867-5309

Image via Wikipedia

My neigh­bor stopped by yes­ter­day and I was telling her about my worry about hav­ing too many cucum­bers and “WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH ALL THESE CUCUMBERS?!?” She was a saint and for­warded me some info about all the many uses of a cucum­ber. I haven’t tried these all out, but can’t wait to! Some of these are amaz­ing and thought this was per­fect info for a WFMW post:

1. If you feel tired in the after­noon, put down the caf­feinated soda and pick up a cucum­ber. Cucum­bers are a good source of B Vit­a­mins and Car­bo­hy­drates that can pro­vide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

2. Tired of your bath­room mir­ror fog­ging up after a shower? Try rub­bing a cucum­ber slice along the mir­ror, it will elim­i­nate the fog and pro­vide a sooth­ing, spa-like fragrance.

3. Are grubs and slugs ruin­ing your plant­ing beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your gar­den will be free of pests all sea­son long. The chem­i­cals in the cucum­ber react with the alu­minum to give off a scent unde­tectable to humans but drive gar­den pests crazy and make them flee the area.

4. Look­ing for a fast and easy way to remove the look of cel­lulite before going out or to the pool? Try rub­bing a slice or two of cucum­bers along your prob­lem area for a few min­utes, the phy­to­chem­i­cals in the cucum­ber cause the col­la­gen in your skin to tighten, firm­ing up the outer layer and reduc­ing the vis­i­bil­ity of cel­lulite. Works great on wrin­kles too!!!

5. Want to avoid a hang­over or ter­ri­ble headache? Eat a few cucum­ber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucum­bers con­tain enough sugar, B vit­a­mins and elec­trolytes to replen­ish essen­tial nutri­ents the body lost, keep­ing every­thing in equi­lib­rium, avoid­ing both a hang­over and headache!!

6. Cucum­bers can help fight off that after­noon or evening snack­ing binge. Cucum­bers have been used for cen­turies and often used by Euro­pean trap­pers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

7. Pol­ish your shoes with a cucum­ber.  Rub a freshly cut cucum­ber over the shoe, its chem­i­cals will pro­vide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

8. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucum­ber slice and rub it along the prob­lem­atic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!

9. Cucum­bers relieves stress and is cheaper than a spa treat­ment! Cut up an entire cucum­ber and place it in a boil­ing pot of water, the chem­i­cals and nutri­ents from the cucum­ber will react with the boil­ing water and be released in the steam, cre­at­ing a sooth­ing, relax­ing aroma that has been shown to reduce stress in new moth­ers and col­lege stu­dents dur­ing final exams.

10. Just fin­ish a busi­ness lunch and real­ize you don’t have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucum­ber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 sec­onds to elim­i­nate bad breath, the phy­tochem­cials will kill the bac­te­ria in your mouth respon­si­ble for caus­ing bad breath.

11. Look­ing for a ‘green’ way to clean your faucets, sinks or stain­less steel? Take a slice of cucum­ber and rub it on the sur­face you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tar­nish and bring back the shine, but it won’t leave streaks and won’t harm your fin­gers or fin­ger­nails while you clean.

12. Using a pen and made a mis­take? Take the out­side of the cucum­ber and slowly use it to erase the pen writ­ing, also works great on crayons and mark­ers that the kids have used to dec­o­rate the walls!!

If you know of any other things cucum­bers are great at, please let me know in the comments…I’ll have about 1,000 cucum­bers to try it out with.