Using Green Tea Around the House - 5 Great Ideas
Adapted from The Book of Green Tea, by Diana Rosen (Storey Books, 1998).
After you’ve absorbed the health benefits from your cup of green tea, you’ll be amazed at how many more uses there are for those soggy tea-leaves! No need to throw them in the trash or compost: you can use them to feed your garden plants--green tea is high in nitrogen--and they will even ward off pests and insects.
Green tea is especially wonderful as a deodorant that absorbs offensive odors.
1. Yoga Mats. In the hot, humid areas of Thailand, Burma, and other Asian countries, people sleep on straw mats. This straw is cool and comfortable, but people do perspire. It is quite common in these areas for straw mats to be washed in tubs of water to which tea has been added. The tea works as a powerful deodorizer, leaves a fresh scent, and can even infuse the straw with a delicate sage color. You can use green tea to clean other washable surfaces, such as yoga mats and air mattresses.
2. Litter Boxes. Used green tea leaves are wonderful in kitty litter as an extra boost for diffusing odors, and they help deter fleas from both cats and dogs.
3. Pet Beds. Sprinkle dried used green tea leaves on your pet’s favorite pillow or bed. Great in doghouses or anywhere troublesome pet odors occur. If you can afford the extravagance, loose leaf gunpowder tea is great for dogs to roll around in. The crunching of the pellets releases a wonderful aroma, and helps to scratch wherever dogs have an itch. The pellets help give your dog a more pleasant smell.
4. Refrigerators. Place used green tea bags or leaves in a small bowl, uncovered, in your refrigerator to help absorb odors from onions and garlic for about three days. NO need to throw them out even then, just sprinkle the old leaves around your ferns, rosebushes, or other plants.
5. Kitchen Odors. Preparing fish? Cutting up garlic? Rid your hands of the fish or garlic oils by rubbing them with wet green tea leaves, an instant deodorizer. The leaves are also great for deodorizing and cleaning the pan in which you cook fish or garlic.
