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 am 76 and also grew up with wax paper & the many uses for it. In the “olden days” we used what we had and thought nothing of it. One of my many uses that has not been mention here YET..is to wad up a ball and cram it into a shot glass, when you want to use a pin or needle (any kind of pin from a brooch to a safety pin) just jab the pin or needle into the wax paper wad a few times, and you will have a much easier time inserting the pin into fabric…(“In the day” I used it keep my babies diaper pins slick so as to go into the diaper fast & easy) As an aside, if you are somewhere that wax paper is not handy and you have to use a safety pin in an emergency, just run the pin thru your hair and the invisable oil from your hair will serve the same purpose. (how many of you out there even remember diaper pins?) Thanks for this blog…MamaJudy
My husband and I use it to cool chocolate pretzels, and other candy. I always use it on top of my cooling rack for cookies and cakes. Makes it easier to move layers of cake. Didn’t know about the taps! Thank you!
I love the wax paper under a cake idea! Thank you for the wisdom for such a simple thing!
When my daughter was a baby, I set her carrier on the kitchen table while I cooked supper. To occupy her, I gave her a sheet of waxed paper which she delighted in crumpling to hear the crinkly sound.
My mother wrapped my recess snacks in wax paper when I was in grammar school. My favorite was Nilla wafers with peanut butter!
Thanks for the tip about the tabs in the boxes of wax paper, plastic wrap, and aluminum foil. I immediately ran to my drawer with the wraps and checked the boxes. I can’t believe that I’ve never noticed that before!
When making Christmas cookies that I store in cookie tins, I trace the tin on wax paper and then cut a circle of the wax paper to uses as a liner in the tin. It makes it easier to clean the tins out when empty.
I also use wax paper to cover food in the microwave. Like Ruth said, it cuts down on the splatters and helps keep the microwave clean.
That’s a good idea to put wax paper on the top of kitchen cabinets that don’t reach the ceiling. My grandmother used to line the tops of her cabinets too, but she used paper towels.
Love this post. Thanks for sharing!
I remember as a kid, when my mom baked a cake, she would trace around her cake pan on a piece of wax paper, cut that out, and lay it in the pan, and then poured the batter in. After baking, she turned the cake out, and peeled off the wax paper! Wa-La! Seemed to work everytime. I have also seen her use brown paper in the same way.
Love this post – so many things to do with wax paper that I never thought of. I tend to be very “green” and think about the environment (I make a lot of my cleaning products with vinegar and natural soaps)…just wanted to say that as a bonus, wax paper is so much kinder to the environment. You can even put it in a compost heap. It breaks down faster than a lot of other things, surprisingly. MUCH better than grocery bags or plastic storage bags! Kind to the budget AND the planet – that’s a win-win!