If you've seen rubbing alcohol being sold at your local pharmacies and wondered what they were for, here are some handy ways you can use it to clean your home and body.
1) Get rid of bed bugs
A tried-and-tested formula that is also used by pest controllers. You can get rid of beg bugs yourself by spraying rubbing alcohol directly onto your mattress. Fill up a spray bottle with rubbing alcohol without diluting it with water, but take care not to get too much on your hands as rubbing alcohol can severly dry out your skin. Also, avoid spraying on your bedsheets as it might cause discolouration. Find full effectiveness, do this several times until the bed bugs are eliminated totally.
2) Make your own ice pack
Cool packs are great for lowering a fever, preventing bruises and keeping your canned drinks cold in a cool box. Just mix one part rubbing alcohol with two parts water and put it into a sealeable bag (zip-loc works great). Make sure to get a much of the air out as possible (tip: immerse the bag into a tub of water while you are sealing it, this forces the air out). After freezing the pack for two hours, what you get is a soft cold pack.
3) Treat head lice
Put some drops of lavender oil into a spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol. Spray it onto your head and comb through with a lice-comb. You can also disinfect your comb afterwards by soaking it in pure rubbing alcohol for an hour. Again, take care not to leave the solution on your scalp for too long as it dries out the scalp and hair follicles.
4) Make your own hand sanitiser
You can now make your own hand sanitiser for less than half the cost, and get your own desired scents as well. Mix a small squeeze bottle of aloe vera gel with half to one teaspoon of rubbing alcohol, along with a few drops of teatree oil and any other essential oil you want to scent the formula with.
5) A natural roach killer
If you hate the smell of insecticide, you can try using rubbing alcohol to solve your roach problem. The high alcohol content is toxic to the cockraoches and kills them shortly after they are sprayed.