One Project, Two Hacks

I love reading about household tips or hacks that let you do things easier.  Today I came across the post 21“Sweet” (Non-Food) Uses for Sugar at One Good Thing by Jillee. Some of the uses I already knew, but others were new to me. For example, I learned that you could clean a coffee or spice grinder by grinding sugar in it.  The theory is that the sugar will absorb and clean out the oil that has built up in the machine.

Hubby Tony got a new coffee grinder last Christmas. We only treat ourselves to bean coffee on the weekend, so the grinder doesn't get heavy use, but as far as I knew it hadn't ever been thoroughly cleaned. I decided to give the sugar treatment a try.  It only took a couple of minutes to run a scoopful of sugar through the grinder, but in the interest of getting the innards really clean I disassembled the grinder and used an old toothbrush on the crevices.

When I was done I had a container of dirty sugar that smelled just like coffee:

Clean grinder - dirty sugar

Instead of just throwing it away, I decided to incorporate the sugar into a scrub and use it on my cracked heels. I decided to do the exfoliation outside to cut down on the mess, so after I carried everything to the back patio I mixed a little olive oil into the sugar, massaged it all over my heels, then rinsed it off with water. It made my heels feel and smell great.

Ready to go!