Aside from lining your baking trays and keeping your sandwiches fresh, a roll of aluminium foil has a surprising number of household uses. From protecting your silver to cleaning the house, here are just some of the things you can do with foil.
Ice a cake
If you don’t have a piping bag handy, just fold some heavy-duty foil into a tube and get creative!
Polish your silver
Strange but true – lining a pan with a sheet of tin foil, filling it with water and two teaspoons of salt will bring your silverware back to its shiny best. You just need to pop in your tarnished bits and bobs for three minutes before rinsing and drying. It works like magic (but is actually to do with some clever chemistry).
Catch ice cream drips
Prevent your grandchildren from making a mess of their clothes with an ice cream cone by wrapping the bottom of the cone with aluminium foil.
Clean your pots
A scrunched-up ball of aluminium foil works just as well as a scourer and can also remove rust.
Sharpen your scissors.
Just snipping away at a sheet of foil will sharpen the blades of your dull scissors.
Make your ironinga breeze
Speed up your ironing by popping a sheet of foil underneath your ironing board cover. This will bounce heat back up into the fabric and help make light work of your laundry.
Mess-free painting
Instead of staining a plate, use a piece of foil as a palette when you or your grandchildren want to do some painting. You can then throw it away at the end.
Softer laundry
Scrunch up a ball of foil and pop a ball or two of foil into your tumble dryer and your washing will be softer and free of static.
Make the perfect pie
Worried about the crust of a pie catching in the oven? Stop it from burning by folding some foil over the crust while it’s in the oven.
Protect your plants and tree.
Stop rodents or deer munching on your young saplings by wrapping a sheet of foil around their bases.
Line your oven
It's safe to use foil in the oven and if you're keen to keep your oven on the spotless side, it's a great idea to line the bottom of your oven with foil to protect it from any spillages. Simply pop a new layer of foil in the base of your oven when cleaning it.
VIDEO: More aluminum foil hacks
Make shift funnel
If you're trying to pour something and you don't have a funnel, roll some foil up into a cone shape and use instead.
Foil cake tin
If you're baking cakes and you don't have the right shaped cake tin you were looking for (perhaps you wanted a heart shaped cake?) you can use foil to make your own cake tin. You will however need to use plenty of sheets to make it strong enough to support the cake mixture so you might want to opt for a more heavy duty foil.
Inventive hair styling
While your hair is still damp, wrap sections length ways around the foil to curl as tight or as loose as you like. Head to bed for your hair to dry overnight and in the morning you should have lovely curly locks.
Wrapping paper
Use instead of wrapping paper for those awkward to wrap gifts. You also won't need to use sticky tape with foil!
Keep your house warm
Placing a foil panel on the wall behind your radiator will direct heat back into the room, making your home more efficient.
Clean your jewellery
Jewellery looking a bit grubby? Line a bowl with aluminium foil then fill it with hot water and one tablespoon of bleach-free power laundry detergent. Pop your jewellery into the solution and leave it to soak for just one minute. Then rinse well and leave to air-dry.