Who knew there could be so many practical uses for a slice of bread, besides of course making a tasty sandwich? It is especially great that the poor, lonely heel piece of bread at the end of the loaf can have so many uses and be the hero in the loaf afterall. 

Have you ever read the adorable children’s book The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywal? I think the cutest part is where beige crayon speaks out about how he so left out because nobody wants to ever use him? Unless they are drawing some wheat or on a good day--Thanksgiving turkey. Nothing exciting like drawing fire-breathing dragons, fire engines, or sunsets. That’s how the heel of a loaf of bread has got to feel. Highly underutilized and begrudgingly used, or worst case--simply tossed in the trash after he has gotten stale or possibly even moldy. That poor heel. Well, no more! 

Here are many uses for a slice of bread that you might have never thought of, most of there are from the blogger Jillee, of onegoodthingbyjillee.com:

1. Absorb grease. This was probably my favorite tip and my big aha moment--if you are cooking up some beef for tacos or something, you can easily absorb that grease by moving all of the cooked meat to one side, tilting the pan to the other side and using a piece of bread in there to absorb all of that unwanted grease right up. You can choose to either throw it away, or plenty of commenters mentioned they feed that flavorful slice of bread to their dogs, or even toss it in the backyard in the winter to feed winter animals that could use the nutrition like deer or birds.

• Taking this one step further, you can even use it to absorb the top layer of grease on a pot of soup or stew by placing it on the top when it is cooking and holding it there for just a few seconds and it will absorb that grease right up.
• Plenty of people mentioned that they use a slice or two of bread when making a meatloaf to absorb the grease that accumulates around the meatloaf as it cooks. You can choose to either place a couple slices of bread under your meatloaf, which they say is easy to remove the bread after it is done cooking and leaves you a mess-free cleanup. Or you could just place the bread next to the meatloaf and it will absorb the grease as it cooks as well.

2. Butter Corn on the Cob. Generously slather butter all over the heel piece of bread and wrap it around your ear of corn and rotate around until your corn is buttered all over. The last person to butter gets a delicious, sweet buttery piece of bread as a prize. I love this idea! I can’t wait to try this!

3. Clean Photos and Oil Paintings. A slice of bread has the perfect texture to get dust off of photos or paintings on the wall and it doesn’t damage them at all.

4. Safely Clean Up Broken Glass. The porous texture of a slice of bread is perfect for grabbing hold of the tiny shards of broken glass that you can’t even see. Just make sure to throw the piece of bread out after you are done!

5. Keep Things Soft. You can keep things that should stay soft like marshmallows, freshly baked goods or brown sugar soft by placing in a ziptop bag with a slice of bread and sealing shut.

6. Make Croutons. Cut your bread into 1-inch cubes, coat with olive oil and your favorite seasonings and toast your croutons on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes on each side, or until they are golden and crispy. 

7. Absorb Bad Odors. Place a piece of bread on a plastic lid or other small dish, add vinegar and place in an area that you would like to absorb bad odors, such as the bottom of a trash can, etc. You can switch out the bread and toss the old one each time you change the garbage.

Are there any other ways you can think of to use a slice of bread for other purposes around the house? Please let us know the comments below.