10 Neat Ways to Reuse Tea Bags and Tea Leaves
10 Neat Ways to Reuse Tea Bags and Tea Leaves
In tea-drinking households like mine, used tea bags can pile up pretty quickly. If you’re in the same situation you may find yourself asking, “How many times can you reuse tea bags? Is there anything I can do to be less wasteful?”
Thankfully the answer is yes! There are many ways that you can quickly and easily reuse teabags to get the maximum benefit out of your tea drinking addiction and hopefully help the earth a little along the way.
10. Draw Out Infection
It has been known for centuries that tea leaves have antibacterial properties
For the treatment of minor cuts, boils, and burns, brew yourself a nice cup of tea and extract the teabag. Place it on a clean, dry surface and wait for it to cool to a comfortable level before applying it to your injury.
It goes without saying that you should seek medical attention for severe injuries, but for minor ones, this handy home remedy will help them heal without infection.
9. Fertilize Your Flowers
Loose leaf tea and compostable teabags can be buried around flowers, such as roses, to give them an extra boost. Tea leaves are rich in nitrogenous material, which helps to balance the soil.
Just make sure that your teabag is compostable before you bury it near your precious plants! If not you’ll have to cut it open and extract the tea leaves before treating your soil with them.
8. Give Your Eyes Spa-style Treatment
Green teas and black teas contain caffeine which may help to reduce puffiness and swelling around the eyes by constricting blood vessels.
According to healthline.com, “Black and green teas also contain antioxidants called flavonoids and tannins that have an anti-inflammatory effect.”
All you have to do is brew your tea normally, then remove the teabags and press out the extra liquid. Either let the teabags cool down until it’s a comfortable temperature to put on your eyes or set it on a clean dish in the fridge for 10 to 20 minutes for a chillier effect.
Then simply press the tea bags to your eyes, kick back and relax for 5-10 minutes while they do their thing.
7. Start a Fire
There are two angles to this one.
First, if you want to explore heated air currents to a young student in your life, this tea bag “rocket” trick is a fun and practical way to demonstrate.
However, for the campers and emergency preppers among us, tea bags can also make great DIY firestarters in a pinch.
Simply let your used teabag dry, then take the dried tea bag and soak it in paraffin or candle wax, once they have absorbed all the wax and cooled down, store them in a plastic baggy.
6. Pamper Your Skin
Green tea packs a powerful punch of antioxidants that can help prevent cancer and fight premature aging! Green tea does many other great things for your skin too, like reduce redness and inflammation, treat acne, and help moisturize!
Who wouldn’t want to tap into those wonderful benefits, especially when it’s so cheap and easy to do?
We LOVE this green tea face mask recipe from healthline.com!
5. A Tea Rinse to Protect Your Tresses
Green tea in particular is a good one here, though black tea and herbal blends can also come in clutch.
Some research has shown that green tea may help prevent hair loss, support healthy growth, and improve nutrient delivery to follicles.
All you have to do to activate these benefits is brew a cup of tea and apply it to your hair at the end of your shower. Let the tea soak in, no need to rinse.
You can even do this with your used teabags by using 2 or 3 used tea bags to replicate the strength of one fresh one. Used tea bags can be stored in a small amount of water in your fridge for a day or two before you apply them to your hair treatments.
You want a strong tea for this as weak tea may have lesser benefits.
4. Absorb Unwanted Odours
Simply stick a few used teabags in a small cup or bowl in the back of your fridge. The tea will do all the hard work of absorbing unwanted orders. Freshen the teabags every couple of days for maximum stink reduction.
You can also absorb foot odors from your shoes by placing unused teabags in them.
3. Refresh Your Leather Shoes Wood Floors and Furniture
Take your used teabags and press out the extra moisture. You can then gently rub the damp tea bags over your leather shoes, bags, or furniture in a gentle circular motion to clean and polish. This will remove grime and debris and leave your leather looking fresh.
As a note, it’s always a good idea to spot-test when using anything on leather, even something as gentle and natural as this method!
You can use this same trick on your wood floors and furniture as the tannins in the tea will bring out the natural sine of the wood!
2. Fuel that Compost Pile
Even if you don’t want to dig around in the garden strategically planting teabags beneath your rose bushes, throwing them in the compost bucket will get you many of the same benefits out of nitrogen-rich tea bags in a less concentrated area.
1 Dye Paper and Fabrics!
Many of us probably remember this technique from our grade school days and it can create a charming antiqued effect! Simply dip the white object of your choice in a strong brew or apply tea bags directly to it.
Some amazing artists take this a step further and can even paint with tea!
