Soap is known for its antibacterial nature and has served as a cleaning agent in American homes for generations. From bathing ourselves and our children to washing our hands throughout the day, where would we be without soap? But soap has many other uses besides using it for personal hygiene.
Soap is a wonder substance and can serve as a lubricant, filler, or even as a way to mark objects. Plus, soap has been used to supplement a variety of tasks around the house having to do with sewing, beautifying the body, and stain removal, among many others.
The following soap hacks show a wide variety of alternate uses for both bar and liquid soap. Chances are you will be amazed by the varied applications this substance offers.
1) Disinfect Your Brushes and Combs
Believe it or not but your hairbrush, combs, and makeup brushes can contain a whole host of nasty things, including dirt, oil, and even mites in some cases. Toss your hairbrushes, combs, and makeup brushes in dish soap and warm water to remove grease and hair product build up.
Source:
Fabulessly Frugal
2) Keep Your Glasses Clear With Bar Soap
To prevent your glasses from fogging up, just rub a bar of soap on your lenses. Buff out the soap with a soft cloth, such as microfiber, and you’ll be fog-free. The soap leaves a film on the glass, and while you can’t see it, it prevents the glass from getting foggy.
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Pixabay
3) Shine Jewelry
Dish soap can degrease and wash away dirt from your jewelry. Pour some seltzer and dish soap into a bowl and soak your jewelry in the bowl for about five minutes while you move it through the suds. Use a toothbrush to dislodge any grime.
Source:
Miss Tweedle
4) Turn a Bar of Soap Into Shower Gel
Use a cheese grater to grate up a bar of soap; once enough shavings have been gathered, add them to a saucepan. Add water to the pot until soap scrapings have been melted thoroughly. Add the mixture to a pump bottle for a cheap, homemade shower gel. The mixture will heat up in the shower for easy dispensing.
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Pixabay
5) Wash Your Delicates
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If you need to wash something ASAP that can’t be thrown in the washing machine and you’re all out of Woolite, you can use dish soap. Use a tablespoon of dish soap instead of detergent to hand wash your clothing.
Source:
Lifehacker
6) Make Homemade Cleaning Bombs
In a bowl, mix baking soda, citric acid, and a bit of liquid soap. Stir together with a whisk until it becomes a moist, crumbly mixture. Mold the mixture into an ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen, drop a “cleaning bomb” into the toilet and watch it do its magic!
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Wikipedia
7) Keep Your Glasses Fog-Free With Dish Soap
Just like with bar soap, rub a tiny drop of dish soap on the lenses of eye glasses or sunglasses then wipe them off without rinsing. The film left behind won’t be visible, but it will prevent your lenses from fogging up.
Source:
Convertisseur d'unite
8) Volumize Your Eyebrows
If you have thin, wispy eyebrows, soap might be just the thing you need to give them some thickness. Rub an eyebrow or clean eyelash brush over a bar of soap. Use the soapy wand to instantly fluff up and volumize your eyebrows for a thick, groomed look.
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Pexels
9) Clean White Patio Furniture
Take a bowl of warm water and squirt some dish detergent into it. Dip a cloth into the solution, wipe down your white outdoor patio furniture, and rinse it off with a garden hose. For colored furniture, use an all-purpose cleaner mixed with water.
Source:
Pooh Sticks and Dumbwaiters
10) Keep Wildlife Out of Your Garden
To keep deer and other wildlife out of your garden, cut up a bar of soap into cubes and wrap them in cloth. Staple the cloth-covered cubes to wooden stakes, and place them throughout your garden. The smell should keep wildlife away.
Source:
The Spruce
11) Get Rid of Fruit Flies
Fruit flies are a real pain to get rid of once you get them in your home. Create a fruit fly trap by dropping three drops of dish soap into a bowl of vinegar. The vinegar will attract the flies into the bowl, and the soap will cause them to drown.
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YouTube Screenshot
12) Prevent Soot Buildup
Soap can prevent hard-to-remove soot from forming on the bottom of your camping pots. Rub the bottom of the outside of the pot with a bar of soap before placing it over the fire. The soap prevents the formation of soot and makes cleanup much easier.
Source:
Beyond the Tent
13) Clean the Kitchen and Bathroom Floors
Over time, the vinyl and tile in your kitchen and bathroom can develop hard-to-remove buildup. To fight this, mix two tablespoons of dish liquid with a bucket of warm water and use it to wash your vinyl or tile floors. The grease-cutting properties of the soap should remove any buildup.
Source:
My Honeys Place
14) Keep Dirt From Getting Underneath Your Fingernails
If you work in the garden, you know how annoying it is trying to remove dirt from beneath your nails afterwards. To avoid this, scrape four fingernails over a bar of soap before heading out to the garden. The soap should prevent any dirt from building up beneath your nails and is easy to wash off.
Source:
Pinterest
15) Remove Carpet Stains
If you spilled something on your carpet, you don’t have to panic. Just dissolve a tablespoon of dish liquid in two cups of warm water and blot your stain with this solution. Make sure you’re using a clean white cloth. Continue blotting until your cloth absorbs the stain and it disappears from the carpet. Next, sponge it with cold water and blot dry with a cloth.
Source:
NX2
16) Keep Bugs Away From Your Plants
If you have a problem with bugs eating the leaves of your favorite plants, then soap might be the perfect solution. Either mix dish soap or place a slice of bar soap in a spray bottle with some water. Mix until sudsy and then spray the underside of the leaves of your plant. No more bugs!
Source:
Safer Brand
17) Keep Poison Ivy From Spreading
Poison ivy is literally a pain once you come into contact with it. It leaves an itchy rash that can spread to other parts of your body. To stop poison ivy from spreading, you need to dry up the oils from poison ivy blisters by immediately washing the area with dish soap.
Source:
Outdoor Revival
18) Refresh the Smell of Your Shoes
If you have stinky shoes, place a wrapped bar of soap in them and leave over night. The soap should help dispel the bad smells by the next day. You might also want to spray the inside of the shoes with rubbing alcohol to dry up any moisture that might be the source of the smell.
Source:
One Good Thing by Jillee
19) Remove Ring-Around-the-Collar
You can rub some dish soap around your nasty sweat ring marks on your shirts and rinse it with water to remove the stain. This also works with bar soap. Wet the area with the stain, and rub it with the bar of soap by hand, grinding it into the fabric. Follow up with by scrubbing with a soft-bristled brush, and wash as normal.
Source:
Housewives of Riverton
20) Protect Your Clothing
Placing a bar of soap in your drawers or closet can protect your clothing from insects, such as moths, while making them smell nice at the same time. Wrap a bar of soap, and place it in with your clothing. This should eliminate any musty odors and leave your clothes smelling fresh.
Source:
Bob Vila
21) Lighten Your Hair
If your hair color came out a touch too dark and you want to lighten it ASAP, you can immediately wash your hair with some dish soap to lighten it up a shade or two. This trick also works if you need to remove the brassiness that sometimes occurs when dying dark hair a lighter color.
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YouTube Screenshot
22) Relieve Bug Bites
Soap also works wonders when it comes to bug bites. Bug bites often leave you with red itchy bumps on your skin. If you find yourself with bug bites, rub a wet bar of soap across the bite area for instant relief from itchiness.
Source:
Definitive End
23) Clean Your Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets can easily get greasy from cooking and grabbing them with your grubby fingers. You can get them nice and clean by pouring a little dish soap into a spray bottle with warm water and spraying your cabinets with a mist of this solution. Rinse the solution off with a damp cloth, and dry with a dry cloth.
Source:
Hunker
24) Get Rid of Fleas
If you have fleas, a little soap and water might be just what you need to get rid of them. Place a slice of soap in a bowl of water, and put it under a light. Make sure to do this in all of the infested areas of your home. The soap attracts the fleas to the water where they drown.
Source:
Long Time No Flea
25) Remove Grease Stains From Clothing
Did your pizza spit up on you? Just pour a little bit of dish soap over your oil stain and rinse it with water. This will help you salvage your clothing while making sure you aren’t being too harsh on gentle fabrics like silk.
Source:
Simple Life and Home
26) Make Sewing a Snap
Sewing is not that hard, unless you find yourself trying to push the needle through some hard fabric. To help you deal with harder fabrics, such as leather, stick your needle in a bar of soap before using it. The soap should lubricate the needle and make it slide easily through the fabric.
Source:
wikiHow
27) Grease Hinges
A squeaky door hinge is a distraction, especially at night when others are sleeping. Luckily, dish soap is the perfect remedy for this kind of situation. Pour a little dish soap on your door hinge to lubricate it and stop squeaking.
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ViralNova
28) Fix a Stuck Zipper
If you have a stuck zipper, you can use soap to help fix it. Simply rub a bar of soap along the zipper’s surface. The soap should lubricate the zipper so that it works again. You can also use liquid soap for this, applying it in small amounts until the zipper works again.
Source:
Homehacks
29) Remove Oil From Concrete
Have an oil spill in your garage? You can get rid of that stinky black stuff by covering the stain with some baking soda to soak up the oil. Then, pour some dish soap over it to degrease the stain. Scrub this mixture with a stiff brush, and let it stand for a few hours before you rinse it away. You may have to repeat a few times until it is gone if it’s a tough stain.
Source:
Remove Stains Guides & Tips
30) Mark a Hem
While you can use chalk to mark the hem line of a piece of clothing, chalk is usually hard to wash out. Instead, opt to use a sliver of a bar of soap. The soap marks the hem and then is easy to wash out when finished.
Source:
One Good Thing by Jillee
31) Deodorize Your Closet
Slice up a bar of soap into thin pieces, then place them into small, breathable satchels from a craft store. Put the little bags inside shoes, in between shelves, and any other place in your closet that is prone to stinky smells. It will keep your closet smelling fresh for weeks.
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Flickr
32) Loosen a Tight Ring
People love their jewelry, especially rings. Sometimes, though, due to the weather or body changes, a ring might be difficult to remove. If you find yourself with a ring stuck on your finger, rub some soap on the finger and wash it. The ring should slip right off.
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TipHero
33) Prevent Your Bathroom Mirror From Getting Fogging
Hopping out of the shower to a foggy mirror can be annoying, especially if you need to use it to get ready afterward. Much like preventing your glasses from fogging, use the same technique for your bathroom mirror. Just rub a bar of soap on the mirror, then buff away with a soft cloth. No more fog!
Source:
Lifehacker
34) Fix a Squeaky Floorboard
While squeaky floorboards are a nuisance, especially for families with young children, they are easy to fix. To fix a squeaky floorboard, rub some soap around its edges. The soap should help lubricate the floorboard and stop the squeaking.
Source:
Popular Mechanics
35) Fill in Nail Holes
Easily disguise holes in the wall left from nails by taking a white bar of soap and scrubbing it over the hole. Pieces of the soap will fill the hole, and you can wipe away excess so it’s even with your wall. Maybe not a permanent fix, but it’s a temporary facelift.
Source:
Instructables
36) Use as a Pin Cushion
For an easy-to-make pin cushion, take a bar of soap and wrap it in fabric. Another alternative is to use wrapping paper. Once wrapped up, stick your needles in to the DIY pin cushion. Not only does the soap keep the needles in place, it also lubricates them.
Source:
Make It & Love It
37) Loosen Furniture Drawers
To easily loosen a stuck or stiff furniture drawer, rub a bar of soap on the runners. This should allow the drawers to glide easily in and out of the piece of furniture. This hack is especially useful when lubricating the drawers of vintage and cheap furniture.
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Martha Stewart
38) Repel Mice
Using soap is a harmless way to repel mice. Irish Spring is reportedly great at keeping away mice and rats. Simply chop a few bars of soap up and put it where you notice mice or rat activity.
Source:
Two Men and a Little Farm
39) Loosen a Stiff Lock
If you have a lock that is difficult to open, rub some soap over the end of your key before you insert it. The soap should help lubricate the lock and make it easier to open. Your best bet, though, when dealing with stubborn locks is to use a dry graphite lubricant.
Source:
Expert Home Tips
40) Lubricate Stuck Screws
Putting together furniture, such as desks and shelving, is often made harder by screws that are hard to insert. You can make this task easier by coating the screw in soap. The soap acts as a lubricant and should make it a lot easier to tighten.
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Woodworker's Journal
While soap is mainly used for cleaning, as you can see, you can use it for a variety of other handy tasks as well. In essence, soap is one of a homeowner’s go-to hacks in a variety of instances. The next time you find yourself at an impasse on any of the previously mentioned dilemmas, see if soap might provide the answer you seek.