Broken Eggshells Can Serve A Handy Purpose When Doing Dishes

The best hacks tend to be ones that cost nothing: using something you already have to make your life easier. By using eggshells to help wash your dishes, you can turn what's destined for the trash into a useful cleaning tool.

When washing dishes, items like bottles, vases, and jars can be especially tricky to clean. These beloved décor items often need to be washed by hand, and unless you have a long-handled brush of just the right size, there's no real way to scrub out the inside. That's where eggshells come in.

Eggshells might seem fragile, but they're actually surprisingly strong for their size. They're made mostly of calcium carbonate. When crushed up, this tough material has an excellent scrubby texture for cleaning. You can even use crushed eggshells to scrub stubborn residue from your pots and pans, adding extra cleaning power to your everyday soap and sponge. However, eggshells are especially handy for scrubbing places your sponge can't reach: the insides of bottles, vases, and other tricky-shaped items. 

For this hack, you'll want to avoid the gooey eggshells left after cracking a raw egg. Instead, set aside eggshells when you're peeling hard-boiled eggs. You can keep them frozen in a freezer bag until you need them.

When you're ready to scrub out that vase or bottle, crush up your eggshells. You can use something hard, like a pestle or the bottom of a glass, to crush the shells while they're still in the freezer bag. Then, sprinkle some of the crushed eggshells into the opening of the item you need to clean. Drizzle in a bit of dish soap, and add enough warm water to swirl around. The eggshells will act as a natural abrasive, scrubbing the inside of the container when you swirl it the same way a sponge or brush would. 

While this hack might not get the most stubborn of gunk out, it's perfect for removing everyday dust and dirt inside vases, bottles, and jars. Plus, it's a great way to give old eggshells a second life before they hit the trash or compost bin.