18 Surprising Uses For Chalk Around The House

Chalk is a surprisingly versatile crafting material that has quite a few unexpected uses around the house that will make your life much easier. While you may think it's only real uses is as writing devices for children on a sidewalk or driveway, in reality, chalk is a little miracle worker that helps with a number of hacks around the house, from odor control to pest maintenance. Primarily composed of calcium carbonate, chalk's slightly abrasive nature, coupled with its natural ability to absorb moisture, means it can do a whole lot in your household other than serving as a writing tool or children's toy.

While you may be familiar with household baking soda cleaning hacks and natural cleaning solutions you can DIY, many of these chalk tricks are even easier to do when it comes to cleaning. In other cases that don't necessarily call for cleaning, chalk makes the most annoying tasks all the easier to execute. Similarly, the calcium-rich material can also be used in the garden and tool shed — talk about versatility! Here are is our exhaustive list of how you can put those chalk stubs to good use. 

Though silver is a hallmark of quality tableware, exposure to light, moisture, and air can actually cause your fancy forks and spoons to darken and tarnish over time. A few pieces of chalk, however, can help mitigate said discoloration. Place the chalk in the same drawer or box your silverware (or even silver jewelry) is in to absorb moisture and stave off humidity. While it may not prevent tarnishing completely, it significantly slows the process down so you won't have to polish your silver (a painstaking task) as often.

A few pieces of regular chalk stored in an open baggie at the bottom of your hamper helps improve the odorous scents coming from your dirty laundry. Like with silverware, the chalk absorbs moisture and keeps that funky, mildew-adjacent laundry smell from taking over the bedroom or laundry room. Replace the chalk every few weeks or once a month to maintain the hamper's freshness. You can also do this same trick in your closet, placing the chalk inside your closet doors to absorb additional humidity and prevent your clean clothes from developing that stale smell.

Chalk is a natural repellent against ants since it disrupts their ability to lay down a scent trail. Thus, if you draw a line on the ground, ants are physically unable to cross it because it confuses their sense of direction. Try making some subtle marks along spots that are open to the outdoors to prevent ants from entering your home. Places like window sills and door thresholds are great to try this hack out on. Only use regular chalk for this idea though, and avoid insecticide chalks, a substance that is actually banned in the U.S.

Over time, your lock mechanisms may accumulate dust and grime from the outside world, clogging it up and making your lock sticky and, therefore, your key more difficult to use. To clear that gunk out, coat your key in crushed chalk dust and then slide it into the lock, moving it around as best you can. Repeat this process several times until it feels like the key is going in smoothly. The chalk soaks up dirt, grime, and moisture, clearing the way for your keys.

There's something particularly frustrating when you're trying to turn a screw, and it keeps slipping from the your screwdriver head. Chalk, however, can help prevent that by adding a level of friction between the screw and screwdriver so that they stick better together. Rub a chunk of chalk onto the screw's head, coating it just enough so that you don't have excess chalk obstructing the screw's surface, and then watch the driver magically cooperate with your project.

How often are you left with several stubs of random chalk that look unusable once they've been used time and time again on the sidewalk? You can lengthen your chalk's crafting potential by creating an easy DIY crushed chalk paint. Crunch up the chalk in a sealed baggie with a hammer and simply add water. Don't be afraid to mix and match colors, either — the end result is a fun, new crafting material for your children or even a useful chalk paint for household projects.

Leverage chalk's chemical makeup by creating an all-natural polishing paste to use on the trickier surfaces around the house. Since chalk, like baking soda, is naturally slightly abrasive, it works well to slough off grime from marble surfaces or pewter décor pieces. Crush some chalk bits up and mix it with vodka until you get a paste-like consistency. Rub the paste onto your surfaces and let it set for a few moments. Clean the paste off and then buff the surface with a clean cloth to reveal a beautiful shine.

The hazard of wearing white clothes, particularly shirts with white collars, is that it's susceptible to staining, discoloration, and visible grease spots. But chalk can save your whites from those unfortunate stains. Rub some white chalk at the discolored areas, and once it's covered, let it sit for about 10 minutes. Throw your pieces in the wash as you would regularly, wiping off any excess chalk from any areas you don't want to bleach. After washing, the chalk should have absorbed any of the grease, oil, or discoloration to make your shirts look new again!

While chalk can't completely fix any scratches that show up on furniture, floors, or walls, it can camouflage any imperfections until you're ready to tackle a bigger project. Grab some chalk in the same color of the item you're fixing — white for white walls or brown for wooden furniture, for example — and draw over the ding for a fast solution. You may have to repeat this over time, but it is a decent stop gap until you can repaint or re-stain the area for a complete fix.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to sharpen up those craft scissors is by cutting through several pieces of chalk. While it may sound counter intuitive to try to cut through a thick substance with a dull blade, chalk's abrasive nature actually sharpens the scissors by wearing down build up and filling any marks on the blade that dulls it. Eventually, you should sharpen your scissors properly, however, this chalk hack works great in a pinch when you're trying to get through a project.

You may not know that you can use chalk to write directly on metal or glass (or really any non-porous surface) and that it's an unexpectedly useful tool for labeling items in your pantry or fridge. Rather than using more permanent labels or markers that are tough to remove, use chalk so that you can easily wipe the label away and reuse the container for a different item. It's quick, clean, and easy to reorganize and reuse things in your cupboards!

Getting an oil stain on your favorite purse or leather jacket is such a pain, but chalk can help lift that unsightly spot from your favorite pieces. Rub chalk all over the stain, then lay down some paper towels on top of it. To ensure that the chalk actually absorbs the grease, apply pressure with a heavy weight (like a book or vase) and let it sit for a while, even as long as overnight. Remove the weight and paper towel in the morning and gently remove the remaining chalk to reveal your spot free leather.

Chalk makes rearranging your furniture easier by helping you plan your designs and movements before any literal heavy lifting. Draw your potential design ideas on your floor, laying out where each piece will go and outlining how much space each item will need. This will give you an idea of what your room may look like before occupying it with furniture. And after you decide on the best design, and place your furniture where you're happy with it, you can wipe up the chalk.

Chalk is the hack you'll need to hang your picture frames up perfectly every time. Rub some chalk onto the hangers on your frames, then put the frame up to the wall. Press the frame lightly onto the surface, and the chalk marks should transfer on to the wall. Put a screw or nail right where the hanger mark is for the perfect picture frame placement, without the hassle of trial and error. This hack is particularly useful for gallery walls, where you'll hanging many frames at once.

If you have any stubborn jewelry tangles or knots that you don't want to deal with, chalk may be the answer. Crush up some left over chalk stubs, then sprinkle the powder on top of the knot. The chalk acts like a dry lubricant and eases the knot slightly loose by applying small amounts of friction between the surfaces, creating enough space for you to pick at the knot and unravel the mess. Though it may still take some time to fully detangle all of your pieces, chalk can help make the process a little less frustrating.

Once again, chalk is great at camouflage, and it can fix any of those paint splatter or drip mistakes that you accidentally got onto your ceilings, walls, or floors. Draw over the paint spot with chalk that resembles the color of the surface the splatter is on to hide any discoloration. This hack works particularly well to fix paint splatters on white surfaces, but remember, you'll eventually head to the paint store to fix it fully!

Chalk's calcium-rich makeup can be beneficial for your garden soil, and adding crushed chalk powder may even enhance the growth of some of your plants. It effectively acts as a fertilizer for calcium loving flowers and vegetables, helping them grow healthier and even faster on some occasions. It may also help with warding off blossom-end rot, a condition that occurs due to low calcium content in the plant. Think of this hack as a lighter version of using traditional garden lime. 

Akin to the silver tarnishing hack, chalk can similarly keep your metal tools from rusting, or at least, significantly slow the process down. Just place a few pieces of chalk in your toolbox, and let it absorb the ambient humidity and moisture. It will help slow the rusting process even if you consistently use your metal tools in wet weather. However, if and when you find rust is accumulating onto your things, there is luckily an easy trick to remove rust from your gardening tools.