10 Household Uses for Dish Soap
Dish soap is an essential part of anyone's kitchen. Whether you go all out and spring for the platinum edition Dawn or perhaps some Palmolive or just go store brand, you need it to tackle all that tough caked on food on your finest plateware!
But its uses go far above and beyond just cleaning our dishes. Dish soap has tons of around-the-house uses. It can do everything from lightening your hair color to ridding your pets of fleas.
Instead of scouring your local supermarket for products that fix squeaky hinges, kill the weeds in your lawn and clean your air conditioning units, use that inexpensive bottle of soap to handle those tasks.
Here are 10 uses around the house that good ole fashioned dish soap can help you knock out.
- Orlando-CarpetCleaning.com
Orlando-CarpetCleaning.com 1Remove Carpet Stains
Mix dish soap with warm water (approximately one tablespoon to two cups) and blot the stain with the solution. Continue until the stain has lifted. To remove residual soap, simply sponge up the area with a damp cloth or sponge.
- Dean Bertoncelj, ThinkStock
Dean Bertoncelj, ThinkStock 2Get Your Hair Squeaky Clean
About once a month, use dish soap to wash your hair. It will leave it squeaky clean and get rid of your hair's natural oil build-up. Lather, rinse and follow up with regular shampoo.
- WikiHow.com
WikiHow.com 3Knock Out Grease Stains on Shirts
You don't have to invest in stain fighters, just use soap. Simply squirt a drop or two directly on the stain and let it work its magic overnight. Once it's had time to work the stain, wash your shirt as usual.
- Pixland, ThinkStock
Pixland, ThinkStock 4Longer Lasting Manicure
Did you know that the natural oils around your nails can shorten the life of your manicure, if you don't eliminate them before you polish. Soak your fingers in a bowl of warm water with a few drops of dish soap before you add your polish. Just make sure you completely dry your hands before you get to applying the polish.
- Mike Coppola, Getty Images Entertainment
Mike Coppola, Getty Images Entertainment 5Lighten Your Hair Color
So you used one of those at home hair coloring kits and your hair is too dark? No sweat. Dish soap can save a bad situation. Wash your hair with this miracle product and lighten up your follicles.
- simplytheyu, ThinkStock
simplytheyu, ThinkStock 6Lubricate Squeaky Hinges
We all hate a squeaky hinge around the house. Add a drop or two of dish soap to any hinge and let the soap do the work. No need to rinse it off, just let it set in and work its magic.
- ACFilters.com
ACFilters.com 7Clean Your Air Conditioning Unit
Hopefully you know that you have to replace or clean your A/C filters. If you have the option to clean them, dish soap works great. Remove the filters from your unit, soak them in warm water and soap and give them a gentle scrub. Once they’re clean, dry them completely and return them to the unit.
- Nikolay Pozdeev, ThinkStock
Nikolay Pozdeev, ThinkStock 8Kill Fleas
If your furry friend is suffering from fleas, bathe that little booger in a healthy amount of dish soap. It will dry out and kill the fleas.
- konmesa, ThinkStock
konmesa, ThinkStock 9Kill Weeds
Don't want to use a bunch of harsh chemicals on your lawn? Dish soap to the rescue. Mix a little bit of dish soap with 1/4-1/2 cup of coarse salt in a spray bottle and fill to the top with distilled white vinegar. Spray away those pesty weeds and watch them wither away.
- Charles Mann, ThinkStock
Charles Mann, ThinkStock 10Create an Ice Pack
Fill a freezer sandwich bag with dish soap and freeze it. Boom, you've got an ice pack. It takes longer to melt than water.
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