Feature photo by Pink Sherbet Photography. Photo above by Yogma.

Arguably more important than your toothbrush, dental floss is a handy tool that will help you quickly remove uncomfortably wedged pieces of street food and other local delicacies from between your teeth; one of the root causes of stinky traveler breath (besides dehydration).

In addition to threading floss through teeth to remove remnants of that juicy Argentinean steak, here are a few ways you can leverage its minty goodness during semi-emergency situations while traveling.

Sew Clothes

A little piece of floss and a sewing needle can go a long way in fixing popped buttons and small tears. Granted, the stark white textured property of dental floss does make it less than ideal for top notch hemming and pattern work. However, you can use it as a temporary fix for wardrobe malfunctions till you find a proper sewing kit.

Makeshift Clothesline

Doubled (or tripled) up lengths of floss work great as a makeshift clothesline for drying off panties, socks, and smaller clothing items. String your minty fresh clothesline across your window or bunk bed support beams to create an instant laundry room.

Tie Up Gifts

Find a piece of brown paper or newspaper even and use some floss to wrap up that book , candle set, or gift you’ve purchased for your host family. The probability of them examining your gift and asking, “Hmm, is this dental floss?” is pretty low.

Tie Hair

In lieu of rubberbands or missing hair bands, double up some floss and use it to tie hair away from your face as needed. Unless you’re trying to usher in a new fashion trend, use floss until you get yourself a proper high-fashion rubberband.

Replace Broken Shoelaces

Maybe a stretch, but picture this – The morning of your group-hike up a volcano, one of your shoelaces mysteriously turns up missing and the group isn’t too keen on stopping by a convenience store en route. You might want to triple up a couple cords of dental floss and use it till you’re back down from the volcano.

Looking for more ways of using dental floss, how about 30 Unique Uses for Dental Floss?

Community Connection

Did you know you could also use shampoo as laundry detergent? Check out 10 Multi-Use Items You Should Consider Packing.