If you're like most people, you consider salt to be a popular table condiment used to enhance the flavor of food. You're not wrong, but did you know salt has many other uses as well? Read on to learn about some of the less known uses of salt.

• Test your eggs — If you're unsure of how fresh your eggs might be, try this experiment: fill a mug with water and add a pinch of salt. If the egg floats, consider it fresh. If the egg sinks, it's probably old.

• Stain fighter — To remove wet ink stains from the carpet, cover the stain with salt. Let sit over night and vacuum. The salt should have absorbed all the ink.

• Rid your garden of pests — Pour salt on snails and slugs and watch them disappear before your eyes. Salt will also repel ants.

• Fish prep — Before removing the scales from a fish, soak it in salt water. Removal will be much easier.

• Hang clothes outside in the winter — If you add a little salt to your rinse cycle, your clothes won't freeze if hung outside on a cold day. In addition, a clothes line soaked in salt water doesn't freeze either.

• Clean the bathroom — Mixed with turpentine, salt will help to remove the yellowed spots that appear on old white bathroom fixtures.

• Freshen your breath — Use salt as a mouthwash or gargle or add a little baking soda and use to brush teeth.

• Easy peeling — By boiling eggs in salt water, the shells will be easier to peel.

• Neutralize smelly pipes — Add salt to some boiling water and pour down the sink to eliminate stinky pipes.

• High peaks — Add a dash of salt to egg white for stiff, high peaks when making meringue or other baked treats.

• Enhance the flavor of coffee and tea — a pinch of salt in coffee grinds or added to a cup of tea is said to enhance the flavor of each of these beverages.

• Fire safety — Pour common household salt on a kitchen fire to extinguish.

• Keep clothes bright — Add a half cup of salt to your wash water to prevent fading.

• Shine silver — Shine tarnished silver by rubbing it with salt.

• Remove mildew — A mixture of salt and lemon juice will help to remove mildew from tubs, showers and tile.

• Kill weeds — Pour salt directly on weeds to kill them.

• Remove odors — If your hands smell like onion or garlic after prepping vegetables, rub them with a paste made from salt and lemon.

The above is only a small sampling of the different things salt can do. In reality, there are hundreds of uses for household table or kosher salt. Bet you don't look at it the same way again!