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There are amazing things to do with one of the most common item in your kitchen: salt. Believe it or not, something as humble as a shaker of salt can be used for various housekeeping tasks, ranging from arranging flowers to repairing wood water stains to soothing bug bites. Here is a list of household uses for salt. Subscribe to Type-A Mom articles

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• Salt is great for holding artificial flowers in an arrangement. Fill your vase or other container with salt, add some cold water and arrange your artificial flowers. The salt will solidify and the flowers will stay put.

• When you are ready to go to bed at night but the fire in your fire place is still going, douse the flames with salt. This will make the fire burn out quicker so you'll wind up with less soot. Cleaning the fire place will be easier because the salt helps the ashes and such gather into easy sweepings.

• Water stains left on your wood table can really stand out. Mix one teaspoon salt with water and make a paste like consistency. Gently rub this onto the waterspot with a soft cloth and keep rubbing until the spot is gone.

• Salt works to lessen the itch of bug bites. Soak the area in salt water.

• Make your own air freshener in a pretty jar with a tight lid. In the jar layer rose petals and salt, out the lid on and remove the lid to make your room fresher.

• If you have ants making a path into your home, sprinkle salt across the door frame or where they tend to tread. Ants will do anything to not cross the salt.

• Being able to peel eggs in a breeze and not making a mess is possible. Sprinkle 1/2 a teaspoon of salt into the water just before you put in your eggs. A touch of vinegar helps too and improves the taste of the egg.

• Wash spinach laves in salt water. The dirt will be driven out with the salt. You will only need to rinse the spinach once instead of many times.

• Are your apples wrinkly? Soak them in mildly salted water and the skin will be smooth.

• If you always have your milk going sour add a pinch of salt to your milk next time to make the milk stay fresh longer.

Photo courtesy: Dennis Taufenbach