If there’s one product that is guaranteed to be in every bathroom in London it’s surely toothpaste. Not only is toothpaste great for cleaning your gnashers, but there are countless other applications for toothpaste around the house. We’ve scoured the web - and conducted a few experiments - to bring you a few of toothpaste’s most useful, albeit unconventional, cleaning applications.

Cleaning Glass/ Scratch Removal

If you’ve noticed a couple of scratches on your favourite timepiece, toothpaste could be your unlikely saviour and be used to restore your glass to its former glory. I used a microfibre cloth for this experiment, applying a small quantity of toothpaste to the cloth first and working over the glass in small circular motions. Once you’ve worked the toothpaste in, leave for a moment or two and let the toothpaste work its magic. Next, take a clean corner of the microfibre, wet with warm water and wipe the toothpaste off. Make sure to pat the watch dry and remember - if your watch isn’t water resistant then take extra care with any liquid, and dampen your cloth as lightly as you can.

Personally I always opt for a leather strap, but if you use a silver or gold chain then you may find toothpaste works wonders on that. You can use a cloth or soft brush for polishing metals and wipe off with a slightly damp, clean cloth.

This same technique can be used for other scratched goods too, such as your battered mobile phone screen or even scratched up CDs and DVDs. Care, especially with the damp cloth, is essential when using this technique on any electronic or mechanical device to prevent damage or danger. 

Leather Boots

Again, all you’ll need for this trick is a trusty microfibre, a tube of toothpaste and a pair of knackered boots. Leather’s appeal, no doubt, lies partly in the characteristic and unique blemishes it accumulates over time. Nevertheless, some scuffs are just too much. Although your toothpaste won’t buff or shine your shoes up like polish will, it’s surprisingly effective for scuff removal - something more conventional cleaners can’t always do. 

Damp a section of your cloth first and evenly distribute a small amount of paste across the wet patch. Once you start working the paste around, you should begin to see the scuffs lift from the surface. When you think your work is done, dampen the rest off the cloth and wipe clean, ensuring not to wipe with the pastey part of the cloth. Once wiped clean these can be left to air dry in an airing cupboard or similar. You can then polish or clean the boots as you usually would, scuff-free!

You can use this same technique with other materials and styles of shoe too, and we’ve found this trick works particularly well on the light-coloured soles of trainers.

The Bathroom Sink

We’re pretty sure that we’re not the only ones who, while brushing our teeth, find ourselves critiquing our bathroom chrome. If only we knew how to buff those taps?

Sometimes the answer really is staring you in the face.

That’s right, you guessed it - toothpaste!

Apply to your taps with a slightly damp cloth and, as before, allow to stand for a couple of minutes (just enough time to clean your teeth, eh?). Wet your cloth with some more warm water and wipe clean. Use a clean towel or flannel to dry your taps, stand back and admire your work.

It seems that there are few things that toothpaste can’t help with around the house. Toothpastes are safe - after all, they’re designed for oral use - and their mildly abrasive texture allows them to clean without scratching or damaging the materials they’re used on.

Just a quick note - the general consensus is to avoid using gel pastes for the above tasks, and bogstandard toothpaste should do the trick just fine. If you have specialist whitening or sensitive toothpastes, it’s probably not worth using your expensive pastes for these chores. Furthermore, some of these pastes may contain other active ingredients that could affect results, and we’d hate for anyone to whiten their favourite leather boots!