vodka, to clean your shower. Maybe from the day after drinking it, what sweats from your pore's while in the shower. LOL.
Mar 24, 2011 at 6:15 PM
It has also been used to disinfect minor cuts, as a deodorant (Put some on a cotton ball and rub the underarms.)
Mar 24, 2011 at 7:52 PM
A friend of mine with an incontinent cat pours a generous amount of vodka on the area where the cat experienced its, um, urinary indiscretion. As it evaporates, apparently the urine and odor do as well. I haven't tried it--thankfully, my beasts don't have this issue--but he swears by it.
Mar 24, 2011 at 8:29 PM
I use vodka to make homemade vanilla extract. Put a few whole vanilla beans, along with the inner scrapings, into a new bottle of vodka. Let sit for a couple of weeks. Voila! Vanilla extract that is so fresh and delicious with cooking and baking. It lasts a long time, too.
Mar 24, 2011 at 10:52 PM
I read somewhere that soaking your sweat-tinged shirts in vodka before washing will prevent them from staining.
Mar 25, 2011 at 12:55 AM
It's an old theater trick to spray sweaty costumes with vodka and water to remove the stink.
Mar 25, 2011 at 3:42 AM
2
Great to know! I still like the one about the aching tooth. Then you drink the vodka to finish the numbing process!!!
Mar 25, 2011 at 11:13 AM
Most important: when you consumed just right amount of vodka you immediately stoped to think about all the nonsenses that you have mentioned about ... :-)
Mar 25, 2011 at 11:44 AM
this is totally brilliant. I now have lots of uses for the vodka we experimented with to make pepper vodka that turned out a bit too hot. Thanks!
Mar 25, 2011 at 1:30 PM
Please don't kill bees or wasps at all! They are dying off which is not good! We need bees to pollinate the food we eat!! So please don't use vodka this way! Thx!
Mar 25, 2011 at 6:25 PM
5
Or you could buy rubbing alcohol for 99 cents and do everything here (except swish it in your mouth).
Mar 25, 2011 at 8:08 PM
7
I would suspect that any clear 80 proof alcohol would do all the things mentioned in this article. Considering the price of vodka, (even the cheap stuff) you're better off using rubbing alcohol. Apparantly 'barkeep' has too much time on his/her hands.
Mar 26, 2011 at 12:46 PM
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Mar 27, 2011 at 4:57 PM
Carpita
I am using #15 right now and it works like a charm. Though I should probably see a dentist rather than swishing vodka all day, every day. Tough call.
Mar 31, 2011 at 4:52 PM
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