As a very busy home-school mom of five rambunctious children, I am always looking for better ways to balance my household duties with teaching and getting enough “me” time. 

At my favorite used book store, I found a book on housekeeping from 1893. One tip from the book included using clam juice as fertilizer for pine trees! That inspired me to search the Internet to find whether others had found unique uses for clam juice.

The following are the 5 best uses for clam juice I found:

1. Wood Floor Cleaner 
Yes, you read that correctly: clam juice is a great way to clean your wood floors! The following is the recipe I use:

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon of clam juice 
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 1 cup of fine-grained sand
• 1 12 ounce can of Coca Cola (not diet)

Instructions:
Mix the ingredients well, cover, and let sit for at least two days. Then, use in the same way you use your normal floor cleaner. The results will astound you!

2. Racoon deterrent 
Racoons hate the smell of clams since they are natural enemies. If you have a racoon that is constantly breaking into your trash cans or trash bags remember that you should always put your trash bags in a closed container. Pour a cup or two of a 50/50 mixture of clam juice and vinegar inside your trash cans and firmly close the lid. If you have bags that won’t fit into your trash cans, cover them completely with the mixture. 

Viola! No more racoon troubles. 

3. Homework incentive
Not only do Racoons hate clams, but kids do, too. If your kids are failing to do their homework, or are constantly complaining, place a glass of clam juice on their table or desk. For extra incentive, add freshly pressed garlic cloves to the mix. Every fifteen minutes until they finish their homework, make them have a sip of the juice. They will reform their ways.

4. Shoe deodorant
Every member of my family has awful foot odor, except for me. This means they got the smelly genes from my husband. To get rid of the awful foot odor from their shoes, I do the following:

• Mix a cup of clam juice with a cup of baking soda
• Shake well for five minutes
• Pour mixture into ice cube trays, and freeze.
• Once frozen, sprinkle with onion powder.

Whenever the odor of athletic shoes becomes overbearing, I place a clam juice ice cube in each shoe, as far in as it will go. I let it melt overnight, and by morning, the foot odor is gone!

5. Quiet time
This is my personal favorite. When I want to spend quality time alone with a book, I put on noise-canceling head phones, sit in my rocking chair, and soak my feet in a tub of hot clam juice!

I’ve never felt so relaxed, knowing my kids won’t bother me for any reason. Several weeks ago I bought a mini-fridge, and now I can sit in silence for a whole day without moving from the chair. Total. Bliss.

As always, the opinions expressed in this article are solely mine, and do not reflect those of Novel Premise.

Until next time,

Anne Stallings, for Novel Premise