It is recommend that people floss daily, but only 30 percent of the population follow through. The rest may have floss in their bathroom cabinets, but it only gets used in the days leading up to their next dental appointment.
Luckily, there are more uses for floss beyond removing food particles and plaque from teeth. The dentist-recommended product is usually made from nylon or teflon, which makes it very durable to use for other tasks around the house.
Check out these 12 creative ways to use floss that don't involve teeth:
1. Slice food
Sure, you have a great knife set to chop and dice with, but that doesn't always cut it. Foods like cake, hard-boiled eggs, soft cheeses, avocados and dough can sometimes be difficult to cut with a knife. To avoid making a mess, use unflavored and uxwaxed floss to create even slices.
2. Hang frames
If you're looking for a way to hang up frames without scratching your walls, look no further than the floss container that's sitting in your bathroom cabinet. Use pieces of floss to create a braided hanging wire for the back of your frames. The soft material easy to work with and you don't require any special tools.
3. Silence a dripping tap
There's nothing more annoying that a leaky faucet, especially when you're trying sleep or concentrate on another task. While you wait for a plumber to repair the issue, you can silence the drip using a simple temporary solution. Tie a piece of floss around the head of the faucet then let it hang down into the drain. Now, when the water drips it'll get caught in the floss, allowing it to go into the drain without a sound.
4. Tie bags
Don't have any twist ties or bag clips? Don't fret. Just reach for some floss instead. Keep your bread, chips and other snacks from going stale by using a piece of floss to tie the ends of the bags.
5. Substitute for twine
If you're someone who doesn't cook often, chances are you don't have twine readily available. If a recipe you're trying to make calls for tying the food, you can use floss as a substitute for kitchen. Just make sure it is unwaxed and unflavored to achieve the best results.
6. Use for sewing
Rips and buttons falling off happen at the most unexpected times. If you don't have any thread around, reach for floss to repair a tear or secure a button.
7. Separate photos
After long periods of storage, photos can become stuck together. If you're not careful enough when pulling them apart, you risk ruining them and losing some precious memories. Next time you're dealing with photos that are glued together, grab a piece of floss and run it in between the pictures to separate them without issue.
8. Get crafty
For any craft that requires strings, use floss. The sturdy material is great for making homemade jewelry, popcorn strings as well as for hanging ornaments and holiday garlands.
9. Lift up baked treats
Fresh baked goodies, especially cookies, can easily crumble when you try to lift them off the baking tray before they're completely cool. An easy way to remove treats from the tray is by running a piece of floss under each one to keep them from sticking to the tray. Then, use a spatula to move them to a wire cooling rack.
10. Go fishing
No matter how prepared you usually are, there's always the one time something goes wrong while you're away from home. If you're out fishing and you run out of line, use a piece of floss on the rod instead. You can even use the empty floss box to store bait.
11. Support your plants
If you're trying to grow your garden, you'll most likely need to tie some of your plants at one point. Tying perennials and climbing plants such as tomatoes to a solid support promotes healthy growth of the plant. If you don't have access to garden twine, use floss to tie plants to a wooden dowel.
12. Start a fire
Save yourself the effort and add some waxed floss to the kindling for your next bonfire. The wax makes the floss highly flammable, which will not only help start a fire but keep it on for longer.
