Heritage Hints From Mama: Uses For Waxed Paper
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I’m excited to have my Mama with us today! She has a lot of wisdom to share. Be sure and click on some of her other posts at the bottom after you read this one 🙂
Gratefully,
Christy
Hello Everyone!
My name is Janice, better known as Mama. You are welcome to adopt me as your go to Mama and I’ll attempt to answer any of your questions. I will be here to pass on my years of learning by trial and error. Today I thought I would pass on some of the many uses for wax paper.
Now some of you young people may not have a roll of wax paper in your kitchen but I am from a different generation who used it to wrap sandwiches. You see we did not have all sizes of zipper bags: snack size, sandwich size and now even large sizes for storing bedspreads and the like. We used wax paper primarily to wrap sandwiches for our lunches. Over the years, I have found a few different uses for wax paper.
One of my favorite uses is to put it under batters to catch the drips. I use a batter bowl to mix up pancake batter. The bowl has a lip on it so that you can pour the batter into the pan. After you pour the batter, there is always a little that drips from the lip onto the counter. If you wait to wipe it up, it becomes similar to concrete and takes a lot of scrubbing to get it up. Just put a small piece of wax paper on the counter underneath the bowl and you don’t have to worry about the drips. Just wad it up and throw it away when you clean up.
I also slice tomatoes and potatoes over a piece of wax paper and then just gather it up with the peelings still on it and throw it away. It saves having to mess up a bowl or messing up the counter with the peelings (Those thin plastic grocery store bags are good for this as well).
If you are icing a cake, cut three small pieces and slide them underneath the edges. After you finish icing the cake, slowly pull them out and the cake plate will be clean as a whistle. (By the way, who knows how clean a whistle is? I’ve always wondered about that!)
I have another wonderful use of wax paper that saves having to get up on a stool or ladder to clean the tops of your cabinets. If your cabinets do not go all the way to the ceiling, cut a long piece of wax paper to lay on the top of the cabinets. My cabinets are a little narrower than the wax paper. I just cut the length and then fold about an inch under and lay it on top of the cabinets. If you want to display things on top of the cabinets, just set them on top of the wax paper. When you get ready to clean the top of your cabinets, just roll the wax paper up, throw it away and cut another piece to fit. It sure cuts down the time that you would usually spend cleaning the greasy cabinet tops! Ideally, you should probably change the wax paper every three months or so but I promise I will not drop in to see if you want to do it once a year. No one will know but you.
Now, in closing, I’ll leave you with a tip that most of you probably know. I just discovered it last year and it has made a real difference! Most rolls of wax paper, aluminum foil and plastic wrap have a tab on each end of the box that you can push in. It keeps the roll from falling out of the box when you are rolling the product out to cut it. I guess if I had time to read the boxes, I would have known this sooner. Oh well, at least I found out about it before I turned seventy! You see there is a bright side to everything!
Let me know if you have other uses for wax paper or if you discover a time saver for the home. We’re all here to learn together. I’m sure everyone would love a few timesavers and shortcuts.
In the meantime, I need your help. Is there anything in particular you’d like me to write about? I enjoy visiting with y’all but I want to share useful information that you’ll enjoy so your ideas are welcome! Please share them in the comments along with any other great ideas for waxed paper uses. We’d love to hear them!
Take care and remember Mama loves you!
~Mama
You can some read other Heritage Hints From Mama By visiting the links below:
I use it when I’m making cake or cookies or anything that has wet ingredients and dry mixed separately. I measure my dry ingredients and pour them in the center of a big piece of wax paper, then I can fold the sides up and pour the dry into the bowl of batter and don’t dirty up a 2nd bowl.
Great idea Joni!!! Thanks for sharing!!
Such wonderful tips some I have used and heard others we new to me. Thanks Janice and Christy.
Rub chrome or brushed chrome faucets with wax paper. It gets water spots off and shines the chrome. It also helps to keep spots from coming back.
Great idea Martha, thanks for sharing!
I haven’t seen this one mentioned, though this use for wax paper is an autumn idea. In grade school we were assigned a leaf project. We were to find and label as many kinds of tree leaves as we could. We would put the pretty fall leaves between wax paper and iron them.
When my kids were growing up we did the same thing though they were not assigned a leaf project. After the leaves were ironed between the wax paper I would put them up on our den’s glass sliding doors. The colors were really brilliant with the sun shining through them. The wax paper kept the leaves from drying out completely and they lasted a long, long time. They might still be around if we had kept them.!
What a great idea!! Thanks for sharing Shelley!!
When camping, we use the manual (hand) can openers. If you roll a length of wax paper and fold it into a strip, using the can opener as if your opening a can, instead run the wax paper thru it. It helps to clean and sharpen the blade.
What a great tip!! Thank you so much for sharing!!
I do the wax paper under the cake before icing and I grate my cheese on a piece as well. I also put a piece on any casserole I am freezing. I press it on top of casserole and then cover with plastic wrap and foil. When it needs to thaw before baking, this keeps the condensation from the top of my casserole.
Great idea Tracy!!