Each kitchen appliance has a designated purpose, whether it’s toasting bread, making coffee, heating up food, or mixing ingredients. But clever homeowners can think outside the box and use their appliances to accomplish a multitude of unexpected tasks. Did you know, for example, that you can clean hardware in your Crock-Pot and wash throw pillows in your dishwasher? Check out these 10 genius ways to hack your appliances.
By Jennifer Noonan
Make Fresh Breadcrumbs in the Coffee Grinder
Need breadcrumbs on the fly? You can whip some up in a flash with an ordinary coffee grinder and a fresh loaf of bread. It’s nearly as easy as pouring breadcrumbs from a can—and much tastier to boot!
Wash Throw Pillows in the Dishwasher
Tossing throw pillows into the washing machine leads to mangled stuffing and damaged fabric. Instead, load the pillows (without their cases) into the top rack of the dishwasher. Run them through a cycle—use borax instead of dishwasher detergent to avoid suds—and skip the heated dry option. Hang them up to dry afterwards.
Warm Plates in the Toaster Oven
When you put hot food on a cold plate, your meal’s temperature dips a notch. Nobody likes tepid dinners, so warm your plates on the lowest setting of your toaster oven for five minutes before loading them up.
Clean Hardware in the Crock-Pot
After years of use, hardware becomes covered in caked-on paint and grime. Eliminate the mess with none other than your trusty Crock-Pot. Simply place the pieces of hardware in the appliance, cover them with water, and set your slow cooker to “low” overnight. When you open up the Crock-Pot in the morning, the paint will slide right off your hardware—score!
Dehydrate Food in the Oven
Dried fruits and meats taste incredible, but commercial food dehydrators can cost a pretty penny. As a budget-friendly alternative, make your own dehydrator by stacking several cooling racks on top of each other, separated by balls of aluminum foil in each corner. Place the stacked racks in the bottom of your oven (you’ll probably need to remove the oven racks) and set the temperature to 200 degrees. In four to six hours, you’ll be able to enjoy perfectly dried fruit, vegetables, and jerky!
Roast Coffee Beans in the Air Popper
Attention coffee lovers! You can roast your own beans in an ordinary air popper (preferably an older model, which will reach a higher temperature). You’ll need to set up a container to catch the chaff as the beans crack, and a strainer or colander for cooling the finished product. Enjoying custom-roasted coffee at home has never been easier!
Cook a Meal with a Keurig
Any processed food that requires boiling water can be made with a Keurig, whether you’re whipping up instant oatmeal or a cup of noodle soup. Just run a cycle without a K-Cup and let the water flow directly into the food. It’s much faster than boiling water, and it’s a lifesaver for homeowners without microwaves.
Freeze Gum Off Your Shoe
Stepped in gum? Try sticking your shoe in the freezer for a couple of hours. When you remove it, the gum will chip off the sole much more easily.
Shred Meat in Your Stand Mixer
Homeowners can quickly shred chicken, pork, or beef in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. The mixer makes quick work of a job you may always have done with two forks!
Craft with Your Electric Knife
Your electric knife can do more than carve the Thanksgiving turkey. Rely on the appliance to cut floral foam for flower arrangements, or use it to shape polyurethane foam for dining chairs you’re reupholstering.
Skim the fat
Spoon out excess fat from stocks, stews, and sauces by skimming a few ice cubes (wrapped in a paper towel or cheese cloth) along the surface of the liquid. The ice helps the fat solidify, making it easier to remove with a spoon (or even a piece of toast).
Peel boiled eggs in a big batch
Time to put all your eggs in one basket — or, uh, one pot or other crockery.
Peel multiple hard-boiled eggs at a time by shaking them in any lidded container. Smash, bang, boom! Shells are cracked and ready to shake right off.
The eggs won’t be pretty, but they will be ready for an egg salad much quicker than traditional methods.
Defrost your fridge with a steam cleaner
If you have a steam cleaner with a nozzle attachment (ie not just a vacuum-cleaner style head for floor cleaning), you can use it to defrost your freezer. Here’s how.
First, be safe and unplug your freezer. Take out the food. This won’t take long and you can put it back in afterwards. Don some rubber gloves. Place an old towel in front of the freezer. Set up your steam cleaner and run it over the built-up ice, being careful not to scald your hands or damage the freezer.
It’s a quick process and you’ll be able to take out chunks of ice as they’re dislodged. Make sure you don’t get the plug of your steam cleaner wet.
You can also use your steam cleaner to clear out and sanitise the inside of ice and water dispensers, which are notorious for harbouring gunk and bacteria.
It’ll also come in handy to clean the inside of your oven. Rub a paste of baking soda and water onto grime and leave it, ideally overnight. Blast it away with your steam cleaner the next morning.
Use your hairdryer to remove water rings from a coffee table
This trick works on any wooden surface, although I tried it on unvarnished wood. Set the hairdryer on a medium heat and hold it a couple of inches away from the water mark. To get rid of a stubborn ring, it may take you 15 minutes.
Let’s be clear. That’s a long time to listen to a hairdryer and stare at a fading water mark. However, when it disappears, you’ll feel like a magician.
Afterwards, rub the area with a little olive oil on a piece of kitchen roll.