13 ways to make old things new again

Are your pots and pans starting to discolor from burnt-on food and just general overuse? You could always use that as an excuse to buy a new set, but there is a cheaper option. Sprinkle some baking soda over the discolored area and then spray or pour on a little vinegar. After it fizzes for a couple minutes, wipe it off and watch the original color return. You can use this same combination to remove mattress stains by adding a few squirts of dish soap as well.

If you're tired of always finding white rings on your tables, you have two options. You can follow people around with coasters, forcing them to always keep a barrier between their drink and the wood. Or you can squirt some mayonnaise on the situation. It sounds like a joke, but you really can put mayonnaise onto the white rings and scrub it in with a rag. Those rings will be gone in no time.

No matter how often you clean your bathroom, you'll still likely end up with water stains in your sink and bathtub. While there are several ways to get rid of these, one of the quickest solutions is a combination of Coke and toothpaste. Just mix the two in a spray bottle and spray the affected area. Use a damp sponge to scrub away any residue. You can also use this combination to clean toilet rings by pouring the ingredients straight into the toilet and using a scrubbing brush.

Anything made of brass, copper or silver is going to tarnish and discolor at some point. You can pay a lot of money to get these items replaced or professionally cleaned or you could just grab a bottle of ketchup. The acidity in ketchup works as a cleaning agent and will restore your items' previous shine. Just squirt some ketchup directly onto the discoloration and then wipe it off with a damp sponge.

Are you tired of your living room looking the same way it's looked since you moved in? Is it time to move the furniture around a little? If you do this, it's likely that you'll find indentations all over your carpet, showing exactly where each piece of furniture was located. Before you move something new to that spot, place a towel over the indentation in the carpet and iron over it to get your smooth carpet back.

Cookie sheets can be used for so much more than just baking cookies, which leads them to get pretty gross looking after awhile. What used to be a shiny silver pan is now coated in rust-colored gunk that doesn't seem to go away no matter how many times you wash it. Next time, sprinkle a layer of baking soda over your cookie sheet, pour some hydrogen peroxide on top of that and then add another layer of baking soda. Let this sit for a few hours before wiping it away with a damp sponge, leaving behind the restored shine.

Though natural methods are usually preferred, sometimes you have to use chemicals if you really want to make something look new again. So if your window frames are grimy and impossible to get perfectly clean, you might have to invest in some acetone. Just pour some acetone onto an old rag and start scrubbing the window frame. Depending on the level of grime, you might go through several rags, so make sure you have plenty on hand.

If you watch home improvement shows, then you know how popular wood floors are. What these shows don't mention, though, is how to keep your wood floors looking nice. While there are plenty of ways to make your wood floors look brand new, one of the easiest and cheapest ways is to use black tea. Simply boil three or four black tea bags in one quart of water (the amount of time you let it boil depends on the darkness of your floors). Dip a soft cloth into the tea, wring it out and wipe it in the direction of the grain in the floor.

Outdoor furniture always starts out as a nice addition to your yard, but eventually turns into an eyesore as it accumulates rust from sitting outside. The best way to restore your outdoor furniture to its former beauty is with any paints made by Rust-Oleum. This step-by-step guide shows exactly how to prepare your furniture for painting.

One of the most exciting ways to give your furniture a brand new look is to paint it. You can be as creative as you want, painting everything to match the theme of the room or just painting one piece to serve as an accent for the rest. Your options with paint are endless.

For stained cutting boards, you have a variety of options to restore their former pristine white color, all of which involve lemon and salt. The salt part is simple and the same for every option: sprinkle salt on your cutting board. If you choose to use a real lemon, cut it in half and use the cut side to scrub the board. The other two options are lemon juice or lemon essential oil. With either method, add some to a dish of water, dip a sponge in and use it to scrub over the salt. Any of these methods will remove the stains and leave your cutting board with a fresh scent.

The grout between your bathroom tiles is inevitably going to look disgusting every once in awhile. The fastest, most effective way to clean this is a combination of bleach and baking soda. Just mix 3/4 cup of baking soda with 1/4 cup of bleach until a paste forms. Apply the paste to the grout, wait 15 minutes, scrub it with a scrub brush, wait 15 additional minutes and then rinse it off.

One of the downsides of leather furniture (besides your thighs sticking to your couch during the summer) is that the leather cracks and shows scratches easily. To make your leather furniture look like it's just come off the showroom floor, put olive oil on a cotton swab and wipe the scratches. As the oil dries, the scratches should slowly disappear.