If you’re in an emergency situation and you happen to have floss in your pockets or near you, then you’re in luck. In this article, you’ll learn dental floss uses for survival you never could’ve guessed.
A thread of floss can be used for many things, such as a shoelace, food slicer, and even a stitching string.
Floss should be something everyone has because it is always good practice to stay as hygienic as possible. Floss is great for flossing and many more things.
Without further ado, let’s go over the 15 survival uses for floss that have nothing to do with cleaning a tooth.
In This Article
1. Cleaning Small Areas
As the first of our survival uses for floss, we have cleaning small areas, and for a good reason.
Dental floss was designed to clean small areas in between teeth, but it is also great at cleaning other small areas. Perhaps you may want to clean your keyboard or a crack in the table, or even in between tiles.
This is to ensure that your house stays extra clean.
2. Sewing/Stitching String
First aid is one of the most useful survival gear there is. If you happen to have floss when someone gets a nasty cut, you can use dental floss as the string. Or perhaps you need to do sewing.
The dental floss is subtle enough not to be noticed if you don’t use it that much, and it is strong, so it is great at holding buttons together, temporarily fixing a bag strap, or mending a tent.
In a pinch, this can also be used as a stitching string.
3. Fishing Line
Another reason to add floss to your survival kit is that it can be used as a fishing line. Dental floss is one of the best alternatives for a fishing line. Dental floss is very strong and durable, so the chances it will break is low.
The average length of a regular floss pack is also about 420 ft (140 yds), so length definitely won’t be a problem. Don’t believe me? Watch the video above me and watch the man catch his second fish in 10 seconds.
4. Slicing Food
If you have cake, bread, or any soft food, you can use a piece of floss to give neat slices. However, you may want to use flavorless floss unless you want a mix with your floss flavor and the food’s flavor.
5. Crafts
Perhaps you need something to do with your kids, well, you can make all sorts of crafts with them. Or perhaps you broke your necklace or bracelet.
If you want to make crafts with your kids, you can make jewelry with cheap beads and floss, or perhaps some sort of structure, or even something really simple, like hanging a picture or hanging ornaments.
If you break a bracelet or necklace, you can use dental floss to hold the string together as well.
6. Tripwire
Another one of the survival uses for floss is if you want space, and you don’t want someone to enter your location(room, camping ground, etc.), simply tie a few lines of floss on both ends of a door or tree, and that will serve for a perfect defense, or even a dirty prank.
7. Fix Dripping Tap
You may have a dripping tap that won’t stop. Of course, this is a temporary solution, and you should consult a professional about your tap.
This will make the dripping sound vanish. All you have to do is tie a piece of string around. The water will travel through the string and right into the drain.
8. Clothesline
If you’re on a camping trip and you brought floss, which you should anyway, and you get some clothes wet, you can use floss as a clothesline.
Simply ties the floss between two trees, and your clothes with be dry in no time.
9. Secure Hair & Clothes
Getting your clothes or hair stuck in something is a pain. That’s why, if you have long hair or baggy clothes, this is for you. Simply tie back your hair with floss, and you can also tie back your clothes with a thread of floss.
10. Object Lifter
Got something glued that you want to remove, or perhaps you are a cooker, and you are cooking something sticky? Chances are, there will be something that gets stuck.
The string can extract the object or debris easily by sliding the string under, leaving a clean tray, album, or whatever seemingly untouched.
11. Last Resort Shoelace
If you break your shoelace or lose it somehow, this is definitely an alternative to a shoelace you should consider.
Floss can be seemingly invisible and will act as a great replacement for shoelaces.
12. Restraint
If your pet’s cage broke, or maybe you need to tie up someone, floss is still good. If your pet’s cage broke, a temporary solution could be to restrain the cage by tying a few lines of floss around it to prevent escape.
If you need to tie up someone for some reason, a couple of lines of floss is a very secure option.
13. Tie Something Down
This is another form of restraining. Perhaps you have to tie a tent or tarp down. Dental floss will be a great solution. You can also tie down sticks together if you are building a shelter in the wilderness.
14. Alarm
Back to the trip wires, if someone were to miss that tripwire, you can also set up an alarm. Simply tie a couple of aluminum cans and lids across your location, whether it may be a campground or a room.
15. Hanging Pots Outdoor
If you want your plants to receive a little extra sun but don’t want hungry animals and insects disturbing your plants, hanging them is an excellent option.
Conclusion
If you don’t yet have floss, you can get a 600 feet (200 yards) pack for extremely cheap on this affiliate link.
In this article, you learned 15 dental floss uses for survival. It is an amazing survival item that can do a lot more than remove plaque and bacteria from your mouth. If you haven’t already, put some dental floss in your emergency kit, not only to maintain dental hygiene but for many other purposes as well.
Thanks for reading! I hope you learned something useful and apply one of these tips soon! If you liked this article, you will probably like survival uses for paperclips. If you are interested in floss itself, you can read more here.
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I’ve heard of a method of using 9″ of floss as a personnel restraint but never seen it. Did see something with a short length of paracord, folded in half then a Prussick knot with only 2 wraps instead of the normal 3 around the loose ends. I think you were supposed to do something with the ends.
If anyone knows of this use, please comment.
You missed the one about getting a stuck ring off your finger.
Great point Jeebus.
Thanks bro, this is perfect for the frat parties!
I’m glad you liked the article.