I’m excited to once again serve as a Dawn Wildlife Ambassador!
Two years ago, I traveled to California with Dawn to experience firsthand the work done by The Marine Mammal Center. Dawn is a huge supporter of this organization and so many other wildlife organizations including The International Bird Rescue.
This relationship between Dawn and wildlife rescue is real. You’ve seen the oil-covered birds being washed in Dawn, right? Well, Dawn is used all over The Marine Mammal Center as well, though not on the animals.
Photo Credit – Susan Goldman
While we were there, we had the chance to help out the volunteers in their day to day duties around the center. The center is basically a hospital for marine mammals who are injured in the wild, and brought in for rehabilitation. We used Dawn to clean, well . . . ummm . . . . everything. We cleaned the entire kitchen (where they grind up the fish for “yummy” fishshakes for the sea lions) with Dawn, and we cleaned the crates they use to transport animals. They spend so much time and energy getting injured animals to the center and healed animals back to the wild. (Did I mention that the people working there are volunteering their time?)
We even cleaned the trucks using Dawn.
So even though I already used Dawn for many different cleaning tasks in my home before that trip, over the last two years I’ve expanded my bag of cleaning-with-Dawn tricks.
I always squirt a little on a wet dishrag as I’m wiping down counters. I love to sling a circle of Dawn around my sink to give it a good (and super fast) scrubbing with a dish scrubber. I squirt some in small buckets of water and hand them to my kids so they can clean outdoor furniture, or their bikes, or anything else that needs cleaning.
My daughter used one of those Dawn-plus-water buckets to spiffy up her play kitchen that she’ll be selling soon.
And, of course, I use it on Scruffy:
I decided if it’s good enough for the birds . . .
No, really. I’ve heard from so many people since I started working with Dawn about all of the ways they like to use this versatile not-just-for-dirty-dishes cleaner. One thing I hear over and over again is how people who deal with puppies love to bathe them in Dawn. It’s safe for the dog while also being amazingly effective.
One way I haven’t tried using Dawn, but definitely will is on grease stains on laundry. I despise grease stains on my kids’ shirts (fine, and my shirts), and it makes sense that Dawn’s grease-cutting power would be effective on those stains. I’ll let you know my results.
61% of Americans use dish soap for other purposes besides cleaning dishes!
Tell me the ways you use Dawn!
Disclosure: I’m a paid ambassador for Dawn, but the obsession with using it to clean as many things as I possibly can is all mine!
--Nony
Every time I looked at the bottle of Dawn by my sink I wondered, “How IS IT that you help save wildlife, Dawn?” (There’s a picture of a cute baby duck on the bottle, along with a claim that Dawn saves wildlife, but no explanation.) Now I know! Thank you 😀
PS – I use your tip for keeping the shower clean by keeping a bottle of dish soap in my shower and cleaning it while I’m showering. Brilliant.
Yes! It was really fascinating to hear the story. A scientist had the idea to wash oil-covered birds in dish soap, and tested every soap on the market. They chose Dawn as the one that worked best. Something about how it cuts the oil but doesn’t compromise something about the feathers and what the birds need (see why I didn’t go into details in the post?). It was after this that Dawn got involved helping. Very cool story!
I use one part Dawn to 2 parts Hydrogen peroxide as a laundry stain remover. I have also used the same mixture (kept in an opaque spray bottle) to clean the removable floormats in my car. Rinsed them well after and let them dry in the sun. Worked great!
I use it straight up on greasy laundry stains. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Sometimes I need to do it more than once for really bad ones.
I use dish soap AS laundry detergent! Seriously! I quit shelling out big bucks for laundry detergent and quit the hassle of making my own. I use 1 tbsp or less depending on the size of the load/level of filth. Easy, effective, and CHEAP!
Interesting. I’d be worried about my HE machine, though. What kind of machine do you have?
I have a top loading machine. Don’t know how it would work in a HE…?
I have a top loading HE and I put dawn in there all the time. 🙂
I’ve done this too, I make my own Laundry detergent (Zote, Borax, Washing Soda) Sometimes I run out and am lazy OR we didn’t pick up the Zote and Dawn works in a pinch I’d just push off the laundry but with kids there is ALWAYS that “BUT MOM I NEED THIS FOR YESTERDAY!” Frantic laundry after I’ve already DONE the laundry… AND My Husband needs new clothes so he washes something daily. Hoping to have that fixed soon LOL
I do this too! I used to make detergent with Dawn, Borax and washing soda, but ran out of the powders one day so did an ’emergency’ load with just a squirt of Dawn. It worked so well that’s all I use now. Plain Dawn is also safe to use to wash cloth diapers (Dawn is actually suggested on many sites for stripping when you have diaper funk going on), and for those interested I never had trouble when we had a front loading HE machine.
I love using Dawn on grease stains in the laundry or using a small amount on the carpet for grease stains there too.
However, I can’t help but comment on the picture of your doggie taking a bath with this stuff. I know some people use Dawn as a cheap flea shampoo, but talk to your vet on their opinion if this is okay. When I got my Chihuahua, she had been bathed in Dawn and scratched nonstop after we got her home. We asked our vet about that and she said that technically Dawn will work for this purpose, but it isn’t really formulated for dog’s skin and it is much better to use actual shampoo meant for dogs when bathing them. Once we washed that Dawn off her, we have never had another issue with our dog’s skin again.
Not saying Dawn isn’t great under the right circumstances, but I think when you see those commercials of wildlife, that is sort of a last resort method. They aren’t washing those ducks or whatever down with a tub full of Dawn on a fairly regular basis like people bathe their pets.
Interesting! I’ll be watching for itchiness!
I just visited the Dawn website — WOW!!! I never knew they had so many options! But I saw that they have a ‘gentle clean’ and ‘pure essentials’ that might be better for a pet. I’ve always loved it for dishes, but I’m going to be using Dawn all OVER my house now!
Great to mix with a bucket of water and pour on fire ant piles at the state park. Works really well.
It’s also great for getting all of the wax/polish off your car before you apply a new coat.
Wait, you said they use it all over, but NOT on the animals? So are you sure it’s safe to use on your dog? I’ve heard that you should not wash your dog with dawn unless in an extreme case, like it’s been skunked or has oil on it. I can’t remember why – maybe because it removes the skin oils and causes dermatitis or something? Anyway, here’s my dawn soap tip – my husband is a mechanic and constantly comes home with clothes so greasy and oily that even tide doesn’t keep it clean. I put a squirt of dawn in the washing machine and I can definitely tell the difference. It really breaks down the grease.
They use it on birds who have been covered in oil. But at the Marine Mammal Center, they’re not cleaning the animals. It’s a hospital. So they get animals who have been injured by things in the ocean or by other animals.
Ahh…makes sense. Thanks for the info!
Dawn dish soap, specifically, for successfully:
1. cleaning tile floors, tubs, and showers
2. unclogging drains and toilets
You use Dawn to unclog drains??
Yes, drains and toilets! For some drains I’ve had to add a hair-removal tactic. You can find info by googling phrases like “Dawn detergent clogged drains” and “Dawn detergent clogged toilet.”
P.S.
BTW, in researching and researching (because I like to keep researching so as to procrastinate cleaning), I’ve read that while trying to unclog it’s advisable not to use water any hotter than what typically goes down a drain. Though some sources suggest super-hot water, such as boiling straight from a tea kettle, other sources say that might cause damage.
I mix it 50/50 with vinegar (or maybe a little bit heavier on the vinegar) to wash my bathroom with. Especially if I can warm it. Spray it onto the shower / bath, wait ten minutes, then everything just cleans off. The vinegar mixed in helps get rid of the hard water stains, and the dawn stops it from sliding down the walls too quickly.
I use the 50/50 Dawn/vineagar and love it. Just simplifies life to have one go-to cleaner. Great for countertops, stove and bathroom.
We use it to wash off poison ivy oil when we go to poison ivy areas. Just squirt it on your skin and SCRUB.
So interesting! Not that I’ll ever test this on purpose!! ANd I LOVE your “name!”
Lol- this is my 11 year old daughter whose brain works a lot like yours (and not very much like mine). I can attest to how much your methods have helped her. She is entertained by this blog AND has learned something. Now- off to a lesson on asking permission before you post on someone’s blog…
Oh my word, this just got even better!!!!! Tell her I said hi, and to listen to whatever her mom says about blog commenting.
A former neighbor of mine was a pharmacist. My Mom got poison ivy really bad one summer and she told Mom to make a later with soap, put it on the poison ivy rash, and let it dry. Don’t rinse the soap off. I’m not sure why this works, but I think it’s supposed to dry the rash out. Dawn is a soap that suds, so I don’t see why this wouldn’t work.
Desitin stained clothes!! My then 2.5 year old emptied an entire container on his sheets one morning when I thought he was sleeping. Should have known too quiet is not necessarily sleeping. Oh well. Back to the story.
I tried every pretreater in my cupboard and even straight liquid detergent to handwash it before sticking in the machine. Nothing doing. Then saw the bottle of dawn… Pretreated with that, scrubbed a lot, and threw it in the laundry. Done!
Great for Desitin stained cloth diapers too because sometimes the cloth diaper safe creams just don’t do the trick!
I used Dawn to scrub down my outside stairs. They have wooden beams that didn’t get water treated last summer and I found that they were all covered with meldew. With Dawn and a scrub brush they came out clean and no longer green. Once that was done I did the water treatment and expect that they will be in good shape for next summer. My husband had a hard time believing that Dawn did all that – It certainly did – Love the stuff.
Prepping cloth diapers. For brand new diapers to be at all absorbent, you have to get the oils off them first. This usually means running them through numerous loads of laundry. But if you use Dawn to wash (and rinse REALLY well because there is no way I’m ruining my washing machine with dishsoap), then one wash will leave it absorbent enough for daily wear.
My mother uses dawn to clean the oil and gunk off her glasses. Over last week I was having problems getting mine clean and so she cleaned mine the same way, needless to say, the nose pads don’t slip off my nose as much as they had and been coming cleaner easier. Been thinking about doing it about once a month or so with a small dab and a microfiber cloth, rinse with water… might be beneficial in other ways since I don’t have just the plain blue kind, mine has the antibacterial.
Dawn plus equal parts vinegar, I think it was on Pinterest called “Kitchen Magic” or something… but I like it in the bathroom!
I use Dawn on my shirts. The only thing that gets out the grease stains!
I use a combo of dawn and hydrogen peroxide and it gets most stains.
Dawn took the grass and dirt stains out of my son’s white football pants better than any spray “laundry stain remover”.. Still searching for something strong enough to get that funky smell out of the gloves without ruining them though…. Any suggestions? ?
I dont know anything about football gear, but if they can go in the washing machine try Dawn for the detergent and vinegar for the softener on a hot wash , if the fabric allows. Gloves cant be as bad as finding that the bedding at the bottom of the pile of two weeks worth of laundry was peed on… worked great, no need to rewash.
I use blue dawn mixed half n half with white vinegar in a spray bottle. I use that to waah dishes when my sink is too full… and when I fill the sink…. I use that also… to clean the bathroom it is fantastic!! I used it on an extra dirty window yesterday and I was really surprised at how clean and streake free it was… The -25 weather may have something to do with that… but… it is clean… good enough for me…
Used it to wash my hair this morning because my 3yo Little Darling used an ENTIRE BOTTLE of shampoo taking a bubble bath last night while I was making dinner. He claimed he was pooping…the $6 worth of bubbles in the tub determined…that was a LIE!
Here’s a new one for ya: soaking trumpets and euphoniums in the bathtub to get the grime out 🙂 I also use it to gently wash the headjoint on my flute. Blue Dawn only for these, I think!
I’ll have to give it a try as laundry soap–I sometimes add a squirt along with my regular soap if something is really dirty or smelly but I’ve never tried it just by itself. Just found your podcast and looking forward to working through it!
I learned years ago about putting Dawn and vinegar in water for tough cleaning.
When I used to have pet hedgehogs, I would always crean their cages and transport crates with Dawn. It does work really well and I can understand your obsession with it.
I personally would not use it on dogs. It is super drying to the skin and dogs can have issues. Depending on the dog I suppose. But we use puppy or baby shampoo on any type of dog.