10 reasons you shouldn’t throw away leftover lemon

There are many times when we’ve only needed half a lemon, or a small amount of juice from a lemon, for a recipe. Then, we just throw it away.

The old saying goes, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” Well, why stop there? We say, put the lemons to good use, and not just in recipes… Here’s how:

1. Natural ant repellant. Spray lemon juice around the areas that you see ants in your house or outside in places where you think they enter your home.

2. Soothe sunburns. Rub either a lemon you’ve already juiced, or just a fresh half of a lemon (give the other half to your other half or friend perhaps?) over sunburnt spots. It soothes on contact!

3. Lighten age spots. Dab a little lemon juice for a couple of days in a row on age spots, and watch them lighten and slowly vanish.

4. Freshen the whole house. Some lemon peels in a pot of water boiled gently until the water’s gone, leaves the whole house smelling lemony fresh.

5. Whiten and brighten fingernails. Either juice half a lemon in a small bowl of water and soak your fingernails in that for 10 minutes, or put your fingernails directly into a juiced lemon and let them sit for a while. Finish with a vinegar rinse, and your fingernails are stronger and brighter!

6. Natural weed killer. You can use lemon juice instead of harmful weed killers to get to those hard-to-remove weeds that always come back. For more efficiency, put the lemon juice in a garden hose filter, and soak the area thoroughly.

7. Store safely for future use. You can freeze fresh-squeezed lemon juice in ice cube trays to preserve in small amounts. It’s nice to have on hand when you forget to buy lemon for a recipe and don’t want to go to the shops for just one item.

8. Treat corns on your feet. Corns on feet are unsightly, but sometimes, they are just unavoidable. Lemon peels can help you overcome this. Rub the white side of a small bit of lemon peel over the corn and then tape it to your foot for a few hours. Repeat if necessary.

9. Dirty dishes. Lemon juice works great to cut the grease on dishes if you don’t have a dishwasher, but you can also use lemons in the dishwasher (in addition to dish detergent). Place a cut lemon in the top rack of the dishwasher to get that Jet-Dry clean, but make sure you secure it so that it doesn’t fly around during the wash.

10. Quickly clean a microwave. Minimise the time you spend wiping down the microwave if and when you use it. Squeeze the juice out of half a lemon and put it in a 1 cup of water in a microwave-safe bowl. Run the microwave for 5 minutes, and let steam build from the lemon juice – this helps cut down wiping time.

What do you use lemons for?