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We’ve all seen those teeny – weeny packets that come in handy with a lot of commodities we use in our everyday life like shoes, water bottles, handbags, and the list goes on and on. As our natural mannerism, we tend to throw them away ( because the packet says so ). Well, after reading this article you won’t.
Here I go listing out these unexpected silica gel uses that you must try out! After all, you pay for them as well.
What are Silica Gel Packets? What are they used for?
Silica gel packets are tiny pouches that you will find in various sorts of products. They are kept in them to ensure a moisture-free environment. Basically, they work as a desiccant which helps to preserve the quality of products we buy. For example, you will find a silica gel packet inside your brand new shoe box which will hinder their spoilage.
Are Silica Gel Packets safe?
Silica gel is a chemical consisting of silicon dioxide. They are wrapped up in packets for commercial use. These packets are chemically inert ( unreactive ) so they don’t cause any harm as such. However ( there’s always a however ), their consumption can choke your children or pets. So it’s advisable to keep it out of their reach.
43 Brilliant and Unexpected Uses of Silica Gel Packets
1. Protect your silver jewelry
We all love our silver jewelry as much as we love ourselves! And it really tears us apart watching them getting tarnished. But, when you have silica gel packets around you there is nothing to worry about.
Just keep a silica gel packet or two with your jewelry and it will keep your essentials free from moisture. And no moisture means no tarnishing.
2. Resurrect your Handset
You might have gone through that mini heart attack at some point in your life when your mobile phone got submerged in water. Here’s a magic pouch to your rescue. Remove the battery and sim card from your handset and rinse as much water as possible by keeping it open.
Now put your dismantled mobile phone in a ziplock packet with silica gel packets for a day or two and let it do the rest.
3. De-clump the holes of salt sprinkler
The pass-through holes of salt sprinklers get clumped up over time and it gets really difficult (plus annoying) to get the salt out of them.
Luckily, this problem can be sorted out in minutes by simply keeping a silica gel packet inside the container for a few minutes.
4. Keep the Snacks Fresh
Has it ever happened to you that you get bored of eating a particular snack but still eating it so that they do not get stale?
In such cases, all you have to do is to put a silica gel packet in a pouch with your snack. In this way, you can store it for days and easily switch on to another one.
5. Defogging Windshield
You must be experiencing the mist on your car’s windshield during winters. They lower the visibility and are proven to be dangerous while driving.
Next time you see this, just keep some packets of silica gel on the dashboard of your car, it will wick the moisture off and you’ll have it all clear.
6. Defog your swimming goggles
If you love swimming and perform it frequently, you would know the struggle of fogged goggles. It not only makes our vision unclear underwater but also degrades their quality.
One way to defog them is to use our handy desiccant, yes you got that right! Keep your silica gel packets on the insides of goggles and it will defog them just as quickly as that.
7. Keep your Tools safe
Tools are something we all own but they’re not so frequently used. When not in use they get rust due to the presence of moisture in the air.
For the upkeep of your tools, you can store them with a few packets of silica gel.
8. Keep Shaving Blades safe
In today’s hustle and bustle, no one gets time to dry out and then store the blades or razors after a shave. But it’s obviously not a good way to treat them.
To ensure the well being of your blades you know what to do next, yes you got guessed it right! Grab your silica gel packets and make a permanent home for them inside your shaving box.
9. Prevent Musty Smell on Clothes
Throw some packets of silica gel beneath your clothes or on the slab of your wardrobe to get rid of that pungent odor. This happens because of the presence of moisture.
It will also make your clothes free from bacterial activities.
10. Safeguard your spices
You can prevent your spices from getting moisture. Just put a packet of silica gel inside the jar or whatever container you store spices. Silica gel as you must have gotten to know by now, is a great absorbent to moisture.
11. Recover Documents
Ever happened that you spilled tea or coffee on your important documents? If it happens again, keep packets of silica gel handy.
All you need to do is place the packets on the affected area and leave it for a few minutes. Remove the packets and you will find your documents good as old.
12. Keep your Shoes Odorless
After a hardcore workout or a long run or simply a walk, the insides of our shoes get sweaty and this perpetuates unbearable smell in them.
Prepare a bigger pouch of several silica gel packets and put them inside your shoes after every day out to keep your shoes odorless.
13. Use it as a muscle pain healer
This might sound crazy but it’s true. Silica gel packets can be used to relieve muscle pain or swelling. All you have to do is just make a bag of silica gel and heat in your oven for around 40 seconds.
Apply it on the aching area and you’ll be able to get some relief.
14. Do your Dishes
You know the feeling when your favorite bottle gets stained internally and you’re not able to put your hands into it to clean. Well, your silica gel packets can be used too.
Fill the bottle with water and throw some packets of silica gel inside. Wait for a few moments and wash it away as usual.
15. Protect potted plants from over drainage
Overwatering for plants doesn’t mean over caring for them. Sadly, it might spoil them especially the potted ones. If you also follow the same practice, you need to immediately stop it.
However, if you accidentally pour more water just throw some packets of silica gel on the surface of the soil in your potted plant and will absorb all the unnecessarily filled water.
16. Protect Cameras from humidity
No matter what type of camera you own or whether it is waterproof or not, they tend to get damaged by the moisture. If you really want to keep your cameras safe for a longer time, put some packets of silica gel in your camera bag and you’ll be all set to click wonderful pictures for years.
17. Keep your Memories Alive
Photographs must be small but they contain millions of emotions which make those pieces of paper special. But over time, the presence of moisture spoils the photographs.
To get rid of this moisture borne phenomenon, you can put some packets of silica gel in the box of your preserved memories and keep them alive.
18. Protect your seeds
If you’re someone who loves gardening and has stored seeds to be sown later on, you must know how heartbreaking it is to watch them getting all viscous.
Luckily, you can avoid this situation and protect the seeds by storing them with a few packets of silica gel. This would help keep moisture and bacteria at a bay.
19. Prevent Condensation on Windows
Mists on windows is the most common scenario during the winters. Mist hinder the view from our windows and make them completely useless!
However, you can keep a few silica gel packets to get rid of this fog inside your homes.
20. Store Pet food
If you’ve got bulk of pet food from a sale in the departmental store, ensuring its freshness becomes necessary.
Store them with the sachets of silica gel to keep it fresh and safe because your pet can definitely not eat it all at once.
21. Make Pumpkins Last Longer
Halloween season means a lot of pumpkin. The preparations begin several days prior but no matter how hard you try your pumpkin gets stale till Halloween night. Sounds familiar?
You can prevent this by keeping silica gel sachets inside your carved pumpkin so that they look fresh even after several days.
22. Dry flowers
For craft lovers, dried flowers are a blessing as they can use them in innumerous ways. But drying flowers isn’t an easy task, to be honest.
You can speed up the process by keeping your flowers and silica gel packets in the same container and leave them for a few days. Once it’s done, you’re good to go with your crafts work.
23. Keep your Gym bag Odor-free
Your gym bag contains all sorts of sweaty material. But guess what! Your marks of hard work might ruin your fitness gear as a lot of bacteria thrive on sweat.
To avoid this, keep a few packets of silica gel inside your gym bag and change them frequently.
24. Save your make-up products
Owning a lot of make-up products seems interesting and fun but their upkeep isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. They are quite prone to moisture and readily react with the air to deteriorate themselves.
Keeping silica gel packets around them would help them to last longer.
25. Protect your luggage from moisture
This one’s for you travelers out there! You must know the condition of your luggage every time you travel to a humid place.
The next time you are up for a tour just remember to carry a lot of silica gel packets with you. This would strengthen your luggage to fight out the humidity and extra moisture.
26. Keep documents Safe
Silica gel packets can also help you preserve your important documents (documents are anyway important). No matter how safely you keep them they would always catch moisture and get damp over time.
Throw some packets of silica gel to keep them completely moisture free and new.
27. Keep Dry Fruits Dry
Keeping dry fruits dry is a difficult job. They’re very much prone to air and readily get stale on reacting with air. They’re not edible once they catch moisture from air.
To prevent this, you can store them with your silica gel packets and help them to stay “dry”.
28. Store Medicines
You must store your medicines in a cool and dry place (as instructed on the packaging) to ensure their best quality.
Store them around the packets of silica gel as they would absorb all the unnecessary moisture and keep them intact (till their expiry date obviously).
29. Preserve your Christmas decorations
Most of us use the same set of Christmas decorations every year (not because we don’t want to buy new ones but because we’re financially broke!).
To prevent your decorative items from getting damaged by moisture and keep them like new, store them in the company of silica gel packets and you’re good to go.
30. Store your swimwear
It’s difficult to store our swimwear post a rejuvenating swimming session. Those couple of wet clothes might ruin other things in the bag as well.
You should definitely use a whole lot of silica gel packets in such cases to prevent them from making other things wet and also prevent the damp smell.
31. Deodorize your Old Books
If you’re a book lover, you must have got several old books and you must know how awful they smell. This is because of the moisture content in the air.
To get rid of this smell it’s time to take them for a shower. All you have to do is put four to five silica gel packets on each slab of your bookshelf.
32. Save your Electronics
You can ensure the well being of your electronic appliances by storing them with the packets of silica gel.
It will not only remove the moisture from the environment but also increase the longevity of your favorite electronic item like your headphones.
33. To Keep Supplements fresh
We all have bottles of various vitamins piled up at our homes. Vitamins take care of our body but ironically they can’t take care of themselves.
If left uncared-for they might catch moisture and get deteriorated. To prevent this, you must store them around the packets of silica gel.
34. Protect your antiques
Owning antiques is all fun and games until they start reacting with the air. They get tarnished easily in the presence of moisture.
You should throw some packets of desiccant around them that would absorb the moisture and prevent corrosion.
35. Put them inside Coat Pockets
Coat pockets usually smell old and musty as they’re seldomly used. One thing you must always carry in your coat pocket is a packet of desiccant ( silica gel ).
This would keep your pockets fresh and free from moisture. This trick will also work for other outfits.
36. Regenerate them
Now that they’ve been used so much you must be wondering how to regenerate them once they get exhausted.
It is very simple just keep your magic pouches under the sun for a few hours or oven heat them at 250°F ( 120°C ) for one to two hours.
37. Make your own silica gel packet
This one’s a DIY ( Do It Yourself ), in case you need silica gel beads but you recently went for a shopping spree and can’t afford it right now just for those little packets!
You can prepare one on your own by using some silica gel and some paper pieces.
38. Store inside your musical instrument
Moisture contained in your musical instrument is not at all good for them. Buzz off the moisture by keeping some packets of silica gel in and around your musical instrument.
This would soak in all the unnecessary moisture from the air and keep them in good condition for a longer time.
39. Keep the insides of Purse Dry
Keep a few silica gel packets inside your purse to get rid of moisture and musty smell. Though they clearly state on the packet ‘throw-away’, you know you’re not supposed to do that.
40. Deodorize your Car
Musty and pungent smell in our car is quite a normal phenomenon. Although, you can use car perfumes and other methods but here’s a cheap one!
Simply keep the silica gel packets everywhere inside your car. There will not be any fragrance but luckily you’ll get rid of that icky smell.
41. Protect your Electric Guitar
Electric guitars are more prone to air and moisture than any other simple musical instrument. Their electrical wires need to be protected from moisture.
To ensure they remain safe and unaffected by moisture, you must keep a few packs of silica gel inside its case.
42. Store Hearing Aid Devices
Keeping hearing aid devices away from moisture is very necessary. Moisture works as a poison for them!
Keep some silica gel packets inside their case and store them properly when not in use. They will work efficiently to ensure a moisture-free environment for them.
43. Treat your Dirty Laundry
Got dates for your long-awaited trip but your laundry is still undone? Don’t worry, just throw some packets of silica gel under your dirty laundry.
This would prevent them from getting that musty smell while you’re enjoying your holiday!
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