A big part of being prepared for hard times and everyday eventualities is having the right supplies on hand. Preppers and homesteaders are smart to stock up on the things they need to keep a clean house, deal with messes, and handle countless other chores.
But the problem, so much of the time, is a lack of storage space. Stocking up on all of the products that you use day in and day out will eat up space on your shelves, in your closets, and everywhere else that you keep your supplies.
A much better solution is to simplify with multipurpose products, and there is nothing I know of better in that regard than humble borax. It’s good for a whole lot more than just doing a daily load of laundry, as you will soon learn from this list of 40 awesome uses.
Remove Tough Laundry Stains
Borax is best known for its usefulness in the laundry room, and it’s a great tough stain remover to boot.
Whip up your own stain-fighting solution with a little water. Mix a tablespoon of borax and two tablespoons of water, work it into the stain, and let it sit for half an hour prior to washing.
Clean Stubborn Cast Iron Pans
Cast iron needs special care to protect the seasoning, but burned-on food can be really hard to remove. Get rid of it easily by mixing a little borax with coarse salt, then scrubbing with a rag or brush.
Clean Sinks, Showers, Tubs, and More
Borax is a powerful and safe cleaning agent, and it’s especially good for scrubbing surfaces that tend to accumulate soap scum.
Sprinkle some borax on the surface and then use a dampened sponge or rag. A little elbow grease makes all the difference. When the surface is clean, rinse it with fresh water.
Scrub and Freshen Toilets
Easily keep your toilets sparkling clean and smelling fresh with this trick. Pour about one cup of borax into a full toilet bowl and stir it with your toilet brush. Let it sit for at least a few hours or overnight, then scrub before flushing.
Brighten Dingy Carpet
Most household carpets will accumulate a lot of dirt over time in spite of you vacuuming them regularly. Breathe new life into them by combining a half cup of borax with two cups of warm water. Make a bigger batch with these ratios for large areas.
Scrub it into the carpet and let it sit for at least a half hour, then vacuum it out with a floor cleaning machine or let it dry. Be sure to test on an inconspicuous area before you commit.
Dramatically Freshen Rugs and Outdoor Carpeting
Rugs and outdoor carpeting are subject to abuse beyond what occurs inside. Both tend to get quite smelly over time! Knock out the odors by combining dry borax and baking soda in a 1:1 ratio. Sprinkle it on generously, work it in thoroughly, and then vacuum it out.
Deodorize Clothing, Towels, Blankets, and More
It’s possible to remove odoros from fabrics without washing, too. Grab a clean spray bottle, add a pint of water and a half cup of borax. Gently mist clothing, towels, blankets, furniture, curtains, and more. As always, test for colorfastness in a hidden spot before you go all in.
Make DIY Air Freshener
A solution of borax, water, and a few drops of your favorite essential oil in a spray bottle makes for an awesome and safe homemade air freshener.
In one cup of warm water, add 2 to 3 drops of essential oil and a single tablespoon of borax. Stir thoroughly until completely combined. Take care to test it on delicate surfaces.
Wipe Out Weeds
Borax is brutally effective and safe against weed. Sprinkle it directly on the roots of live weeds or in driveway and sidewalk gaps where you don’t want them to grow. Just take care because it can harm other plants! Reapply after it rains or when you water.
Fertilize Garden and Landscaping Plants
As mentioned, borax can be harmful to plants you want to keep, but trace amounts of it can fortify soil with needed minerals. Perform a comprehensive soil test, and if your soil is showing a boron deficiency, watering in tiny amounts of borax can correct it.
Give Your Trees a Boost
Concentrated borax can easily hurt or kill small and delicate plants, but it won’t bother trees. The boost of boron can definitely help them, though, especially fruiting trees!
Take about a cup or a little less and sprinkle it around the root zone of your trees to give them a boost of needed minerals.
Stop Stumps from Regrowing
If you have dealt with any stumps from trees that have fallen or been cut down, and don’t want shoots developing into a malformed shrub, weekly applications of borax will stop that. Just pour it generously on the stump once a week.
Wash Dishes
If you’re out of dish soap or don’t want to stock piles, borax makes a great substitute.
Combine borax with any shredded hard soap of your choice in a one-to-one ratio, a couple of tablespoons at a time, then mix that into boiling water. Once the mixture cools, you can store it and use it just like your usual dish soap.
Unclog a Stopped Sink Drain
Borax and a little boiling water work wonders on stubborn clogs and slow-moving drains. Add about a half cup of borax to the drain and let it settle, then slowly pour steaming hot water in behind it. Let it sit and repeat if needed. Flush the drain with hot water when clear.
Clear a Toilet Clog
The above trick also works well for clogged toilets. Add anywhere from a half cup to one cup of borax to the toilet bowl and let it sit for up to half an hour. Pour in steaming hot water behind it. Plunge and repeat as needed until the drain is clear.
Scrub Away Mold and Mildew
Nothing makes your house feel nastier than mold. Deal with it once and for all by mixing a quart of hot water and one cup of borax in a spray bottle. Spray it on the affected areas and let it sit for a few hours before scrubbing, rinsing, and repeating as needed.
Clean Grubby Countertops
Dingy countertops are no match for borax. Mix a few tablespoons of vinegar and borax in a bowl or spray bottle in a 2:1 ratio, then add hot water sufficient for your cleaning task and a dab of dish soap. Scrub the surface with a sponge or rag.
Clean and Freshen Your Refrigerator
Musty refrigerators often just need a good cleaning to make them fresh again. A powerful but gentle cleanser for the fridge interior can be made by mixing a quart of warm water with a tablespoon or two of borax. Use the countertop cleaning recipe above on the outside of the fridge.
Mop Your Floors
Whip up a fine floor cleaner with vinegar, water, dish soap, and borax. Grab your bucket and add a half cup of vinegar, 1/4 cup of borax, a dash of dish soap, and plenty of hot water. Stir to combine, then mop as normal.
Clean and Freshen Brushes
Borax is just the ticket for cleaning all kinds of brushes, including hair brushes, shaving brushes, paintbrushes, and more.
Fill a sink or small bucket with warm water, add about a quarter cup of borax and a little shot of dish soap. Mix, then soak the brushes for half an hour. Rinse with fresh water and leave to dry.
Clean Your Mattress
Mattresses are notoriously difficult to clean and freshen. But once again, borax comes to the rescue!
You can use the recipe for deodorizing clothing, rugs, or carpet on your mattresses, depending on how dirty and smelly they are. Borax works great on pet and bedwetting accidents too!
Freshen a Grubby Garbage Can
Hardly anything’s nastier than a neglected garbage can. Make quick work of a smelly job by filling up your trash can with water and adding between one and four cups of borax depending on the size of the can. Stir everything thoroughly, let it soak, then dump, scrub, and rinse.
Tame Litter Box Odor
Help keep litter box odors under control by stirring in a quarter cup of dry borax into your preferred kitty litter. And don’t worry; it’s safe for your favorite feline.
Smother a Fire!
Accidental fires in the kitchen or anywhere else are no joke. If you don’t have a fire extinguisher handy or just want to be prepared, you can use a large quantity of dry borax for the job.
Throw as much as you need on the base of the fire until it goes out. It works great for grease fires in an overheated pan.
Clean Filthy Glass
Hitting filthy glass with glass cleaner usually just makes an even bigger mess. Pre-clean it with a mixture of three cups of water and two tablespoons of borax. Scrub away the grime, then follow up with glass cleaner for a brilliant shine.
Scrub Scummy Patio Furniture
Outdoor furniture always accumulates a patina of grubby dirt and muck. You can easily eliminate it by making a sudsy wash in a bucket. Fill it up with hot water, then add two tablespoons of borax and dish detergent. Scrub the furniture with a sponge or brush as needed.
Eliminate Rust
Borax and lemon juice make a powerful, but safe, rust eliminator. Combine them in a 1:1 ratio in a quantity sufficient for your job. Mop or wipe it onto the rusty surface and let it sit for around half an hour. Rinse, wipe dry, and then lubricate as necessary to prevent recurrence.
Remove Sticky Slime and Messes
Borax is marvelously effective at degrading and removing sticky, slimy, and tarry substances. Start with a half cup of borax and add a quarter cup of water or a little less, aiming for a thin, paste consistency. Apply and work it into the mess to loosen it.
Preserve Blooms
If you want to preserve beautiful dried blooms as a decorative centerpiece or for any other purpose, you can use a bowl or tray full of borax as a drying agent, like you would with silica gel.
Do Science Experiments With Your Kids
When I was in high school, our science teacher performed all sorts of neat, safe experiments with borax to get us kids interested.
There are lots of experiments out there you can do, from making safe, fun slime to super bouncy balls. You can even use it to make multicolored flames! Do an internet search, and you’ll come up with a bunch.
Safely Clean Instrument Strings
An old musician’s trick. Whether you’ve got a banjo, guitar, violin, mandolin, or something else, borax is perfect for periodically cleaning them and keeping them in good shape.
Use a weak mixture of water and borax, about one tablespoon of borax to a cup of water, and make sure to dry the strings thoroughly.
Remove Oil Stains
One of my very favorite tricks on this list. Add water to borax until it forms a thick paste, apply enough to cover an oil stain on your driveway or in the garage.
Let it sit there for a few hours before rinsing it away with water and then repeating as needed. A few applications will reduce or eliminate the stain.
Dull Skunk Odor
If you’ve ever had this happen to you, a loved one, or a pet, you know it’s the worst. There’s not much you can do to completely eliminate the odor, but borax will surely help.
Add a few tablespoons of borax to 4 cups of warm water with a generous shot of dish soap. Sponge the solution on and then rinse well with fresh water. Repeat to reduce the odor.
Make Improvised Fire-Retardant Fabric
This clever trick has been around for quite a while, though it is little known today, and it’s perfect for camping gear, grilling gear, rugs near fireplaces, and more. Combine one tablespoon of borax per cup of water. Simply soak your fabric in the solution, then hang it up to completely dry.
Craft DIY Candle Wicks
If you make homemade artisanal candles, you are in luck. Combining three tablespoons of borax, a tablespoon of salt, and one cup of boiling water makes a great wick coating.
Simply soak twine in the prepared solution for an entire day, then hang it up so it straightens out, giving it two days to dry. Presto!
Control Moisture and Humidity
Dry borax can be used in bowls, trays, and other small containers for moisture control in crawl spaces, basements, closets, attics, and more. Check on it frequently and replace as it starts to get damp.
Kill Ants
Savvy homeowners have likely heard about this trick from their great-grandparents. Combining equal parts of sugar and borax makes an irresistible poison bait for ants.
Once they haul it back home to the colony and the queen eats some, colony collapse will be inevitable—and then no more ants!
Repel Other Bugs
Borax can poison bugs, but it can also repel them. Sprinkling dry borax around cracks and crevices where insects might sneak in will keep them at bay. Use it around doors and windows, in pantries, on rugs and carpets, and anywhere else you think you need it.
Eliminate Flea Infestations
If any of your animals are suffering from flea infestations, borax can prove to be a potent but largely safe remedy.
You can sprinkle dry borax on bedding and pet pads, or mix a strong solution of one part borax to two cups of water as a cleanser. Let it sit for a couple of hours, then vacuum out or allow it to dry as required.
Repel Rodents
Borax is also useful for keeping away mammalian pests like rodents. You know the drill: generously sprinkle the stuff anywhere you think they might be congregating, traveling, or sneaking into your home or outbuildings.
Tom Marlowe practically grew up with a gun in his hand, and has held all kinds of jobs in the gun industry: range safety, sales, instruction and consulting, Tom has the experience to help civilian shooters figure out what will work best for them.