Home appliances tend to have a limited range of usefulness. Coffee makers make coffee, and dishwashers clean dishes. Some people don’t care about rules and have discovered different uses for your home appliances, giving the devices the chance to multitask and giving you the opportunity to avoid owning so much crap.
While some of these inventions are honestly a little gross, others seem like they’re very helpful, allowing you to do different stuff without having to spend hundreds of dollars on different household devices. Check out five weird ways of using your home appliances:
Cooking veggies in the coffee maker
I know, gross, but it makes sense. Coffee makers make coffee through the process of heating water and dispensing it into a pot. There’s also a burner at the bottom of the pot that heats up, giving your coffee maker tons of versatility, especially if you’re a college student who’s deprived of basic cooking tools. Or someone who’s really creative.
On the basket that’s meant to hold coffee you can steam broccoli or other veggies that don’t require much cooking time. The water in the pot can be used for dozens of things, like making tea or boiling eggs. There have also been instances where people poach fish in the coffee pot. Did I lose you already?
Disinfecting sponges in a microwave
Sponges have a short shelf life because they get filled with bacteria, but a good remedy for that is radiation. So put them in your microwave while it’s still damp and let them sit for a minute or two. Your kitchen might stink afterwards but you discovered something new right? You also saved a dollar that could’ve been spent on a new sponge.
Cooking fish inside a dishwasher
If you’re capable of tolerating the mental image of introducing fresh food into a dishwasher, then let me introduce you to a world where people use their dishwashers as a cooking tool. These people have no excuse; if their home has a dishwasher, then it must have an oven. They’re all insane.
This method is capable of cooking soft foods in warm temperatures over long periods of time. According to some, dishwasher salmon tastes particularly delicious. Just make sure to wash your dishwasher thoroughly and to seal your food in an airtight container or a Ziploc. I feel responsible to inform you that you can also buy a Crockpot.
Waffle Iron for hash browns
Waffle Irons are like baby grills, and they have a lot of uses that aren’t limited exclusively to waffles. You can cook burgers, hash browns, and brownies in short periods of time just as long as you don’t go overboard and stuff the iron with portions that are too large.
Using your standard mixer to shred meat
Shredding meat or chicken with a fork is tedious work. If you have a mixer in your house, toss in some protein that’s already been cooking for a while and watch as it does the job much more perfectly than you ever could.