When I made the switch to eating whole foods over a decade ago, I realized I had a lot of food I no longer wanted to eat lurking in the pantry. If you’re making the switch or need to clean things out, here are some creative uses for junk food!

I compiled a list of ways to use these for other household purposes. I hate to waste as much as the next person, but I finally had to realize that my body is not a garbage can. And I refused to use things just to finish what’s in the house. 

When we switched to a real food diet, I donated all of the unopened non-perishables. That still left all of the opened packages of flour, sugar, oil, etc. to deal with. Instead of just pitching it, we used it for some fun projects and around the house.

The kids had a blast (and I got pampered) while we used up the rest of our “junk food.” I’ve divided them up by categories, but some of the recipes use up several different ingredients. These were my solutions:

1. All-Purpose Enriched Flour

I’ve certainly changed my stance and outlook on things over the years, especially when it comes to grains. I avoided them completely for many years while I was healing my autoimmune disease. Now I’ll eat certain grains, like white rice and organic flour (especially sourdough) in moderation. 

One thing you’re not going to find in my pantry though (at least not anymore!) is bleached, enriched, white flour. Here are some ways to use it up.

Make Play Dough

A win-win situation. You get to spend quality time with your kids and use up the leftover flour in your pantry. If you don’t have kids, this could be fun for grown-ups too… consider it stress relief. And if you need a gluten-free playdough version, I have one here. 

This playdough uses up flour, vegetable oil, Koolaid or food dye, and iodized table salt. 

Playdough Recipe

A basic playdough recipe that uses ingredients from your pantry for endless fun.

Author: Katie Wells

• Combine water and salt in a large pot and heat over low heat until the salt is dissolved.

• Stir in the flour until well combined.

• Add the vegetable oil and cream of tartar, mixing well.

• Keep stirring over low heat until it thickens and pulls away from the sides into a ball. If it’s too sticky, keep stirring over low heat until it thickens.

• Remove from the heat and let it cool until you can handle it.

• Add the Kool-aid or food dye for color.

You can also add some essential oils to give your dough a nice scent and some aromatherapy benefits. 

Have some more food dye you want to use up? Mix it with some yogurt for finger paint. Just be sure to take a picture of your kid’s art project before throwing it away! 

Paper Mache Paste With Flour

Mix equal parts of white flour and water to make a glue-like paste. Let your kids use their hands and some old pieces of newspaper to make creations. Once it dries, it’s much like a sculpture. 

As kids, we used to blow up balloons and put paper mache over them. When they dried, we popped the balloons, cut them in half and painted them to make masks.

Polish Stainless Steel

Oh the fingerprints! Stainless steel shows smudges… a lot. After normal cleaning, pour or rub some all-purpose flour onto the stainless to make it shine and remove fingerprints or water spots. 

The oils and fiber in the flour buffs the tiny grooves in the steel. It also helps pull out dirt and grime that a regular cleaning cloth can’t. 

2. Sugar

I’ve written a lot about sugar over the years and why I ditched it. While I’ll still have natural sweeteners in moderation, I quit bleached, white sugar. Sugar is a humectant that makes for a great skin scrub though! Here are several different sugar scrub recipes to try. 

You can even use a sugar syrup to wax body hair. Here are instructions for how to make and use a sugar wax.

Kill Unwanted Ants

For many of us, warmer seasons can mean ants in the house. Instead of using noxious pesticides, you can easily tackle the problem with a little sweetness. Humans and ants alike both love sugar.

To make a simple ant trap:

• Mix 2 parts sugar with 1 part borax (which is great to have on hand for cleaning).
• Put it in a little container or jar that ants can crawl in and out of. Make sure your kids can’t get to it.

Borax is poisonous to ants, but they can’t resist sugar. It won’t kill them immediately, but they’ll take it back to their nest where it will eventually kill all of them. I’ve used this twice to get rid of ants in our house. Killing ants=good use for sugar!

3. Vegetable Oil 

You might have noticed more conversations around seed oils and vegetable oils lately, even from mainstream sources. Vegetable oils are high in inflammatory omega-6 fats and are linked with a whole host of health issues. These include corn, canola, and soy. 

Here are some ways to use up the rest of the vegetable oil in your home. 

Clean Your Wood Naturally

There are natural ways to clean any type of floor, and that vegetable oil lurking in your pantry makes an awesome hardwood floor cleaner.  Rather than letting it skew your Omega-3 and 6 ratios, use it to make your floors shine. 

Mix 1 cup of vinegar OR lemon juice with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Use this mixture to clean your floors. Be sure to patch test an area first. You’ll have less inflammation, and your floors will have a nice shine!

You can also mix vegetable oil with vinegar to make a DIY dusting spray for wooden furniture. 

Canola Oil in the Garden

Some sources say canola oil can work well as an insecticide and fungicide in the garden. It kills bugs by suffocating them and helps prevent powdery mildew by providing a barrier between the plant and fungi.

To use it, add 1 tablespoon of canola oil and 1 tablespoon liquid soap to 1 gallon of water. Spray on plants to kill bugs and prevent powdery mildew. Just be sure to try and avoid the good bugs!

4. Use Up Rice

Rice is one of the foods that I ditched for years that I’m now fine with on occasion. You might be surprised to hear that I opt for white rice instead of brown rice though and here’s why. If you have non-organic enriched rice or are avoiding it for gut healing purposes, here are some ways to use it up. 

Dry Out Wet Electronics

Electronics and water don’t mix, or at least they’re not supposed to! My kids dropped 3 of our cell phones in water by mistake (and one I dropped myself). Three out of the four were saved by rice. 

Keep a jar of rice on hand and when an electronic gets wet, put it in the jar and close the lid tightly. The rice will absorb the moisture and pull it out of the gadget. Unless there’s structural damage, this usually works. It can take a few days or even a couple weeks, so be patient.

Rice Water For Healthier Hair

Asian cultures have used rice water for luxurious locks for many years. Rice is full of amino acids, antioxidants, vitamins, protein, and other nutrients that are great for hair health. Here’s how to make and use rice water for softer, stronger, and shinier hair. 

5. Oatmeal For Skin Health

Oatmeal can cause blood sugar spikes for many, and it’s often contaminated with glyphosate. Here’s how to use up some of that extra conventional rolled oats in your pantry.

For a relaxing facial, powder oatmeal in a blender or food processor and add warm milk to make a paste. Rub it on your face, let it dry, then wash off. It tightens pores, removes blackheads and moisturizes.

6. Coke For Serious Cleaning

I swapped out my coke and other sodas for healthier (and tastier in my opinion) fermented drinks. If you have some still sitting around, coke makes a great cleaner for tough messes. It contains phosphoric acid that breaks down rust and hard water and softens burnt food. And the citric acid is great for soap scum and grease. 

It can even take the rust off of a car bumper. Imagine what it does to the intestines??

Clean Your Toilet

Toilet dirty? I’m sure yours isn’t, but mine sometimes is. Pour a can of coke in a toilet and let it sit for an hour. Use a brush to remove the stains and flush for a shiny clean. 

I even tried this on a 30-40 year old toilet in a house I remodeled. It worked (and that toilet probably hadn’t been cleaned in 30-40 years). Here are some more ways to use coke for cleaning. 

• Remove gum from hair- Soak hair in it for 10 minutes and gum comes right out. 
• Unclog drains –  just pour in the coke and wait.
• Clean car batteries – Pour coke on a gunky car battery or use a cloth soaked in coke to clean it with. 
• Clean grout – soak a sponge in it and use to clean grout stains. 
• Remove grease stains – Soak grease-stained clothes in coke, then wash as usual. 
• Oil stains on floor – Remove oil stains from your garage floor or concrete driveways. 
• Clean pots and pans – Soak burnt pans in coke to dissolve stuck on food. 
• Shine metal jewelry – Soak metal jewelry briefly in coke to clean. Do not do this for jewelry with precious stones.  
• Banish rust – Coke removes rust from everything from bathroom fixtures to car parts. 

7. Table Salt

I’m actually a big fan of salt and consume a lot of it everyday. I’m not a big fan of regular, iodized table salt though for several reasons. If you have table salt that needs used, here are some ways to do that. 

Weed Killer

Make a weed killer for driveways and sidewalk areas. For every 1 gallon of white vinegar add 1 cup of salt and 1 tablespoon of dish soap. Fill a spray bottle or pump sprayer to use on weeds. Be careful not to spray in areas (like a garden) where you want some plants to grow. 

Salt Cleaning Hacks

Salt also makes a great natural cleaning scrub. 

• Use salt to clean cast iron skillets, pots, and pans (double check the manufacturer cleaning instructions for any non-stick pans)
• Add salt to a coffee stained mug to help remove the dark stains
• Massage salt and lemon juice into a wooden cutting board to freshen it. Rinse and air dry.

And for a fun project with the kids, try these 3 ingredient salt dough ornaments! The recipe is similar to play-dough, but they dry hard and you can paint the finished creations. 

Final Thoughts 

I hope this gave you some alternate ideas for that junk food that might still be lurking in your pantry. If you haven’t already, consider swapping them out for whole foods. Ingredients like organic flour, grain-free flours (like almond and coconut), grass-fed butter, olive oil, raw honey, and natural maple syrup are some delicious alternatives.

Do you have any other ideas for ingredients like these? Tell us about them below!