2 Wildly Unexpected Uses for Kitchen Tongs (Yes, Tongs!)
For many home cooks, tongs are just an extension of our hands — ready to flip, grab, move, or poke almost anything at a moment’s notice. But what if we told you that you could do more than flip, grab, move, or poke things with a set of tongs? Because you CAN! We actually have two (!) surprising things you can do with a pair of tongs.
One of our favorites: OXO Stainless Steel 9-Inch Tongs, $14
1. Use tongs to dust your blinds.
If you have blinds, you know how annoying they are to dust. But if you have tongs, two microfiber cloths, and some rubber bands, you have everything you need to hack together the most ideal cleaning tool. Use a rubber band to secure a wrapped microfiber cloth around each side of a pair of tongs. Then, just clamp the pieces on a single blind and swipe along the entire thing. You’ll have to open and re-clamp to work around the strings, but it’s still a pretty fast method. Plus, I find it’s more effective than using an actual duster.
2. Use tongs to juice lemons and limes.
For little, weak, or arthritic hands, juicing citrus can be hard. Even if you have a juicer! Try a pair of tongs instead. Put half a lemon between the pieces (closer to the back, where the hinge is, because that’s where you’ll get the most leverage). Then use both hands to squeeze the heads of the tongs together, and the tool will do most of the work for you. Bonus: You’re probably going to need tongs for whatever it is you’re making anyway, and now you don’t have to dirty a juicer. One less thing to wash!
Do you have any other surprising uses for a pair of tongs? Leave your ideas in the comments below.