An Old Toothbrush is Your Handiest New Tool

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Before you use the toothbrush for any of the following purposes, it would be a good idea to disinfect it first. To do so, you may either just dip the old toothbrush in boiling hot water or clean it with some soap.

Use it for some spray painting”

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Take the paints of your choice – water colors, poster colors or fabric paints. Dilute them to a splashing consistency. Now just dip your old toothbrush in it and with your thumb stroke its bristles, go splashing! You’ll have colorful dots all around. (Please put a plain paper and spray on it to make the spray painting. Or a piece of fabric in case you want to paint one. Don’t go around splashing paint, mommey will scold you and me too! )

You could make pretty paint textures on paper too! Apply undiluted color from the tube on the paper, now take your old toothbrush and make a vertical line with it on the painted area. (Don’t let the paint dry, you have to be quick!) See, you now have a baby corduroy like ribbed texture on the paper. (The toothbrush will take some of the paint off from the paper)Now if you make a horizontal line over the vertical ones, you’ll get checks. Of course you can go crazy and make all sorts of shapes, curved lines or spirals. Choose a point and with the toothbrush draw small equal sized arc’s going out from this point, all around it. You have a pretty flower!

Color hair:

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Yup, you read it right, use it to color hair. Its very handy if you want to color your hair in streaks. Just dip it in the hair color of your choice, then apply the color on the desired section of hair. Comb with the toothbrush (containing the hair color) from the roots to the tip of your hair. It gets color onto each strand of your hair. Also works if you want to color your entire hair, but it might get tiring to color with a toothbrush, for that I advice you use the brush they provide with the hair color (unless there isn’t one!) For men or people with short hair even the toothbrush should work fine.

Comb eyelashes and eye brows:

With your old toothbrush. Very useful when you need to comb your eyelashes, especially after you have applied mascara. Just comb through after the mascara dries; it’ll leave them looking more natural. Go from inside out like when you apply your mascara, with an upward motion. It curls them and removes clumps!

Before you step out of the house, just brush your eyebrows with the old toothbrush.

To clean things

 You could use it to clean your computer keyboard. Take the dry toothbrush and run it through the keys. It will remove all the dust. You could use a wet soapy one to clean other parts of your computer.

Clean small/ hard to reach places:  like small neck bottles, lens cases, carved furniture, corners of a sofa, gas burner tops and electric coils, clean jewellery , etc. 

Clean combs and hair brushes:

This is my favorite! I’ve never bought a comb cleaner, always used my old toothbrush to clean my comb. Wet the toothbrush, apply some liquid soap on it like you apply toothpaste, then clean the teeth of the comb, like you brush your teeth, from top to bottom and back up to the top. Brush on both sides of the comb. The bristles can clean through the closest tooth combs like a pro, lets no dirt stay in. Wash off the soap with water.

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To clean your hair brush, run the dry toothbrush along the bristles of your hairbrush to get out all the broken hair stuck in the hairbrush.

Another tip: If you clean your comb and hair brushes every time you shampoo your hair, chances are you’ll never get dandruff. Try it.

For pedicure/manicure:

When I do a pedicure at home, I always trust my old toothbrush to clean the toe nails. Your pedicure/manicure kit will contain a brush to clean the nails. Use the old toothbrush just like you use the brush in the kit. I like the toothbrush better because its more convenient to hold it than the brush they provide in the kit.

I always keep an old toothbrush in my bathroom to clean my long finger nails. If yours are long too, chances are you often get food/stuff and dirt caught under the nails. Take some hand soap on the toothbrush and go cleaning under the nail to get it clean and free of any dirt or germs. Do this at least twice a week to keep your nails nice and clean.

Get stains off clothing:

Got a stubborn stain? Well, apply your stain remover and give the stain a nice scrub with the old toothbrush before you toss it into the washing machine. Or apply a drop of full strength washing liquid to the stain, give it a scrub with the toothbrush and then continue with the regular washing routine.

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Oh, my back is itching so badly, now where did I keep that old toothbrush!? (Don’t go ewe, it’s better than nails!)