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5 New Ways To Use Your Appliances

Discover surprising new uses for your old appliances, so they can work harder and make your life easier. Check out our hacks now!

Off the wall ideas for how to make your appliances work harder for YOU

We love appliances that do one thing, particularly if that one thing is the thing that we bought the appliance for. What’s really good though is where an appliance does not just the thing it’s designed to do, but something completely different, crazy, off the wall, amazing.

Everyone loves a life hack, so we've rounded up this list of offbeat small appliance hacks.

We’ve always said that good appliances fit seamlessly into your lifestyle, have a read through this list and you can see they’ll be there for you even when you didn’t know you needed them.

More Than Just Hair Care

You can use your hair dryer to remove stickers and labels - the heat of the hairdryer melts the adhesive so you can peel them off. Don’t do this on plastic or it might melt.

I’ve also been known to use the hairdryer to quickly dry a spot on a swaddle in the middle of the night when my baby was still a very new newborn.

You can also use your hair straightener to tidy up your collars and cuffs if your shirt is wrinkled and you want to look presentable in a hurry.

Stand-Mixer Meat Shredding

Pulled meats are all the rage and the trend is here to stay for one reason: shredded meat is amazing on a bread roll with some coleslaw and us Australians are all about the old meat/salad/bread roll combo for an easy dinner.

How do you make shredding meat easy peasy? If you’ve got a stand mixer, chuck the meat in there and save your nails. This works best when the meat is still warm.

Cut it into bits, put it in the stand mixer with the normal paddle and then turn it on. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t turn mushy.

Still easier than the old two forks business.

On the left is a white kenwood stand mixer, on the right is a close up of a burger with seeds on the bun, and shredded meat and purple cabbage inside.

Vacuum Sealer Protection

Not just for food, vacuum sealers can be used for all sorts of things. Use your vacuum sealer to protect important documents and other non food items! Here’s a few ideas:

  • Your important documents to keep them safe and dry and protected.
  • Digitize your old photos and then vacuum seal them to store them.
  • Puzzle pieces to keep them all together and safe from damage.
  • Seeds so you only plant what you need to and keep the rest for future seasons (and save money!)
  • Screws, nuts and bolts so you never lose them again.
  • Camping essentials like medical supplies and matches to keep them safe and dry.
  • Play doh to keep it moist and prevent it from drying out.
  • Tablets or iPads so you can keep them safe around wet areas - you can still use them!

The world is your oyster with vacuum sealing. I suspect it’s the kind of appliance that you buy and then try to vacuum seal every single thing in your house just to see if you can. Vacuum seal snacks and smuggle them into the movies or important meetings. Go crazy vacuum sealing and tag our socials in it, please.

Pressure Cooker Steriliser

Your pressure cooker is excellent for a number of different cooking applications, but did you know you could use it to sterilise bottles, dummies or some breast pump parts? Not just baby items, but many other items you might need to sterilise.

Here’s a quick how to:

  • Check your items are suitable for boiling (and won't melt in hot water)
  • Place a wire rack in the bottom of your pressure cooker
  • Add all the bits to be sterilised to the pressure cooker and a cup of water
  • Bring the pressure cooker up to full pressure and turn the heat off immediately.

Done! I made another list of appliances for new parents if that’s you!

Slow Cooker Surprises

There’s a few things you can do with a slow cooker apart from cooking your food slowly.

Use it as a bottle warmer - fill the slow cooker two thirds of the way up with water and let it heat on low while you sleep. When bubba wakes up, drop the bottle into the water for a few mins to heat it up without the hotspots that a microwave might create. Give it a swirl around and test it on your wrist first - I don’t have to tell you that, you know what you’re doing.

You can also use it to warm towels in a spa setting. Roll up some hand towels, pour some water on top and set the slow cooker on low. Wait about two hours for the towels to heat. Use tongs to remove a towel from the slow cooker, and let it cool for a few seconds before applying to any skin.

On the left is a black Russell Hobbs slow cooker, on the right is a close up of a man with a dark brown goatee at the barber. The barber is wearing a watch and is applying a hot towel to the man's face.

Add herbs and spices and a bottle of olive oil to the slow cooker and put it on the warm setting and leave it overnight and you’ll have some beautiful infused oil in a hurry - fancy!

Also make caramel in it by submerging a sealed can of sweetened condensed milk in the slow cooker (take the label off first), leave it overnight, safely remove it (it’ll be hot), and let the can cool. When it’s cool, open the can and pour it out and you’ll find the condensed milk has turned to caramel as if by magic.

BONUS Vacuum Hairdressing

Everyone’s seen that video of that dad who uses a vacuum cleaner with a hair tie over the nozzle to suck up his daughter’s hair and slide the tie into place, creating a perfect ponytail. This isn’t without risk, so if you attempt to do this then it’s not my fault if anything bad happens.