Chalk: inexpensive stain removal, bug repellent, and more
Chalk is totally inexpensive, and has many amazing uses around the house…
Child entertainment: Of course we all know this one. Kids love chalk. You can use it indoors and out. You can use it for drawing, or rub off colored dust and sprinkle it on glue to make a dusty looking print.
Stains: If you have a stain on a shirt, say the collar, armpit, or you just dumped juice down your front, mark the stained area with chalk right before you wash. The dust supposedly helps to absorb the oils in some stains and makes them easy to clean. Note: Ive used this with some success for some stains, but I wouldn’t rely on it for heavy duty stains.
Markings: Use chalk instead of pencils or pens when you need to hang a picture, measure a room for furniture, or mark a wall for any other reason. Chalk comes off much easier than some other marking tools.
Gardening: There are tons of uses for chalk while gardening. You can mark seed types year after year on pots, and create colorful garden plant signs (use plastic sticky covers over the top of the sign). You can plot out space on your driveway before planting - i.e make a grid to follow in your garden plot. Sprinkle it around the base of a plant to keep some bugs away, and more.
Bug detour: This tip is iffy. I’ve tried it with varied success rates. In any case, if you draw a chalk line in front of a door or window, some bugs will keep out of your house because they don’t like the calcium carbonate found in it. Ants are supposed to be especially freaked by chalk lines. That said, I’ve seen some ants step back and others walk brazenly over that line - maybe I’m using the wrong color chalk?
Make things look better: If you have cracked paint on your white window frame (or walls I suppose) you can cover the crack with chalk until you have time to repaint. This works well on well sanded woods and tiny hairline cracks. I don’t suggest going over a large area with chalk, it’d be dusty and likely look silly.
What else can you do with this inexpensive tool?
[image via stock.xchng]
Tags: chalk, chalk drawings, chalk home use, cheap kids toy, easy stain removal, inexpensive tool, use chalk at home, wall markingsRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Around the House, Fun Stuff
2 opinions for Chalk: inexpensive stain removal, bug repellent, and more
marye
Aug 11, 2008 at 4:21 pm
except because of my touch sensitivity I can’t touch the stuff…ewww.
Jennifer
Aug 11, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Marye, I’ve never heard of that sort of sensitivity. That’s lame, although, now people know that chalk lines might keep ants and you out :) Just kidding.
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