You don’t have to rush out and buy ingredients and tools for every spell that you cast — though nobody is stopping you from doing so if you want. Whether you’re on a budget or just strapped for time, your home is likely packed with items that can be used for casting spells. The following list of ordinary household items double as effective tools and ingredients for any witch’s needs.
Birthday candles and home fragrance candles
If you want to cast a spell that “requires” the use of a candle, you probably have at least one type available to you in your home. Birthday candles can be used in a pinch when you don’t have the type of candle you prefer on hand. You can also use commercial jarred fragrance candles to get the job done. If you don’t have candles in the color that you want to correlated with your spell, that’s fine. Witches throughout history have improvised and altered spells to suit the tools they had available to them. You can certainly do the same.
Kitchen Utensils
A sturdy wooden spoon is just as good as any intricately carved, crystal-festooned wand you find on Etsy. In fact, kitchen witches often use their kitchen utensils in place of the ordinary wand, athame or what-have-you.
A paring knife from your kitchen drawer can be cleansed and used as an athame or other type of ceremonial blade. Sure, it’s not as aesthetic as what you see on social media, but it gets the job done.
An ordinary teaspoon for stirring your ritual teas and potions is just fine if you’re willing to put energy into it.
Any of your ordinary plates, bowls or dishes can be used for casting spells.
Soaps and household chemicals
If you don’t have the ingredients to make your own spiritual floor wash, you can take measures to cleanse, energize and bless ordinary commercial products that you already have on hand. Bars of soap, liquid hand soaps and dish soaps as well as laundry detergents and other forms of soap can all be utilized in your witchcraft practice. In fact, you might already do this without putting too much thought into it. This same logic can be applied to household chemicals such as floor and surface cleaners. Next time you want to do a floor wash or cleanse your home of negativity along with the dirt and grime — put some oomph into your normal mopping routine. Spiritually charge your mop water with incantations and visualization.
Air freshening sprays — especially those that make use of natural ingredients — also prove useful in casting spells. If you’re unable to burn candles or incense in your home or apartment for whatever reason, an appropriately scented spray serves as an excellent alternative — and many homes already have them on hand for housekeeping purposes.
Linens, Towels & Rags
Fabrics of all kinds are useful in casting spells, whether you’re making poppets or really anything else that calls for fabric. Household tea towels can be used as tarot cloth if you’re wanting to do a quick reading on your kitchen counter while you have your morning coffee. They can also be used to create fast, lazy poppets for any type of spells (especially binding spells). A pillowcase can be used in place of a ribbon and tied in knots for a binding spell, as long as you’re willing to part with that pillowcase of course. You can even use a bedsheet to spread out on the floor and use as a specific cloth for meditation and circle-casting.
Garage and utility room rags can be used in spiritual house cleansing, as long as you’re not using something so filthy that you’re dirtying up what you should be cleansing, of course. But on the other hand, a gross, greasy and smelly garage rag can be a highly effective ingredient to a sour jar, in case you’re wanting to do a little baneful magic with what you have on hand.
Garden plants and native “weeds”
If you have plants on your property — whether they be garden plants or native weeds and flowers — they can be useful in casting spells. Learn about the plants you have naturally available to you in your own backyard, and find ways to correlate them to herbs, flowers and plants that you’d ordinarily need to purchase for spells. Even blades of grass cut from your lawn could be highly symbolic tools in your witchcraft practice.
Use your imagination
Everything around you can be used magically if you’re creative enough and willing to see the magic in the mundane.