7 Expired Foods That Can Be Used In Unbelievable Ways

Sometimes it’s a shame to dispose expired foods.  They can expire before you know, and it feels like you’ve wasted something perfectly useful.  If you have expired foods filling up space that you don’t want to just throw away, don’t worry!  Here are some unexpected but helpful uses for your expired products!

1) Mayonnaise

This thick condiment can easily fill up fridge space for months, but if you’ve discovered yours is past its prime, don’t toss it. Because mayonnaise has a high oil content, it has a variety of excellent cleaning properties.  If you have any stainless steel that’s looking dirty, it can be as simple as using mayo and a paper towel to rub away any grime.  Mayo can also be used to cover scratches on wooden surfaces, by coating with a generous amount and leaving overnight.  By letting it sit for about an hour, mayonnaise can also be used to clean watermarks on wooden surfaces, or any residue from adhesives.  You’ll want to wipe the previously-mayoed spots thoroughly once it’s removed, and then you’ve done it.  If you’re feeling bold, you can try using mayonnaise for paint, piano keys, or fake plants.  This is one expired food you’ll want to hold on to.

2) Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt has plenty of health options when eaten, but who knew how useful it was even outside your body?  If you have expired Greek yogurt, you can use it as a face mask, spreading it on your face for about twenty to thirty minutes.  It may sound strange, but Greek yogurt actually has a lot of healthful properties, thanks to the large amount of lactic acid present.  For dry skin, it offers plenty of moisture to the skin.  It also exfoliates any dead skin on your face and helps fight and prevent acne.  Greek yogurt even helps tighten skin and sooth any irritation you may be feeling.  And if you feel like your skin is extra dry, you can mix in some honey or avacado (also expired, if you so desire), for that extra moisturizing flaire.  It’s important to remember that using this daily might cause skin irritation, so it is advised to be used once a week at most.  But otherwise, this creamy food can be the saving grace for your skin.

3) Eggshells

This useful hack doesn’t even need to be expired to help you out.  Of course, if you do have expired eggs, it is simple enough to throw out the yolk and white, and hang on to the eggshells.  If you are interested in gardening, eggshells are a perfect tool.  They are filled with calcium and minerals, which are benificial to plants.  They help strengthen the cell walls of plants, especially tomatoes.  All you need to do is break up the eggshells into smaller pieces, and till them into the soil around your plants.  You don’t need to bury them deep in the soil, just the top layer works fine.  It takes a few months for the eggshells to break down, but you can continuously add eggshells whenever you’re ready.  That way, once your plants absorb the minerals, they recieve a continuous supply.

4) Avocado

It’s really unfortunate how fast avocados expire, considering how delicious they are.  But don’t worry, this is another expired food with tons of useful, healthful benifits, but for this one, it’s in your hair.  Avocados are filled with tons of vitamins, fatty acids, proteins, magnesium, iron, and copper.  Place it into your hair for about an hour, and you’ll be feeling the effects in no time.  It has a strong moisturizing factor for dry hair.  It’s nutrients promote increased hair growth, guarding against future damage or dryness, and overall hair quality.  Avocado even helps hair that already has been damaged and improves its shine and strength.

5) Spices

Spices may take a long time to expire, but they can always end up pushed to the far corner of a shelf and forgotten about.  If that’s happened to you, you can always find uses for these expired spices for candles.  Some candles lose their scent too quickly, or you can always experiment in making your own.  These old spices can be mixed and matched to your preference.  Some of the best smelling choices are ginger, cinnamon, clove, or vanilla bean.  Of course, it’s all up to you!  Citrus juices, like lemon, lime, and orange, are excellent matches for many spices.  To get the spices fully diffused into your candle, you’ll want to heat up the candle first, letting the wax melt so you can stir in your ingredients.  The more wax is melted, the longer your improvised candles will keep their new scent.  If you want to experiment with flavor combinations more, you can just mix in shorter layers at a time, to experience a full variety of scents.

See Also

25 Things For People Obsessed With Brunch

6) Butter

This is a simpler use of expired foods, but butter can be useful even after it’s time.  If you have rusty door hinges, or any other old hinge, butter is an excellent grease.  Simply spread some softened butter around the hinge.  This should help with any stiff hinges, or even with sound.  Squeaky doors can be incredibly annoying, but butter can actually solve that noise problem.  It only takes a little bit of butter to do this, so you can keep reusing this trick for as long as you need.

7) Fruit Peels

Fruits are another food to quickly go past its prime.  Surpringly, fruit peels have a variety of cleaning uses.  Any rotten bananas can be salvaged for their peels, which are great for leather.  Rub leather shoes vigorously with a banana peel to buff and polish them. 

You may want to wipe any excess fruit of them afterward, but they should be looking good as new.  Citrus peels also have good cleaning uses, though this trick takes a little preperation time.  You will need drop any old citrus peels into a jar of vinegar, and let it sit for two weeks, and then you’ll have an strong, better-smelling cleaning solvent, that can be used on many hard surfaces.

Do you have your own expired products with unexpected uses?  Let us know in the comments below!