11 Uses for Lemons You Might Not Have Known

By Erin Schumacher

When life hands you lemons…. Make lemonade?!

Or.. perhaps a whole lot more! There are plenty of uses for lemons that you may not have known about!

• Clean your counter tops: Dip the sliced side of a lemon half in baking soda to tackle countertops; wipe with a wet sponge and dry. Don’t use on delicate stone, like marble, or stainless steel (it can cause discoloration.)
• Cleaning your cutting boards: To remove tough food stains from light wood and plastic cutting boards, slice a lemon in half, squeeze on to the soiled surface, rub and let sit for 20 minutes before rinsing.
• Eliminate a sore throat and kick a cold in the butt: A freshly squeezed lemon in a cup of hot water will do the trick. I like to add honey, which sweetens the drink and is another natural germ killer.

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• Clean your dishes:  To increase the grease-cutting power of your dishwashing detergent, add a teaspoon of lemon juice.
• Preserve your fruits/veggies: Squeeze freshly lemon/lime juice over freshly cut produce to preserve it longer. 
• Clean your faucets: Combat lime scale by rubbing lemon juice onto the taps and letting it sit over night. Wipe with a damp cloth.
• Natural Weed Killer: Believe it or not, you can use lemon juice instead of harmful weed killers to get to those hard-to-remove weeds that always come back, particularly in the cracks of your sidewalk or driveway.
• Highlight the Hair: For natural hair highlights, use lemon juice directly on your hair before going out in the sun.
• Clean Your
 
Hands: When you touch raw fish, the smell can linger on your fingers. Rub your hands with lemon juice, which will neutralize the odor.
• Brighten Whites: Add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the rinse cycle for a normal-size load.
• Clean Your Liver: Lemon juice helps the liver to produce enzymes necessary to life! It also helps in the formation of bile and removing heavy metals from the body.
• Stimulate Digestion: Lemon juice helps break down food in your stomach for better digestion. Partially because of its own acidic qualities, and partially because it stimulates digestive juice production in the stomach. It also helps dissolve and eliminate mucoid plaque from the digestive system. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon into a glass of water and sip throughout a meal.

Erin Schumacher is a health and nutrition theorist and healer, and shares her love of yoga and self-healing with her students and personal coaching clientele. Please visit her excellent website at www.ErinSchumacher.net.

Image: Wikimedia Commons