10 Household Appliances With Surprising Alternative Uses

The Hair Dryer

For Starting Fires

When you remove the “hair” aspect of the hair dryer, what you have is a device that spews hot air like a tabloid celebrity. If you need to light a fire, this can come in handy.
A blast of hot air from the dryer not only warms up your wood and kindling, but also generates a draft by heating up a cold chimney—useful to avoid filling the house with smoke. The trick is legitimate enough that it is even recommended by fireplace manufacturers. The only drawback is trying to explain yourself when someone enters the room and finds you blow-drying a pile of wood.

9

The Microwave Oven

For Dying Fabric

A microwave oven is pretty much the easiest household appliance there is. There are only two things to remember: it’s good at heating food, and bad at coping with metal.
As it turns out, you can also dye fabric with it. Seriously.
A microwave oven can highly accelerate the dye drying reaction, reducing the process from hours and hours of conventional drying to mere minutes. It’s not just a dangerous novelty act practiced by renegade knitters and outlaw embroiderers, either. Microwaving is not only a recognised method for dye drying, but often the one recommended.

8

The Rice Cooker

For the Luxury Spa Experience

Warm, steamed towels are a luxury usually reserved for spas and high-end restaurants. They relax the body, soothe the skin and warm the muscles before a massage (though usually not at a restaurant). Unfortunately, bulky, expensive towel-warming cabinets are difficult to justify for home use. So why spend money on one? After all, you can just steam towels in your rice cooker.
If you’d rather use your rice cooker in a more conventional manner, its name hides the fact that it can also be used for a mind-bogglingly wide array of meals. It can be used for soup, pudding, seafood, slow-cooked pork chops, and even cake.

7

The Freezer

For Reviving Hard Drives and Cleaning Denim

A freezer or Box of Eternal Winter is an under-appreciated appliance. It’s easy to forget just how useful it is to have harnessed the power of cold. Your average freezer can be used to kill dust mites, prolong the life of NiMH and NiCad batteries, and even temporarily revive crashed computer hard drives long enough to retrieve important data.
One surprising use for a freezer is its ability to clean your jeans. Denim products tend to fade when they’re washed. This can be averted by putting the jeans in a sealable bag and sticking them in the freezer for a week. This treatment should kill bacteria, remove the musty smell, and restore the crispness of new denim.

6

The Waffle Iron

For Burgers and Cookies

The waffle iron is another prime example of a supposed “uni-tasker” capable of delivering so many more delicacies. The trick here is to forget the word “waffle” and recognise that your iron is essentially a really efficient tabletop grill. You can use the waffle iron to make almost anything: hamburgers, bread pudding, falafel . . . you name it. It can even be used to bake cookies, and is actually a lot faster than the conventional method.
As an added bonus, everything that comes out of the waffle iron will be shaped like a waffle. Waffleburgers, anyone?

5

The Ice Cream Maker

For Fancy Slush Drinks

Sure, the ice cream maker can be used for experimenting with bacon ice cream. But if you really want to make the most of the machine, skip the ice cream part entirely. An appliance with the ability to create delicious, frozen mush is just screaming to be used with one ingredient in particular: alcohol. The ice cream maker is ideal for making frozen margaritas and other fancy slush drinks that can usually only be enjoyed during a night on the town.

4

The Food Dehydrator

For Humidity and Aromatherapy

The Food dehydrator is the kind of product that is generally ordered online at 3 a.m. by night owls with a craving for home-made beef jerky. Once it actually arrives, it tends to find its home under the stairs in the why-on-earth-did-I-ever-buy-this cupboard.
Maybe it’s time to crack open that cupboard. Apart from less obvious culinary applications such as making perfect macaroons and re-crisping stale crackers, a food dehydrator can also act as a humidifier. Counter-intuitive as this may seem, it works. Just put it in a few containers of water in the trays of your dehydrator and the water will evaporate, humidifying the space in the process.
To be extra fancy, throw some aromatic plants in there and you’ll have your very own aromatherapy diffuser.

3

The Dishwasher

For Cleaning Nearly Anything

The dishwasher is designed to kill bacteria and make things clean without breaking anything into tiny pieces. What doesn’t often occur to people is that it will do this regardless of what’s put in it. From unspeakably filthy sports equipment to children’s toys to garden tools to the greasy hubcaps of your car, the dishwasher is able to clean almost anything. The fact that the machine is also designed to be gentle means that you can use it to safely wash things that might lose their shape in a regular washing machine—such as baseball caps.
You can also use it for steamed dishwasher salmon. They say it’s pretty moist. And clean.

2

The Coffee Maker

For Making Dinner and Brewing Beer

Despite having a name that screams “I’m only here to make coffee,” your trusty coffee maker can be quite the multi-tasker if you treat it right. In fact, a good coffee maker is the only device a creative chef needs. Not only can it boil eggs and cook rice, but it can also be used to create fairly complicated dishes such as poached chicken with couscous.
And it gets even better: as one particularly thirsty group of oceanographers found out, the coffee maker can also be used to brew beer. From cereal.

1

The Vacuum Cleaner

For Unclogging Drains

Depending on whether you’re at your house or someone else’s, clogged drains and toilets can be either a disgustingly unwelcome mishap or a delightful source of schadenfreude. In the case of the former, put down that phone; a plumber may be closer than you think.
Many vacuum cleaner models feature a wet/dry option. As it turns out, it’s not just for sucking up spilled soup—it can also help unclog your drain. If your vacuum can cope with water, it could well succeed where plungers and snakes have tried and failed. Using towels to create a seal, simply place the end of the vacuum hose into any clogged drain and turn the vacuum on. It should hopefully remove any obstructions.

10 People Who Survived Against Nature

10.

Yossi Ghinsberg

“The toughest moment was after a few days, when I realized that I was completely alone.”
Yossi Ghinsberg and three other men went to the Amazon jungle. They ventured out to find a hidden tribe. The environment was harsh and tensions built up between the group. The group eventually broke up. Ghinsberg remained with Kevin, while the other two, Marcus and Karl, stuck together. Ghinsberg and Kevin took a raft but lost control of it as it came towards a mighty waterfall. Kevin made it to shore but Ghinsberg floated downstream and over the waterfall, narrowly escaping a watery death.
The following 19 days were full of challenges for Ghinsberg. He survived a late night encounter with a jaguar by setting fire to an insect repellent spray – spewing fire like a flamethrower. Swarms of termites feasted on patches of his skin and clothes when he urinated on himself out of exhaustion. He ate fruit and raw eggs from chicken nests in the jungle. He almost drowned by a flood and almost sank in a bog.
He was finally found by Kevin, who had formed a search party with the locals. Marcus and Karl were never found.

9

Steven Callahan

“At sea I am reminded of my insignificance – of all men’s insignificance. It is a wonderful feeling to be so humbled.”
Steven Callahan sailed out from the Canary Islands on a small slope he built himself. Six days later on his trip, the boat sank due to damage from a collision with an unknown object at night. He later said that he suspected the object was a whale. He escaped from the boat and onto a life raft that measured about six feet across.
He managed to survive until his rescue, 76 days later. He was faced with sharks, sunburn, raft punctures, physical deterioration and mental agony. For food, he speared fish and captured birds and barnacles. He lost a third of his weight during this time. When his raft formed a leak, he managed to keep it afloat for 33 days until his rescue.

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Colby Coombs

“I just had to keep my eyes open and ignore the pain.”
In June 1992, Colby Coombs and two of his friends were climbing Alaska’s 17,240-foot Mt. Foraker. An avalanche happened and the three were caught inside. Coombs and his friends were forced down 800 feet on the side of the mountain and they crashed into a river of snow. Coombs’ friends did not survive the ordeal.
Coombs suffered a concussion, a fractured ankle, two fractured vertebrae in his neck, and a broken shoulder blade. The next six days were difficult. He descended from his location followed by a five mile walk across a glacier until he finally reached a camp. He continues to climb today.

7

Eric Le Marque

“I remember falling back into the snow, looking at my feet and going, ‘You’re going to lose your feet.’”
Eric Le Marque, a member of France’s Olympic hockey team, was lost for seven days in the Sierra Nevada wilderness. Being an avid snowboarder, he was boarding at California’s Mammoth Mountain until a blizzard threw him off course. He failed to find his way back before dark. He spent the night in the woods and attempted to hike back the next day. However, he ended up venturing deeper into the woods.
He had few supplies with him, having only a MP3 player, his snowboard, and his clothes. For food he had pine nuts and bark. For water he drank melted snow and river water. He used his snowboard to dig igloos. He became hypothermic and his frostbitten feet were black and purple. After falling into rushing water, he almost fell down an 80-foot waterfall. Amazingly, Le Marque used his MP3 player to find a radio signal which he used like a compass. Due to the tissue damage to his lower body, most parts of his legs had to be amputated.

6

Tami Oldham Ashcraft

“When the wind’s howling that hard, it’s picking up spray right off the top of the water. There’s so much spray, you can hardly see anything. It’s like being in a blizzard.”
In 1983, Tami Oldham Ashcraft and her boyfriend, Richard Sharp, were on a 44-foot sailboat. They were en route to San Diego from Tahiti when disaster struck. They were battered by a category four hurricane. Waves were as high as 50 feet and winds were fierce, blowing at more than 160 miles per hour. The boat was capsized and Ashcraft was knocked out below deck. She regained consciousness 27 hours later and discovered Sharp was missing.
Alone at sea and mourning her boyfriend, things seemed hopeless. However, Ashcraft fought to survive. She used celestial navigation to plot a way to Hawaii which was 1,500 miles away. She rationed food and cobbled together a mast and sail. She finally reached Hilo Harbor 41 days later.

5

Ricky Megee

“If you have to [drink urine], I suggest you let it cool down first. It doesn’t taste very nice.”
Ricky Megee stopped to help a couple whose car had broken down. Next, he was waking up with rocks and dirt covering him. The pit was meant to be his final resting place. He claimed to have been drugged and robbed by the couple. Megee suffered from exposure and malnutrition for the next two months. His diet consisted of leeches, lizards, insects, frogs, and snakes. He was forced to drink his urine when he couldn’t find rain puddles to drink from. He weighed 230 pounds before he got lost and weighed 105 pounds at his rescue. The man who found and rescued him described him as a walking skeleton.

4

Aron Ralston

“Judging by my degradation in the last 24 hours, I’ll be surprised if I make it to Tuesday.”
Could you amputate your arm with a dull knife to survive? Aron Ralston could, and did. On May 1, 2003, an 800 pound boulder fell onto his arm and trapped him in a Utah canyon wall.
After being stuck in the same spot for five days with food and water supplies almost gone, Ralston took desperate steps to ensure his survival. He used the boulder to snap his bones. He then used his two inch dull pocket knife to agonizingly cut the tendons and muscles of his trapped arm. The cutting process took about an hour. He was finally free from the boulder. He rappelled down a 65-foot wall one handed and walked in the hot midday sun back to his car. On the way he was found by a family and given water while rescuers were on the way.
A film was made about this story called “127 Hours” and I recommend you see it.

3

Bethany Hamilton

“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.”
On a morning in November 2003, Bethany Hamilton went to Makau Beach in Hawaii to surf. At the time she was a 13 year old competitive surfer. She was lying on her surf board with her arms dangling in the water when a 12-15 foot tiger shark attacked her. Hamilton’s left arm was ripped off just below the shoulder.
Instead of panicking and possibly drowning, Hamilton paddled over to her friends using her intact arm. She even made sure to warn others in the water, shouting that there was a shark. Her friends helped her paddle to shore and she was taken to the hospital. Despite this event, Hamilton was surfing again the next month.

2

James Morrow

“I think my head was so far down his throat that I touched his taste buds.”
45 year old James Morrow has been where few want to be: inside the jaws of a hungry alligator. Morrow was snorkeling in Florida’s Juniper Run. He was adjusting his snorkel when an alligator seized him by the throat and violently shook him for 10-20 seconds before releasing him. He was eventually helped onto a boat by his friends.
The force of the alligator’s jaws punctured his chest and collapsed one of his lungs. Dents are still visible on his head and bite marks are still visible on his neck. All he was able to do during the attack was to punch the alligator on the throat. The snorkeling mask still on his face saved him from obtaining any more serious damage, such as a punctured eye.

1

Kootoo Shaw

“I thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to be gone.”
Working as a hunting guide, Kootoo Shaw was helping a group of hunters from Wisconsin. They were three days into a hunt. While Shaw was sleeping in a tent, a polar bear targeted him at about four o’clock in the morning.
“He had his claws under my neck for a while, I could hear his breathing, then he let his claws off and he was still jumping on top of me, up and down four times,” he recalled. Another hunter shot and killed the bear. Shaw suffered horrific injuries. He suffered numerous slashes and bites. He required nearly 300 stitches to reattach his scalp.

Top 10 Ways You Could Live Forever

10.

Cloning

Scientists have made some major achievements with cloning, including the asexual reproduction of sheep and cows. Humans with a desire to live forever are a natural(!) progression. Through reproductive cloning, a new multicellular organism is created, genetically identical to another. The body is the same, the mind is not. If there’s no need for an entirely new organism, just the organs can be reproduced and placed in the original body.

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Telomerase Eternal Youth

Discovered in the 1980’s, the telomerase enzyme has the reputation of being “the fountain of youth”. Chromosomes have caps of repetitive DNA called telomeres at their ends. Every time cells divide, their telomeres shorten, which eventually prompts them to stop dividing and die. If the enzyme is reawakened in these dying cells, normal human aging could be slowed, stopped or even reversed. Scientists have successfully studied the telomeres in decrepit mice, proving that mice which had the enzyme replaced became healthy once again.

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Panacea

In Greek mythology, Panacea was the goddess of universal remedy. Her name, transferred to the medical world, means a drug that can cure all disease. Alchemists were seeking this remedy in connection with the philosopher’s stone, in order to prolong life indefinitely. Life in a small pill or a glass of syrup might seem far- fetched, but so did a cure for the plague in Victorian-era England…

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SENS

SENS stands for Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence. That’s a bit of a mouthful! The term negligible senescence was first used in connection with lobsters and hydras to reflect the fact that these creatures don’t show any signs of aging. SENS biogerontologists want to eliminate all diseases caused by aging. What they are trying to do is not like a panacea, curing all aging for everybody; scientists will instead develop multiple therapies targeting distinct types of age-related damage, resulting in personalized treatment.
To encourage the process of finding such treatments, the Methuselah Foundation offers cash prizes to researchers who break records in mouse longevity. The current record is 1819 days—not bad for an animal with a regular life expectancy of less than a year.

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Metempsychosis

This is a more spiritual approach to immortality and it refers to reincarnation or the soul jumping from body to body, in this way not ceasing to exist. According to Hinduism, people live many lives, and each of these lives is influenced by the actions in the previous one. If they live well, karma improves and makes the next life cycle better. The key here is that the soul stays the same, it just travels between different forms. This belief was also supported by historic figures such as Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates.

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Evolutionary Immortality

Marios Kyriazis, a biogerontologist, believes that immortality is an inevitable consequence of evolution. The human brain will become so complex as to be capable of sustaining the body for an indefinite time. The aging process will then be slowed down to accommodate the new brain and eventually stop when the body is fully-grown.

4

Nanobots

Nanobots are microscopic machines designed for building and fixing your body. Imagine millions of these crawling inside you and fixing all “mortal” issues your body might experience. This isn’t just in theory, though. Scientists have successfully used nanobots to repair optic nerves in blind hamsters by building a custom synthetic molecule that, when injected, arranges itself into a nanofiber to repair the nerve. What comes next? Well, scientists want to send the little bots on a cancer cell killing spree!

3

Cybernetics

Science has already succeeded in creating prosthetics that look real and can outshine even the real thing – witness Oscar Pistorius’ extremely fast legs. So why not go a step further? Instead of biological organ transplants, humans will be given mechanical organs, transforming the mere mortal into a cyborg. A special machine will pump our hearts and a flamethrower could be attached to our left arm. In the end, we will possess the strength of the Terminator and pretty much live forever. No biggie.

2

Mind-to-computer Uploading

Also known as ‘brain emulation’, mind-to-computer uploading stays true to its name: it uploads your brain – along with thoughts, memories, and so on – on to a computer. That means creating a digital you, living in a computer. However, it doesn’t stop here: if a person’s mind can be successfully uploaded, that means it can also be downloaded – into a robot. The human brain is transformed into a digital brain (with a conscious mind and all previous human characteristics) and attached to a robot’s body. That definitely means immortality and it’s not as far off into the future as you might think. Several animal brains are being researched and have been partly simulated, such as that of a rodent.

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Cryonics

First and foremost, cryonics is a science! It involves refrigerating the body in liquid nitrogen, after replacing the blood with a cryo-protectant fluid to prevent ice from forming in the cells as the temperature is lowered to minus 196 C. The body is then held upside down (in order for the head to have the lowest temperature), in a giant steel container, which can hold up to 4 people.
The strange part doesn’t stop here: not only entire bodies are stored in this way, but also heads! The brain is like a hard-disk and it could eventually be connected to another body. The downside: we don’t have the technology yet to revive the bodies. However, there are over 250 people preserved in this way and 1,000 who signed up for it and if you want to join them, be prepared for a price tag of $200,000 for a whole-body preservation.

10 Everyday Things That Could Unexpectedly Save Your Life

10.

Chewing Gum


Yes, plain old chewing gum. The simple act of chewing on a stick of gum can suppress your appetite, thereby preserving limited food supplies from overindulgence, while aiding in necessary saliva production. While it will not substitute for a turkey dinner, and despite the common myth about its digestive properties, a stick or two also can be used in a pinch for short-term nutrition.



9

Super Glue


Have a superficial wound that needs stitching? No medical staff, no needle and thread or no sewing training? No problem. While it will not do much for penetrating wounds like gunshots, super glue as an emergency suture can quickly bind and protect minor lacerations that otherwise could become infected.



8

Gunpowder


You’ve seen it in the movies: guy gets shot, breaks apart a few bullets, pours the gunpowder over the wound and lights it. Guess what? While excruciatingly painful, it does exactly what is needed by sterilizing and cauterizing the wound. While not the best solution, it is certainly an option when a trip to the emergency room or a doctor is out of the question.



7

Charcoal & Cheesecloth


Chances are, you already have charcoal on hand for weekend barbecues. While you may want to use the charcoal for cooking, there is another reason to have it handy: water purification. Drill a hole in the bottom of any type of plastic container (like a five gallon bucket), line it with the cheesecloth, place charcoal in it and pour in water – and voila, an instant water purification system! Afterwards, you can let the charcoal dry and cook up a can of beans or even that long-desired turkey dinner.



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Sanitary Pads


Feminine hygiene aside, the sanitary pad’s origin lies in nineteenth-century battlefield hospitals to treat bullet wounds. Only after World War I did they take on their now-traditional use, when American nurses returning from Europe popularized an alternative use for overstocked bandages meant for the war. In times of emergency, when medical facilities or staff may not be available, the self-treatment of bleeding wounds will be a necessity. Typically made of flammable material, they are also effective as kindling after use on a wound.

5

Vinegar


Vinegar is a versatile antibacterial and microbial that can treat skin burns, inflammations and infections. As a cleaning agent it sanitizes and deodorizes, and can mask any odors that you may not want to smell yourself, or which you’re afraid might give away your position to wildlife. A small amount mixed with water can also be swallowed to relieve an upset stomach, or to remove parasites from any contaminated water or undercooked venison you may accidentally consume. 



4

Compact Mirror & Whistle


Any shiny object will do the job, but a compact mirror in your survival kit can be a lifesaver when used as a silent emergency beacon. It can be effective in both sun and moonlight, and can even start fires on a sunny day. While mirrors have been shown to be more effective than flare guns, a rescue team passing by still may miss your signal; an auditory signal from a whistle is certain to attract their attention.



3

Baking Soda


Most effective as a reliever of upset stomachs, there is an even better reason to have baking soda handy: fire. In an emergency, the fire department might not be able to respond, and your water supply could well be too precious to waste on fire fighting. An inexpensive alternative, baking soda easily puts out cooking and other small fires that may occur while hunkered in your bunker.

2

Harmonica


If there is a power outage – a likely prospect in a catastrophic emergency – radio stations will be static, and even with a generator there will hardly be enough spare power to recharge your portable music player.
Musical tones – regardless of the source – have been shown to stimulate both the creative and pleasure centers of the brain; to help maintain focus and concentration; and to reduce anxiety and pain. The harmonica – an inexpensive item easily obtained from many retailers – just might help maintain your sanity until the situation normalizes. (If nothing else, it gives you something to pass the time while you wait for your wounds to heal.)



1

Condoms


Aside from coming in handy whenever the sweet musical tones of the harmonica fail to satisfy, condoms are useful in another way: water storage. Durable and stretchable, a condom can hold up to a gallon of water. They can also be used to protect against water, as a stretchable cover for valuable items like matches and walkie-talkies. When used to cover a rifle muzzle – as any member of the military who has served in a hostile environment can tell you – they can also prevent debris from entering and clogging the barrel.