12 Ways to Use Luffa Sponge You Won’t Believe
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Find out how to grow luffa, where to buy them and all the things they’re good for. Use luffa sponge for the body, home, and they’re even edible!
Luffa shower sponge
I keep a luffa in my shower and twice a week I give my skin a good exfoliating. You can use them as a shower sponge in place of a washcloth every day if you want as well. I love the way my skin feels after I sluff all the dead skin off with my luffa.
We’ve been growing loofah sponges for a long time in our preschool garden. We save the seeds with our young kids and plant them again the following year.
Eco-friendly loofah
One of my favorite things about loofahs is that they are biodegradable and are a natural fiber. They don’t put any plastic or synthetic material into the ecosystem or landfills. I know I can feel good about the product I’m using and that it’s not harming the earth. This makes the loofah the best choice for me. It’s not as hard as you might think to ditch and switch to natural products.
Growing luffa sponges is a great way to replace a ton of things around the house with something natural and eco-friendly. They make great Christmas gift ideas, are fun to fill with water and toss for water play, make great loofah bar soap, hold essential oil for aromatherapy, hold peanut butter for bird feeders, and so much more. All you need is some luffa seeds, a long sturdy trellis, and a long warm growing season.
Bath loofah
I run a shoelace through the middle of the bath loofah and hang it in the shower by my razor. If you hang your loofah so it can dry out between uses, it will last for months. There are many benefits of scrubbing with a luffa.
Many people have questioned the spelling of luffa and Wikipedia says either luffa or loofah is correct. Spell it how you’d like, just get some, grow some and use some. They are awesome! What can you do with your luffas once you have grown them? They are so useful!
How to use a loofah
- To exfoliate, wet the loofah with warm water to soften it. Apply soap to the loofah sponge. Rub skin gently in a circular motion for a few seconds working your way all over your face. Move down your neck and continue until your whole body is exfoliated.
Luffa sponge uses
2. If you have a tough pan to clean, but don’t want to scratch the finish, grab your luffa sponge. It’s abrasive, but the natural fibers won’t scratch Teflon or any other surface. I love being able to get tough, stuck on food off the dishes with my luffas. Just like in the shower, make sure to store it in a place where it can completely dry between uses.
Click here to see more scrubbies you can make yourself just by repurposing things you already have. So smart!
Natural loofah sponge
3. You can clean the top of your stove, your cabinet doors, tough spots on the floor, or anything else in the kitchen with your luffa without fear of damaging your surfaces.
4. Luffas are great for cleaning those stuck on bugs that get stuck to the grill and front bumper of your car. They always seem impossible to remove. All you have to do is soap up your car and scrub away with your trusty luffa.
5. They can also be helpful in removing oil and tar from roads and that black gunky build up on the wheels. They can be squished to fit into any shape of surface too.
How to grow luffa plant seeds
Luffa plant vines have a very long growing season and need plenty of space and a sturdy trellis to grow on. If you have long, warm summers, you’ll have great success growing luffas. Even kids can grow luffas. Check out how here.
6. Do you ever get a greenish build up on your guttering, downspout or other outer surfaces of your house? Luffas can scrub that right off and have it looking great in no time. You can get mud spatter off the bottom part of your house, clean up your siding and even scrub up your pots before you put plants in them in the spring.
Luffa soap
7. Bars of soap with slices of luffa sponge inside are sold in high-end stores. They look gorgeous and so fancy. They can also be ground to make a facial scrub. I have seen soaps with the ground luffa in them for exfoliating, but I have also heard of making a liquid face scrub with it. That would be cool to try.
Loofah benefits
8. Do you ever come in from the garden with gunk all around your cuticles and under your nails? I do all the time. You can run over and around your nail to clean that off in a jiffy. It’s amazing how well it works!
9. You can use a flat handle or make one from a yardstick or other wood you have around to make a back scratcher with a luffa. Each luffa has tunneled holes from one end to the other.
You can put the stick through one of the holes and attach it with some adhesive. You could use glue or even just tie it in there. Then you could use the luffa to scratch your back or even wash your back in the tub. Soap it up and wash away.
10. When you get your shoes super muddy, you can use luffas to scrub the mud out of the treads. It works super easy and the luffas rinse clean with just a little water. Luffas are wonderful for not holding on to the grime you clean with them.
How to use Loofah
10. You can slice a round of luffa and place it in your soap dish so your soap will sit up out of any collected water. It’s great to help make your soap last longer and save you money. They are really tough to cut unless you use a serrated knife, it will cut through them like butter!
11. If you pick luffas when they are under 5 inches, they are still soft inside. You can eat them raw or cook them. The fibers don’t form until the luffas are about a foot or so. They are sometimes referred to as Chinese okra.
They taste kind of like cucumbers and kind of like zucchini. People use them in stir-frys. I have tried them raw, but not cooked. I always wanted to save most of them for drying, so I haven’t eaten many. Click here for luffa dishes you can make. Looks pretty yummy.
12. You can use the fibers of the luffa in water to hold a plant you’re trying to root. That will help keep the plant upright and make sure the stem is in the water. You can also use the luffa fibers as a planting medium similar to coco coir or peat like what those little peat pellets are made of. They would make a great stem holder for an arrangement of flowers too. Who needs a frog when you have a luffa for your vase?
13. You can let the kids dip luffas in paint and paint with them. You could also paint a room with them for a super interesting textured appearance. The sides of the luffa would make a different texture than cutting one in half and painting with the end. It would be fun to see how it turns out. You can do a base color and then use another color to do the texture over the top.
Best loofah
There are many different varieties of loofahs and you can get a few different kinds of loofah seeds. We are experimenting with a new kind this year. But the best kind has a tight, fairly soft mesh. This depends more on ripeness than variety. If you harvest before it turns completely brown, your fibers will be perfect for the best loofah.
I’m sure there are tons more ways luffas can be used. I love using them. I also love the idea of growing my own supplies. It makes me feel very self-sufficient. I hope you will try growing some. It’s super fun.
The first step in growing this great addition to your garden is to work out the idea. Where will you grow them, when will you grow them and what will you do with them? Check out the link at the beginning of the article for all the details on how to grow them in your children’s garden or vegetable garden and have so much fun with them next year!
Here’s a great guide for growing many kinds of gourds!
You can also check out how to grow:
- cotton
- birdhouse gourds
- wheat
- grow giant bushel gourds
- How to Grow Birdhouse Gourds!
- How to Grow Chinese Python Snake Beans
Are you new to growing and need the basics for getting started? This will help!
