Don't Throw Out Those Banana Peels — Use Them To Polish Your Kitchen Instead

Have you ever thought about cleaning your kitchen with food waste? It's a weird concept, but you can use a lot of the food in your kitchen to spruce things up. Used coffee grounds make a great air freshener, citrus peels like lemon can cut through grease, and we all know the individual powers of vinegar and baking soda when it comes to cleaning pretty much anything. Well, after you've scrubbed off the grease and disinfected your kitchen, grab a banana. You'll get a snack for all your hard work, and you'll also get a peel you can use to polish up any stainless steel appliances, kitchen tools, and cookware that need a good shine.

Banana peels are almost as useful as the fruit itself, and it's all thanks to a little element called potassium. When you eat it, the potassium in bananas enriches your health. And the potassium in banana peels makes them especially good for polishing all sorts of things, like shoes, windows, silverware, and any stainless steel in your kitchen. Banana peels resemble a washcloth more than a lot of other foods, so it may not be the biggest leap to picture them as cleaning products. They're flat and spongy, and even have a bit of natural texture to help scrub away tough smudges. But rubbing a banana peel on stainless steel surfaces is just one of the ways you can use them for polishing.

Use the inside of a fresh banana peel to shine up stainless steel without processing it at all, and you'll get some results. Just rub the inside of the peel over silverware and appliances until all the fingerprints, smudges, and other mystery spots have vanished. Then set the peel aside for another round of household repurposing before it goes to the compost bin.

If you turn the banana peel into a paste, though (just add water and blend it up) you might be able to get a better shine. Once the paste is blended, use it to buff your stainless steel appliances back to looking as good as new. Use the peel from a breakfast banana and you'll see it's a quick and easy way to shine up your kitchen for the rest of the day. A dusting of flour is good for buffing stainless steel as well, so you can alternate methods for shiny, spotless kitchen appliances. Though you may not completely ditch your regular cleaning supplies in favor of banana peels, using them to clean is eco-friendly and it helps stretch your dollar a little further.