Freezers aren’t just for ice cube trays and frozen pizzas. These coolers have a wide variety of uses, from keeping products fresh to prolonging shelf life and even making some items more durable. However, freezers are an often underutilized tool for extending the usage of various household items. Here are six freezer hacks you should know.

Get the Chewing Gum Off Your Shoe

Stepping in gum is a nightmare, especially when you’re wearing your favorite pair of shoes. Rather than pick away at that sticky residue for hours, you can use your freezer to your advantage. Take your gum-covered shoe, put it in a large plastic bag, and make sure that the exposed side of the gum sticks to the bag. Let it freeze for two hours and voila! The gum should stick to the bag when you remove your shoe, leaving the sole completely clean. If you’re short on time, you can also place an ice cube directly against the gum for 15 minutes. This should harden the gum enough that you can then easily remove most of it with a toothpick.

Make Your Wax Candles Last Longer

You can extend the life of your wax candles by placing them in the freezer. Essentially, the wax freezes, causing the candle to melt much slower than it would if left at room temperature. Depending on the candle’s thickness, it’s recommended to store it in the freezer for anywhere between one to eight hours, with thicker candles requiring a longer time. Don’t worry about the candle losing its pleasant smell, as that lovely aroma will be left unchanged by the freezing process. Plus, you can even use your freezer to easily remove any wax candle from a glass jar, as wax shrinks when it freezes meaning the candle will slide right out, allowing you to recycle or reuse the container.

Strengthen Your Pantyhose and Tights

Pantyhose and tights are incredibly finicky and known to snag and develop massive holes. However, you can strengthen the fibers of any pair by freezing them, which makes them less prone to future runs. Take your tights, hold them underwater until damp, then freeze them in a plastic bag overnight. After removing them, give them a day to defrost and your pantyhose will be stronger than ever. Don’t worry about doing this every time, as it only takes one freeze to permanently strengthen the fibers going forward.

Keep Your Pillowcases and Sheets Cool

Depending on where you live, summertime sleep can be brutal, and in those instances, there’s nothing more refreshing than the cold side of the pillow. You can ensure that you sleep in ice-cold comfort by keeping pillowcases — as well as bedsheets — in the freezer for a few hours before you hit the hay. While your frozen sheets won’t remain cool throughout the night, they’ll be nice and cold for 30 to 60 minutes, allowing for plenty of time for you to fall into a deep sleep before they start to warm up again.

Re-Open Sealed Envelopes

Have you ever sealed an envelope, only to realize you forgot to include something in the letter you just wrote? Rather than tear the envelope open, you can easily pop that letter open again by leaving it in the freezer for an hour or two. Put the envelope in a plastic bag to prevent any moisture from creeping in and then freeze. After some time passes, you can use a knife to easily re-open the envelope without causing any damage, as the cold temperatures weaken the adhesive. After you’re done editing the letter, you should be able to easily reseal the envelope using moisture once the adhesives reach room temperature once again.

Soothe Your Sunburn With Aloe Vera Cubes

Aloe vera is one of the best natural skin products around and can be particularly helpful with easing the pain of a bad sunburn. Using either the fresh juice straight from an aloe plant or pre-extracted gel, pour some aloe vera into an ice cube tray and let it freeze. Whenever you suffer a bad sunburn, or if you’re just dealing with puffiness around the eyes, you can use one of these aloe vera cubes for instant cooling relief. Plus, aloe is hypoallergenic, so the cube will benefit even the most sensitive of skin types.

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A refrigerator might be silver or white, its freezer might be on the top or the bottom — or maybe it’s a double-door with a whole side dedicated to frozen goods. No matter the make or model of your fridge, it’s very likely it’ll be outfitted with a series of drawers and compartments. It’s tempting, of course, as a busy and lovingly disorganized person to just throw your food in wherever it fits, but using your refrigerator’s drawers as the manufacturer intended will keep your food tastier for longer, saving you time and money in the future.

Crisper

The most misused and disorganized drawer in common refrigerators is the crisper. While some people believe that any and all fruits and vegetables go in a crisper drawer, it’s helpful to remember a few tips. First thing first: it’s all in the name. You want to put produce in the crisper drawer that you want to remain, well, crispy. You don’t need to bother with produce like potatoes, onions, or tomatoes. Think leafy greens: lettuce, herbs, asparagus, bok choy, celery — anything you want to maintain a crunch. The crisper drawer maintains a higher level of humidity which keeps your veggies from wilting or getting soggy. 

Fresh

Some types of fridges will also have a drawer labeled “Fresh.” A little confusing, no doubt, but you’ve got this. Think of the fresh drawer as a place for all the produce you don’t want to stay crispy but that you want to remain fresh. Lemons, limes, apples — almost all fruit will stay good in the fresh drawer. The fresh drawer maintains a lower level of humidity, which will prevent water molecules from enhancing rot. If your fridge doesn’t have labeled drawers, don’t worry! That often means you can control the humidity yourself. Program them so you have one running on high humidity and the other running on low humidity, and you’ll never eat a wilted salad again.

Deli Meats

It’s possible that your refrigerator has a slim drawer somewhere in the middle of its shelves intended for sliced or deli meats for sandwiches and snacks alike. This drawer is slightly colder than the body of the fridge, which will help keep those meats cooler for longer — even the ones made without preservatives. You can also keep sliced cheese in there.

Other Meat and Dairy

If your fridge doesn’t come with a deli meat drawer, don’t worry! Meats are otherwise best stored on the bottom shelf (not in a drawer) on a plate to prevent any dripping. Cheese can be kept in the door or on the top shelf for ease of access.

Door Drawer

You may have a drawer that opens up and down (rather than out) in the door of your fridge. This is a great place to put eggs, butter, or soft kinds of cheese — making them easily accessible and not too cool. The last thing you’d want is for your eggs to be crispy before you fry them.

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When it comes to food safety, a little caution is a good thing. Food is supposed to nourish you, not get you sick, and there’s nothing wrong with being mindful of expiration dates and freshness. Even so, it’s possible to overdo it. “Best by” isn’t the same as an expiration date, and even those can be misleading. The same can be said of refrigerating everything just in case: Many foods are not only hardy enough to be stored at room temperature, they’re actually worse off in the fridge. Here are five of them.

Bananas

Bananas only ripen properly in warm temperatures between about 59 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas most refrigerators hover just below the 40-degree mark. Exposure to light and air also slows down decay, which will speed up in the fridge — cold temperatures will damage a banana’s cell walls and eventually turn its skin black and bruised. It’s hardly the only fruit that’s better left on the counter, as everything from avocados and peaches to watermelon and most citrus do better at room temperature (especially before they’ve fully ripened).

Butter

This one may seem controversial, but refrigerating butter is relatively uncommon in many parts of the world. It’s almost impossible to spread after sitting in the fridge, and no less an authority than US Dairy says it’s fine to leave on the counter — albeit with a few caveats. Salted butter is safer to leave out than its unsalted counterpart, as it’s less likely to go bad in warmer temperatures, and storing it in a covered container is ideal. Go ahead and put it in the fridge if you don’t plan on using it anytime soon, but it’s also fine to leave it out for a few days at a time.

Chocolate

The air inside your refrigerator is both colder and more moist than chocolate needs to be, and it isn’t just the taste that will suffer — the texture and color will be worse off as well. It might even take on an odd scent, as the cocoa butter present in most chocolate absorbs surrounding smells. If you don’t want your sweets to taste like the box of leftovers that’s been in your fridge for the last week, store them elsewhere.

Honey

If you’ve ever taken your bear-shaped bottle of honey out of the fridge and been disappointed by how syrupy and congealed it’s gotten, know that you can easily avoid this fate. Honey does just fine — better, even! — in a cool, dark pantry.

Olive Oil

If it’s oil-based, don’t bother with the fridge. That includes olive oil, which turns cloudy and grainy as it solidifies in colder temperatures, as well as salad dressings that consist primarily of oil and/or vinegar. Plenty of other condiments do fine at room temperature as well: hot sauce, ketchup, and soy sauce, all of which you’ll find on the table at your local restaurant.

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Most of us like the idea of having a house full of plants, but few of us have green enough thumbs to make that vision a reality. If your inability to keep plants alive is preventing you from sprucing up your living space with greenery, try one of these low-maintenance options that thrive on neglect.

Snake Plant (dracaena trifasciata)

Some plants need to be watered every day, others only once a week. Snake plants, meanwhile, only need it when their soil has gone dry. They also don’t need much light, meaning you can feel free to put them in the darkest corner of your darkest room. When you do water yours, just make sure the water drains fully so the roots don’t soak.

Jade (crassula ovata)

Ahh, succulents — the easiest of the easy. Feel free to keep yours outside if it isn’t literally freezing, don’t bother watering it until the soil completely dries out (jade is susceptible to rot, so keep those roots dry), and watch as it grows for years and years. Bonus: Jade is considered good luck throughout much of Asia, where it’s thought to bring financial fortune.

Spider Plant (chlorophytum comosum)

Elsewhere in low-maintenance plants with names that might trigger common phobias, the humble spider plant only needs to be watered once a week in spring and summer and even less often in the colder months. They do well with a good amount of light, and their only real weakness is too much direct sunlight — maybe they should have been called vampire plants?

ZZ Plant (zamioculcas zamiifolia)

Though it bears no relation to a certain rock band known for its members’ beards, the ZZ plant does have a memorable look of its own. Just keep it in indirect light, water it when the soil is dry (are you sensing a trend among neglect-proof plants yet?), and enjoy the tropical vibe it adds to your home.

Air Plant (tillandsia)

If even putting a plant in soil sounds like too much work to you, meet the air plant. It doesn’t need to be kept in soil or water, and looks great in a pot or hanging vase. How to keep it alive, then? Put it somewhere that gets indirect light and soak it in water once a week for half an hour and let it dry on a towel for a few hours.

Ponytail Palm (beaucarnea recurvata)

Another succulent (not, as its name suggests, a member of the palm family), the ponytail palm does indeed resemble long, flowing hair. It’s also about as low-maintenance as that go-to hairstyle, requiring (you guessed it) water only when its soil has completely dried out and a cozy spot where it gets bright, indirect light; some direct sun is okay in this case.

Chinese Money Plant (pilea peperomioides)

Arguably the cutest item on this list, the money plant also has the funnest name(s): Pilea peperomioides is also known as the UFO plant and pancake plant, with both monikers owed to its round leaves. You can surely guess by now how often it needs to be watered, and it only needs to be repotted every couple of years. Give it lots of bright, indirect light, and keep living your life.

Bird of Paradise (strelitzia reginae)

If you’d like something a bit more ostentatious with an appropriately fun name to boot, try a bird of paradise — they can reach eight feet tall and give your home a jungle vibe. Just keep the soil moist, allow the top two or three inches to dry out between waterings, and put it somewhere that gets bright, indirect light in order for it to proudly grow its iconic flowers.

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Taking care of your clothes is important, but it can also be confusing. For every t-shirt or pair of jeans that you can simply throw in the washer and dryer without thinking twice, there’s a wool sweater or silk blouse that requires much more delicate laundering. If you’re hoping to finally decode those laundry symbols on your clothing tags, here’s a helpful guide.

Washtub

This one’s simple — machine-wash the garment and don’t worry too much about the exact settings.

Washtub With One Line Underneath

Machine-wash these clothes too, but use the permanent press cycle. This helps prevent shrinking, wrinkles, and fading.

Washtub With Two Lines Underneath

If you guessed that this means to machine-wash the garment with a different cycle, you’re a quick study. The two lines indicate a delicate cycle, which uses colder water and a slow spin cycle.

Washtub With a Hand

These items are too delicate for the washing machine and need to be hand-washed. A sink or small tub works best, and there are mild detergents designed specifically for hand washing. It’s more work, but your garments will last longer.

Washtub With an X Through It

Don’t wash anything with this symbol at all — take it to the dry cleaners.

Washtub With One Small Dot

Anything with this symbol can go in the washing machine, but colder temperatures are ideal — between 65°F and 85°F.

Washtub With Two Small Dots

That second dot indicates that warmer water is okay for these items, usually at a maximum temperature of 105°F.

Washtub With Three Small Dots

Heat these bad boys up as much as you want, because they can withstand water temperatures of up to 120°F.

Triangle

If the triangle doesn’t have anything in it, it means that the item in question can be bleached.

Triangle With Diagonal Lines

These can also be bleached, but only if it doesn’t contain chlorine. If you’re not sure whether the bleach you use has chlorine in it, just check the list of ingredients.

Triangle With an X Through It

Sometimes the triangle will be filled in, sometimes, it will be empty aside from the big X going through it — in any event, don’t use bleach.

Square With a Circle Inside It

We’ve now reached the drying section of laundry symbols. This one is probably the most common and indicates that you can tumble-dry the item. As with washing, there might be dots as well — one dot indicates low heat, two for medium heat, and three represents high heat.

Square With a Filled-in Circle

If the circle is completely filled in, throw the item in the dryer with no heat at all.

Square With a Circle Inside It and a Line Underneath

Once again, the line underneath means to use the permanent-press setting. 

Square With a Circle Inside It and Two Lines Underneath

Just like before, the two lines below the main symbol are for the delicate setting.

Square With a Circle Inside It and an X Through It

As you’ve probably noticed by now, an X through just about anything means to not do it. In this case, that means not to tumble dry. Anything with this symbol should instead be hung to dry, though you can use an extra spin cycle to remove as much excess water as possible first.

Circle

An empty circle with nothing else around or inside it is for items that need to be dry-cleaned.

Circle With an X Through It

Last but not least, a circle with an X through it means exactly what you think it does: don’t dry-clean.

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You know what’s great? Butter. You know what else is great? Soy sauce. Despite loving both, you’ve probably never mixed them before. Well, dear reader, it’s time to start. The blend is incredibly easy to make — just lightly melt butter, either in a pan over low heat or a glass bowl in the microwave, before adding soy sauce and whisking — and yields equally incredible results. Best of all is the fact that you don’t need fancy versions of either component; the butter and soy sauce you already have in your fridge will work fine. The emulsion stays mixed after you cook it, meaning the soy and butter won’t separate into unappetizing chunks.

Butter + Soy Sauce = Umami

Known by some proponents as Asian-Fusion Soy Butter, part of why it’s so beloved is due to how pronounced the umami flavor profile is. Umami, one of the five basic tastes alongside sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, and sourness, comes from the Japanese word うま味 and can be translated as both “pleasant savory taste” and “deliciousness” — the perfect description of this brown butter sauce.

First identified by Kikunae Ikeda in 1908, umami has always been a bit harder to pin down and define than its four counterparts. Ikeda, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, realized that glutamic acid was responsible for the savory flavor of several tasty foods and became the first person to prepare what he called 味の素, or “essence of flavor.” Today it’s called monosodium glutamate (MSG), and most of what you’ve read about it isn’t true. Other foods rich in umami include everything from tomatoes and cheese to cured meats and mushrooms.

What Do You Do With Soy Butter?

Okay, back to the soy butter. Now that your mouth is watering, you’re probably wondering what to put your new favorite sauce on. You can keep it simple to start with and simply try it with rice, which is more delicious than it has any right to be, or be a bit more ambitious and use it as a steak marinade. Other go-tos include fish, vegetables, and stir-fry. (Some people are so passionate about soy butter they insist even “an old sneaker” would taste good doused in it, and they might be right.) Among the sauce’s more upscale enthusiasts are chefs like Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Wolfgang Puck, and Roy Choi.

Now, Let’s Get Fancy

Once you’ve mastered the basic version, there are several other variants you can try. Some recipes include oyster sauce, while others like adding shallots and/or ginger; if you’d like something with more heat, feel free to throw some wasabi in there. It’s such a simple concoction that there’s plenty of room to tweak and experiment until you find the version that’s perfect for you. Just be warned that, once you start, you’ll probably want to put it on everything — including an old shoe.

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You’ve already got scissors, olive oil, and a whisk in your pantry, but what about a pool noodle? If you’re looking to level up your kitchen, consider turning to out-of-the-box items with multi-faceted uses. Here are five items you probably don’t have in your kitchen, but should.

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Baby Powder

While most parents have moved away from baby powder, especially those containing talc, for actual baby use, this product can come in handy in the kitchen. That’s especially true when it comes to keeping ants at bay, as the kitchen tends to be their go-to for obvious reasons; sprinkling some will cause the ants already inside your house to lose their scent trail and prevent the ones trying to get in from doing so. Also, if you clean using rubber gloves, putting some baby powder on your hands beforehand will help them slide on more easily and prevent them from bunching up.

Denture Tablets

If you don’t have dentures, then you might not know how useful denture tablets are. Though their primary function is keeping dentures and retainers clean, which you do by dropping them in a glass of water and letting them dissolve overnight, they can also keep things like tea kettles, coffee pots, and water bottles clean by using the same method — only instead of a glass of water, just drop them into the item that needs to be cleaned. This is especially handy for narrower objects that are hard to fit your entire hand into.

Bubble Wrap

If you can resist the urge to pop it, bubble wrap is great to have around. You can use it to insulate windows, line your refrigerator drawers to prevent fruit and other delicate food from getting banged up, and put a layer of it between your fancy dishes to prevent them from getting scratched. If you’re worried about that last one looking unsightly, cut the edges off the bubble wrap so it isn’t visible when the plates and bowls are stacked.

Pool Noodles

Though you might have trouble fitting them in a drawer (try the pantry instead), pool noodles have a surprising number of household uses. This comes down to their construction, which is to say that they’re useful for the same reason they’re fun in the pool: They’re made of polyethylene, a closed-cell foam that makes them impenetrable to water. Need to fill a bucket but don’t want to lift it out of the sink once it’s full of water? Slip a pool noodle over the faucet and use it as a makeshift hose. Tired of a cabinet or pantry door making a loud noise and/or nicking your fingers when it closes? Cut a pool noodle to size, split it down the middle, and put it on the noisy door in question to both silence and slam-proof it.

Peanut Butter

Alright, so you probably do already have this one in your kitchen. The bad news is you may eat it all before using it for non-culinary purposes. Should you manage to keep some around, you’ll be glad the next time you need to remove the sticky residue left behind by labels or stickers — just put some peanut butter on a dry cotton cloth and it’ll come right off. It can also un-squeak a noisy door hinge in your cabinet or pantry by lubricating the joint in question, help remove gum from your kiddo’s hair, or make your dog more likely to take its medicine.

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