Off-lable cleaning supply uses
If like us, you love a good deal, then you know all about the magic of buying in bulk.
In the heat of the moment it might make complete sense to buy not just the one 750ml bottle of dish soap you need, but to opt for the Buy 10 and save 25% massive-bulk-sale-super-saver-deal…or just opt for the big 5liter cans…either way, once the euphoria of your amazing deal wears off, you’ll find yourself with a lottle (It’s like a little, but a lot) of dish soap on your hands.
Now a frugal old-timey housekeeper would have this problem solved by having gone to that plastic warehouse store and having all kinds of clever storage solutions for all your bulk cleaning supplies…But if your eyes were too big for your stomach and now you don’t have the cash to go get a storage bin, you’ll be dealing with ten bottles of dish soap crowding your cupboard for the foreseeable future…
But don’t worry, we are here to save the day with off-label cleaning supplies uses.
Off what?!
Off. Label. (It’s a term coined by doctors when they started using medication to treat symptoms not related to their intended use, like aspirin for heart disease and beta blockers for anxiety…)
Let’s get back to your flood of dish soap. Luckily, Dish soap has a veeeeeeeeeerrry long shelf life. This means you can easily just keep it in the cupboard and use it the old-fashioned way.
If, however you are feeling brave (and bored) why not give one of these other uses a try?
DIY no drip, mouldable icepack.
Allow us to set the scene…
You have a bump, a sprain, a graze or some other injury. You go to the freezer for the bag of frozen peas. Shock! Horror! Someone ate the Ouchie-peas! What to do? Use ice cubes in a wet dishtowel? What kind if monster would do that!?
Luckily you had about 9 bottles of dish soap to spare and got creative.
Yes: Fill up a small or medium sized Ziplock baggie with dish soap, flatten it out and freeze it. The soap won’t freeze solid, but get (and stay) extremely cold, making the perfect reusable, mouldable, non-drip icepack. And when you run out of dish soap one day, simply take a squirt of your freezer stash.
Eco friendly (well, friendlier) weed killer
If you have weeds crowding your pavement, step away form the herbicide…most commercial weed killers are poisons with an extended half life that will get into the rest of the eco system. If you really can’t live with the greenery on your driveway, try adding a generous squirt of dish soap and a cup of salt to about 2liters of vinegar and give the weeds a good watering down. This solution is kid and pet friendly!
You could also just live and let live. If people are judging you on your pavement micro-garden, they’re probably not lekker people anyway!
Finally: Save your favourite shirt!
Whether you were diligently cooking a proper meal or simply dropped your takeaway pizza cheese-pull onto your favourite shirt, grease stains happen, and even more so if you have little humans running around.
You could relegate the shirt to the “This is pyjama’s now”-pile, but you could also save it.
For most food stains, like fat, fruit juice, tomato sauce and even red wine, simply dampen the stain with warm water, drip some dish soap onto it and then work at it with your fingers. It might take a few minutes, and you should check that the stain is out before you tumble dry or iron the clothing, but this usually does the job.
And it feels great next time you get to wear it! (Look at you being clever!)
Dish soap isn’t the only cure-all off-label cleaner, so feel free to live your bulk buying best life and justify your purchases with these other hacks and tricks.
