Most of us probably have one of these lying around the house right now – an iron. How frequently you use it is another story entirely. With the invention of wrinkle-free fabrics and chronic laziness that tend to send us to magical places called the “dry cleaners,” we can all probably acknowledge that the iron isn’t the most-used appliance in our homes. But, even if ironing IS a part of your weekly routine, you’ll be surprised to hear that there are some unconventional ways to use this contraption that nobody thinks about! Watch the video below to see how can give new meaning to your iron.

Stop letting your iron collect dust in the back of your closet! The iron has some pretty amazing uses to make your life easier…even if it’s not the one it was designed to do. Semantics.

Which one of these iron hacks will you try? Do you already use the iron around the house in a creative way? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!

LAMINATE PAPERWORK
You don’t need a fancy laminating machine to give your fliers a glossy, professional finish. All you need is an iron!

Put your paper inside any plastic laminate, place a towel over it, and iron the towel on high, applying firm pressure. Once you’ve ironed both sides thoroughly, you’ll have a lovely, laminated piece of paperwork to be proud of!

FIX FLOOR DENTS
Dents in your wooden floors can look unsightly. For a quick fix, pour some water onto the dent and pass your iron over it several times. This will reverse the dent in the wood and fill in the hole in your floor.

SPILLED CANDLE WAX
If you don’t get to it quickly, spilled candle wax will harden and be a pain to get off. You don’t want to ruin your surfaces by scratching it off, so what do you do?

You cover the spill with paper towel and iron the spot, making sure to move the iron and paper towel around. The candle wax will heat back up and absorb into the paper towel! Anything that doesn’t absorb will be liquid, so you can quickly wipe it away.

MAKESHIFT STOVE
If, for any reason, you don’t have a stove or microwave, you can use an iron as a quick hot plate. Flip your iron over, stick your pan on top, and cook away. A little weird? Yes. Handy if you’re ever in this bizarre situation? Definitely.

MAKE STICKERS STICK
When stickers start to peel off, don’t tape them down! Iron them back on. Put a piece of foil over the sticker and firmly iron the spot where it’s peeling off. This will reactivate the goo on the back of the sticker and really get it to stick onto the surface.

NIX CARPET IMPRESSIONS
When you move heavy furniture, you usually leave behind impressions of where the furniture once stood. The solution? Your iron, of course.

Put a damp towel over the impression and set your iron to steam. Quickly move the iron over the impression (through the towel) and you’ll find when you’re finished that the carpet has gone back to its normal state.

KEEP FOOD FRESH
Looking to make hamburgers but only need half the meat? If it’s not a resealable package and you don’t have any plastic bags, make one using tin foil and your iron.

Press all the air out of your food package, then put tin foil over the edge and iron the foil down. Check every 20 seconds to make sure it’s working! This will melt the package ends together and create a DIY seal.