40 Coca-Cola Hacks That Sound Insane But Are Actually Genius

Serving a cocktail on the rocks is great – until the ice starts to melt and waters down your drink, of course. But don’t shell out for any of those reusable metal cubes when there’s a more affordable solution. Simply pour Coca-Cola into an ice tray, freeze it then add the cola cubes to your beverage of choice. As they melt, they’ll just add Coke flavor – although this may not be all that pleasant when you’re sipping on orange juice!

Have an empty plastic Coke bottle to hand? If so, you can use it to help you separate egg yolks and whites in a flash. First, cut the neck off the bottle, then use a razor to carve a hole into the bottle cap. Got that? Good. Once you’ve created the hole, place the detached neck cap-side down into the lower half of the bottle. All you need to do after that is to crack your egg through the funnel. That way, the white will slide through the lid opening, while the yolk will stay intact on top.

Some people avoid drinking Coca-Cola because of its sugar content. But even if you’re among that group, you should know there’s one living thing that will appreciate all that sweetness: your lawn. Apparently, pouring the soda over your grass can make it grow thicker and greener, as it feeds off the sugar. Winning!

Harness the fizzy power of Coca-Cola to help you unclog a stubborn drain. All you have to do is pour the soda down the sink in question. Two cans should do the trick. Then let the liquid sit for a half-hour before pouring a pot of boiling water down the same pipe. And after five more minutes, the soda-hot water combination should have pushed out the offending debris, allowing your drain to work properly again.

Coca-Cola’s ingredient list includes phosphoric acid – an additive with low pH levels. And if you rinse your hair with the soda – while foregoing shampoo and conditioner entirely – you may love the results. Yes, really! You see, phosphoric acid constricts hair cuticles, and this gives them the appearance of looking sleeker. The sugar in the drink can create volume, too.

A Coca-Cola cooking trend swept across Asia in the 1990s, and guess what? It’s still just as tasty today. We’re talking about Coke-glazed chicken wings that you can easily whip up in a wok. The simple recipe contains common ingredients such as soy sauce, orange peel, ginger and a cinnamon stick. And, altogether, it produces a sticky Coke-glazed basket of wings for you to chow down on during the next big game.

The car repair experts at Meineke have let the public in on a little secret: Coke can clear away corrosion on our car batteries. Mind you, you need to disconnect the power source before tipping the fizzy drink over it. Leave the soda for a little while before washing it away, too. Then simply reconnect the battery to your car and get going. Easy, right?

Coke has the power to whisk away more than just corrosion. Yep, the brown beverage can also whiten the grout between tiles to make it look as good as new. Just twist a spray bottle cap into a plastic bottle of Coca-Cola and mist it over your tiles – but don’t be tempted to lick it off... Then let the soda sit for a few minutes before wiping it and all of that grime away.

We all love being outside in summertime – that is, until the bees show up. If you plump for a beach vacation, however, then you also have to worry about jellyfish. After all, both species defend themselves – and hurt you – by stinging. But if you’re unlucky enough to be attacked, know that you can soothe the ache by pouring some Coke over the area. You’ll quickly feel a lot better. Hurray!

Your first instinct probably isn’t to drink Coca-Cola when your throat hurts. But if you heat the soda on the stove with some slices of lemon and fresh ginger, you have yourself a warm, sweet and, most importantly, soothing beverage to sip on. It’s a time-honored recipe in Hong Kong for that very reason.

Your car will inevitably dribble a bit of grease onto the driveway. And you could spend hours scrubbing away the oil stain with all of the energy you can muster, or you could let Coca-Cola do the legwork. We know what sounds more appealing to us... Just pour some Coke over the offending smudge, let it settle, and then leave it to sit overnight. Then wash the soda and grease away with a hose, and voilà!

Headaches are never pleasant, especially if they progress to migraines. But there’s no need to reach for the Advil. If you feel a headache coming on, crack open the fridge, reach for a Coca-Cola and sip away. The soda contains caffeine, you see, which can help your brain fight off the pain in the nick of time.

Glasses wearers know that removing smudges from their lenses is a task easier said than done. But good news! Coca-Cola can come to your rescue. Simply pour some soda over both sides of your lenses, rub it in then rinse it off with clean water. And after you’ve wiped your glasses dry, slip them on to see clearly. Strange, but it works.

You’ve been told your whole life that you shouldn’t shake up your bottle of soda. But you can use the fizziness to your advantage if you need to put out a fire quickly without a regular extinguisher to hand. The carbonation and bubbles will quench the flames fast – turning a hairy situation into merely a sticky one. Probably best to call 911 if it’s a big blaze, though.

We’ll touch on the merits of Coke’s phosphoric acid many times on this list, as the substance is very handy indeed. For one, it removes rust like a dream. Try it and see! Just pour a bit of the soda over an aging car bumper, or soak your old tools in a cup of cola. Either way, the acid will help lift away rust and get your metallic wares looking good as new.

Yes, you can refresh old coins with a bit of Coca-Cola, too! Fill a cup with soda, then drop any tarnished nickels and quarters into the liquid. Then, after about a quarter of an hour, you can empty the cup and rinse your coins. And there’s an added bonus. The Coke soak should have eaten away any dirt – which is pretty neat if you’re putting your precious collection on display.

Any DIY fanatic worth their salt knows that drips can spell disaster for an otherwise perfect paint job. But guess what? You can remove any excess with a bit of Coca-Cola. Start by dipping a towel into the soda. Then press the cloth to the unwanted paint and repeat until the drip begins to warp. That way, you can eventually scratch the error off without hassle.

Old or forgotten pieces of jewelry can tarnish over time – and no one wants to wear a dingy piece of silver or gold. So, bring your baubles back to life with an overnight bath in a cup full of Coke. In the morning, the soda will have loosened all of that gunk, and with a quick wipe you can restore shine to your accessories.

You could Photoshop and reprint your favorite pictures so they take on a sepia tone. Or you could just soak them in Coke for 20 minutes – which, let’s face it, is a lot less labor-intensive. After scooping the snaps up, hang them to dry and watch as they transform from traditional color images into old-timey photos that make the perfect gift or addition to your gallery wall.

Anyone who has ever baked lasagna or fried chicken knows how tough the cleanup can be. But you can let Coke do the job next time. Pour some soda into your casserole dish and let it sit for a half-hour to get a head start on stuck-on foods. Easy!

Can a fizzy beverage really calm an upset stomach? Well, not really. But if you sip a teaspoon of flat cola at room temperature hourly, it can indeed help with nausea, heartburn and other tummy troubles. If you don’t have any flat soda on hand, sprinkle in some sugar instead to deflate the bubbles quickly.

Yes, Coca-Cola can help lift away blood, although hopefully it got onto your shirt by accident... Just pre-treat the garment with a splash of Coke over the affected area or add the soda to your washing machine along with detergent. Either way, you’ll need to put your item through a wash cycle to remove and clean the stain.

Coca-Cola can cause carpet stains of its own, as plenty of people with young kids will tell you. But did you know that it can remove pesky blemishes, too? Yep, you can pour a little Coke over marker daubs on your rugs or even your clothes. Let this sit for a little while while the carbonated beverage works its magic. Then scrub away the soda and stain with soap and water.

Not all of us are good cooks. Well, not all of us are even average cooks. But if you’ve burnt your supper, there’s no need to scrub your pan in shame. Instead, cover the overbaked areas with Coke – enough to submerge the scorched bits in 2 to 3 inches of soda. Then fire up the hob and let your pan cook until the burnt parts loosen up.

If you think about it, Coca-Cola makes the perfect addition to a baked item. There’s plenty of sugar there, after all, and the bubbles are great for helping the mix rise. A quick Google search will pair you with a chocolate cake recipe that incorporates soda into both the batter and the frosting. You can pour the frosting over the fresh-out-of-the-oven cake, too, so that it trickles in and makes the whole thing even tastier. Yum.

For all of its stickiness, Coca-Cola is great at removing gum from hard surfaces like shoes. Just pour the soda over the hard-to-remove wad and then pluck it off with a tissue. You can also use Coke to clean gum from your hair! A five-minute soak in the carbonated beverage should get rid of the clump – with no scissors required.

Your adventurous pup may cross paths with a skunk – only to walk away stinking from such an ordeal. But while it’s tough to neutralize the scent that skunks spray, you can do it with Coke. In fact, emptying a can of the soda over your pooch can kill the smell faster than traditional soap.

Pour a bottle of Coke into a saucepan, let it simmer over high heat and see what happens. Spoiler alert: the soda becomes a thick, syrupy reduction that mimics the consistency and sweetness of corn syrup. Better yet, it makes the perfect addition to a pecan pie – and plenty of recipes will instruct you to use it because of this.

Coke makes a great pesticide – albeit an unexpected one. Just pour some of the soda into a bowl and leave it out to eliminate snails and slugs, as the acid in the bubbly beverage will kill them. Take it from farmers in India, who have long harnessed the power of Coca-Cola to ward off insects in a roundabout way. You see, Coke’s sweetness draws in red ants, which other pests dislike and avoid.

You probably have all three of the ingredients necessary to make your own lip balm. Mix a spoonful each of Vaseline and coconut oil with a capful of Coke. Then microwave this concoction before pouring it into an empty chapstick tube. All you need to do after that is to pop the tube into the freezer until the contents harden into a nourishing lip rescue remedy. Sweet!

Your car probably has a built-in defrosting feature for the windshield, but this probably won’t be powerful enough to remove the ice that forms in winter. No need to dig away, though. Simply trickle Coke over the glass to help loosen up the ice, then scrape away any lingering shards before driving off.

Your plastic Coke bottle has more to offer you than just the drink inside. Cut off the neck, then remove the cap and place it face down at the bottle’s bottom. Then pour a little bit of soda into the base of the trap. This will convince flies to trek into the funnel to get to the sugary stuff. Once the insects try landing for a drink, however, they’ll get stuck in the liquid.

Again, this hack is all thanks to Coke’s acidity levels. Pour the soda into your toilet at the rim, and let it drip down into the bowl. Keep the Coke in place overnight to let it work its magic, and in the morning you’ll wake up to a sparkling clean commode – no brushing or bleach required.

We’ve all left the salon unhappy before, and it’s even worse when you’ve been through a bad dye job. No need to wear a hat until the whole thing grows out, though! If the color of your locks is either too dark or too bright, you have a resource: a Coke hair mask, which you should leave in for just five minutes. Then rinse your head, and you’ll see that the soda should take some of the excess dye with it.

If chrome on your car or in your bathroom has lost its luster, Coke can help it shine again. Just splash some soda over the dingy surface in question, and then scour it with a piece of aluminum foil. After that, just wash away all of the dirt with warm water before drying off your chrome, and you’ll have some seriously sparkly metal. You’re welcome.

Once again, we’re talking about Coca-Cola’s high acidity levels. But this time it’s not to help you clean. Oh, no, it’s to make you a better cook. Specifically, Coke can tenderize a hunk of meat in a mere 30 minutes. And if you want something that falls off the bone, you can use soda for that, too. Just let your chosen cut sit in the soda for 24 hours. Either way, you’ll wow any dinner party guests.

A quick skim through Coke’s ingredients reveals that it contains citric acid, which makes a surprisingly effective glass cleaner. So, dip a cloth into Coke and scour streaked windows with soda. Follow that up with a water rinse just to remove any sticky residue. And with that, you’ll have clear windows once again. Neat!

Over time, your kettle will probably gather a layer of limescale inside – and you don’t want that breaking off and falling into your cup. So, keep your trusty tea-maker neat and tidy by boiling a can of Coke inside. Then, when the cycle’s finished, dump out the soda and rinse the pot. It should be a lot cleaner than it was pre-cola treatment, anyway.

Not all plants will appreciate a Coke-based feeding. But if you have azaleas or gardenias in your garden, they’ll lap up the soda and flourish thanks to the levels of acid in the liquid. Just pour a bit of soda onto the bottom of your flora to nourish the plant and the microorganisms dwelling in the soil, too.

Let’s finish on the highest of all possible notes: bacon. Yep, you can make your breakfast even tastier with the help of Coke. Marinate your strips for a half-hour, then cook your bacon as usual. The sweetness of the soda will help caramelize your meat – which, somehow, makes it even better than usual.

Now we’ve finished talking about Coke, though, let’s look at your dishwasher. That clever little device is your savior when that huge Thanksgiving dinner needs to be cleaned up and you’re just too full to put on the rubber gloves. But your dishwasher isn’t just great at getting baked-on food off your pans and plates. It can also handle any one of these 20 unexpected jobs – including a handy hack that anyone with lots of plants in their place needs to know about.

Sometimes, your cleaning equipment needs a scrub itself. And, yes, that includes your vacuum. With all of the dust, dander and dirt that it hoovers up, some is bound to get trapped in the hose and brushes. But if you’re sighing at the prospect of adding yet another household chore to your list, fear not: your dishwasher can help do the job thoroughly.

First, pluck any large lumps of dirt from your appliance’s attachments. Then remove the top rack of the dishwasher so that you can fit in all of the removable pieces. Finally, pop a detergent tablet into the dishwasher’s drawer and run a cool rinse cycle to quickly clean out your hoses, brushes and any other detachable vacuum parts.

Tramping through mud can be fun, but getting the caked-on grime off your boots definitely isn’t. Even when the weather’s fine, though, your shoes still get a bit grubby. Take a look at the flip-flops you wore everywhere last summer. We bet they’ve definitely been cleaner.

Well, luckily, you can refresh both of these hard-working items of footwear with the help of your dishwasher. Remove any fabric liners from your rain boots before laying them horizontally in the dishwasher. If you’ve got flip-flops to clean, meanwhile, put them on the top rack, securing them in place by hooking them onto the spikes. Interestingly enough, though, this tip won’t work for Crocs, so deal with those shoes separately from your dishwasher-safe items.

Yes, you can make dinner in a jiffy with a dishwasher! Obviously you can’t use any soap, as the salmon will taste pretty bad afterward. You shouldn’t fill the rest of the space with dirty crockery, either. And there’s a couple of other no-nos. The dishwasher shouldn’t release any of its drying agents, and you can’t sneak a look inside your appliance while the salmon cooks.

What you should do is put salmon filet, a sprig of rosemary and half a lemon into a piece of tinfoil. Then wrap the packet tightly and place it onto the top rack. Finally, set the appliance to run with hot water and a heated dry cycle. And after the process is complete, you’ll have a deliciously steamed piece of salmon.

Boiling an egg to perfection on the stove is an art form. If you’ve never had the knack, though, you can try letting your dishwasher do the work for you. All you have to do is pop a single egg into a jar. Then fill the container up with water before closing the lid so that it’s airtight.

After that, put the sealed jar into the dishwasher. Position it in a way that it won’t topple or open up mid-wash cycle. And avoid an eco-friendly or cool program, opting instead for the normal or extra-strength option. The normal cycle should produce a soft-boiled egg at the end, while the extra-strength cycle will give you a hard-boiled one.

Your air vents breathe heat into your home in winter and the perfect chill into summertime spaces. Weirdly enough, though, all that air doesn’t manage to stop dust and dander from piling up on the slats. Some of that debris gets stuck to the grates that cover your ducts, too, and this can be tough to remove – not to mention labor-intensive.

Yes, you could dust each individual slat of your air vent cover. But it’d be a much easier task if you pop the grates into the dishwasher. They’re metal, meaning they’re durable enough to withstand a normal cleaning cycle. And when the grates emerge, they’ll be sparkling clean and ready to guide both warm and cool air into your abode.

Your sponge does it all. It cleans plates, wipes down counters and scours pots and pans, to name but a few everyday household tasks. This makes it a handy little item that we wouldn’t be without. But after all that, who sanitizes the sponge? Well, the answer to that question is now your dishwasher! According to Good Housekeeping magazine, putting your sponge through a dishwasher cycle kills 99.9 percent of germs lurking there.

You can pop the sponge in with the rest of your dirty dishes, too. Just tuck it into the cutlery basket for safekeeping. And after a normal cycle and a heated drying session, your scrubbing buddy is sanitized and ready for more cleaning. Make sure that the dishwasher reaches 155 °F, however, to kill all of those kitchen germs.

Perhaps you’re preparing a big meal and have limited hob space. Maybe your steamed vegetables come out all mushy, or you don’t have a steaming tray in your kitchen at all. Whatever the reason, you want to make sure that your veggies are cooked while still full of nutrients. And guess what? Your dishwasher can help with that.

Chop your veggies of choice before placing them into a mason jar and pouring a cup of water over the top. Then you just have to seal the jar shut and place it on the top rack of the dishwasher. And after a normal wash cycle, you’ll have a perfectly steamed side dish for your dinner – not to mention a clean bowl or two in which to serve it.

We spend hundreds of dollars on our computers… and then we eat our meals directly over their keyboards. Yep, add food crumbs to the mix of dust and dirt lurking in the thing you type with every day. Eww. Of course, you can just do a quick clean with a wipe. For a more thorough cleanse, though, chuck your keyboard into the dishwasher.

Obviously, you’ll want to disconnect all of the wires from your keyboard. Then, once you’ve done that, put your tech into the dishwasher without any soap and run through a cooler wash cycle. Let the keys dry out for up to three days, and finally you’ll have a refreshed, sanitized place to type… or an expensive tray for your lunch crumbs.

Okay, you can’t exactly get your entire car into the dishwasher – not a full-sized one, anyway. What you can do is throw your car accessories in for a wash cycle to spruce them up. There’s a long list of auto-related items that will survive a dishwasher session, too.

Start with the obvious contenders, such as your car’s cup holders. Rubber floor mats work well, too, but shake out any dirt or debris before placing them in the dishwasher. And you can even try putting your vehicle’s hubcaps through a wash cycle – and watch as your kitchen appliance neatly gets rid of all that grime.

Got a kid into peewee football? Then you know that they need a whole lot of equipment. There are the protective pads, for instance, and the mouth guard – all of which protect your little one from the bumps and bruises that come with a contact sport. And when you get home from the next game, you should make your life easier by throwing this kit in the dishwasher.

Stick the mouth guard into the cutlery holder and shin guards and other padding into the plate racks. Then, following a wash cycle, everything will be sweat- and bacteria-free and ready for the next game. The dishwasher works for other sports equipment, too, including golf balls – if you haven’t lost ’em all in the rough, that is.

Children aren’t known for being the cleanest creatures. Even their most cherished toys are put through the wringer – and gather lots of germs along the way. Of course, soft toys are easy to throw in the washing machine for a refresh. But can you clean hard plastic toys just as simply? Well, yep, and – surprise surprise – it involves your dishwasher.

So, here’s some good news for parents everywhere: there’s no need to sanitize your children’s plastic toys by hand anymore. Instead, you can line them up on the top rack of your dishwasher and put them through a germ-killing wash cycle. The same goes for bath toys, which should be refreshed monthly at the very least.

The sacred family lasagna recipe probably has very particular cooking instructions – and we bet that none of them mention the use of a dishwasher. But after you layer your pasta, sauce, cheese and meat, try forgoing the oven and cook your dinner in a new way instead. Sounds strange, but it works.

You just have to wrap your pasta dish tightly in foil before baking it in the dishwasher. You’ll also want to skip the rinse cycle to avoid your lasagne getting waterlogged. Pop it onto the top rack instead for a heated dry cycle. Then you can open the door and pull out a perfectly steamed Italian dinner. Bon appétit!

Preparing a big meal requires lots of work beforehand. So, why not let your dishwasher pick up some of the slack? If you need to scrub potatoes, for example, you can simply stick your veggies on the top rack of your appliance. Then run a detergent-free rinse cycle to cleanse your taters without any elbow grease.

You can do the same with the rest of your produce when you bring it home from the grocery store. Even delicate items such as peaches will survive a quick rinse on the top rack. And just like that, you’ll have washed all of your fruit and veggies. Time to eat!

Experts say that you should wash your makeup brushes at least once a week. But who has time for that? Well, your dishwasher does, of course! Your kitchen appliance can remove the built-up cosmetics, dead skin and germs lurking in your brushes in a jiffy, freeing your time up to do much less tedious stuff.

All you have to do is pour your soap of choice into the detergent compartment, then add up to ten milliliters of bleach into the designated spot. Follow this up by placing your makeup brushes – nail clippers and plastic hairbrushes, too, if you have them – into the dishwasher. And run them all through a normal wash cycle for a simple, thorough sanitizing session.

If you’ve ever worn a baseball cap on a sunny day, you know what happens next: your head starts to sweat. And as you may have realized from time to time, your favorite accessory will soon turn out smelling less than sweet. But you can’t just toss baseball caps into the washing machine or they’ll lose their rigidity.

Rather than constantly blasting your caps with Febreeze, then, try getting them properly clean in your dishwasher. Place your headwear onto the top rack of the appliance for a gentle cleanse. Then, when the cycle finishes, your caps will have retained their shapes but none of that unsavory smell.

If you’ve ever designated yourself the head chef of a huge dinner party or family feast, one of the biggest struggles you’ll have is timing all of your prep. And once you finish your first round of cooking and baking, some plates will probably go cold while you deal with the rest of your menu.

Luckily, you have your dishwasher on your side, as it can double as a warming drawer while you finish cooking. Place cooked food onto the top rack of the appliance and set it to a heated dry cycle – no rinsing allowed. It’ll keep your food at the perfect temperature until it’s time to serve up.

Something as soft and delicate as a silk flower doesn’t seem like a dishwasher-friendly item. But even if the faux bloom’s stem doesn’t say so, you can probably toss it onto the top rack for a rinse. And if you’ve ever tried dusting your fake flower down, you’re probably happy to spend your time on something less boring instead.

After you’ve put your silk flowers in your dishwasher, however, don’t add anything else. Yep, no detergent is necessary to clean these blooms. Instead, a moderate cycle will be enough to remove the dust. Then, once your blossoms are dry, they’ll look brand new. Simple!

So, you’ve washed your fake flowers, rinsed off your muddy boots and even cooked fish in your dishwasher. Chances are, then, that the appliance needs a bit of TLC itself. There may be limescale deposits and rust stains inside, for one. But before you wonder how you can make the job easier – put your dishwasher inside another dishwasher somehow? – read for the Kool-Aid instead.

You’ll have to pick up a packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid lemonade, as that’s the only flavor with the limescale-fighting power you’ll need. Pour the contents of the pack into the detergent dispenser, then flip on your appliance and run it on any one of its cycles. And with that, the build-up should disappear. There’ll be a delicious lemony-fresh scent, too.

That pesky avocado you’ve taken home from the grocery store can feel solid for days. Then poof – it’s mushy and inedible within the blink of an eye. Avoid this world of pain next time, though, with the help of your favorite household appliance. We’re talking, of course, about your dishwasher.

Put as many avocadoes as you need onto the top rack of your dishwasher. Then turn the appliance onto its normal cycle and let it run for just ten minutes. And after that’s done, your fruit should have the perfect soft, buttery texture to spread on toast, add to salads or just scoop up and scarf down with a spoon.

According to Statista, more than 33 million American households cultivated houseplants in 2019. That’s over 10 percent of the country’s entire population. And that huge number of people may not realize that their dishwasher can make keeping their greenery alive a whole easier – especially if they’ve had plants die of diseases.

Firstly, plant parents will have to remove any lumps of dirt from their toughened plastic or terracotta pots. Then they can pop them into the dishwasher for a thorough cleaning. This is a must-do if the pot’s previous resident succumbed to disease, as the hot water will sanitize away any lingering residue that could damage your next piece of foliage.