There are many benefits to drinking green tea, including its wonderful antioxidants and catechins which are said to be helpful for many things from weight loss to the prevention of cancer. In fact, most people are aware of the health benefits of drinking green tea. However, did you know there are many other beneficial uses for green tea, aside from ingesting it?

For example, did you know that green tea makes a most excellent household cleaner? Brew up a strong green tea using less costly green tea or leftover green tea leaves from your own cups of tea (obviously not if you use sugar or milk in your tea!). Make sure to brew it as strong as you can, then you can either place it in a spray bottle, or dip your cleaning rag into the tea. Green tea makes everything clean and shiny (and not at all sticky), and because green tea absorbs odors, it leaves everything smelling wonderful!

If you dry your used green tea leaves so that they don’t mold, you will find that they easily absorb odors while leaving behind a fresh “green” smell. Try sprinkling used dried tea leaves in your kitty litter before putting it in the litter box or anywhere else you deal with tough odors, such as inside or around pet bedding or in the refrigerator! Dried used green tea leaves are actually called “chagra” and the most important thing with chagra is to make sure your tea leaves are clean and germ free.

To make chagra, as soon as you finish brewing your tea, transfer the used leaves onto a large strainer. Draw out the tea completely and dry it by spreading the leaves on clean paper or a flat strainer. Turn the leaves over a couple of times to dry them completely. It is important to follow these instructions to get nicely dried used tea leaves that are good for the usages mentioned above.

Additionally, green tea is also a fantastic fertilizer for your plants. Sugar-free and milk-free tea can be poured directly into your houseplants, or used green tea leaves can be placed in the soil. Green tea is especially good for enhancing roses and other outdoor plants - using used, un-dried tea leaves for fertilizer for your plants may make your plants happy, but in indoor plants it can also attract gnats, fruit flies and even start to mold.

As you can see, green tea has many wonderful uses above and beyond making a lovely cup of tea!