15+ Dawn Dish Soap Uses & Hacks for Summer

This post is sponsored by Dawn but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

For as long as I can remember, Dawn has been in the kitchen. Growing up it was in my grandmother’s kitchen and in my mom’s kitchen. Now it’s always in our kitchen! But it can do so much more, especially with the new Dawn Ultra and Ultra Total Clean Lemon Twist at Sam’s Club! The new formulation allows for 50% less scrubbing! I’ve pulled together some of my favorite Dawn dish soap uses for summer so you can see just how it can help you clean and prep for summertime fun!

15 DAWN DISH SOAP USES & HACKS FOR SUMMER

These Dawn liquid soap hacks are perfect for busy families and a great way to use a product that I’ve trusted for so many years!

Grill Cleaner

Justin loves grilling and he has a cover for his grill but I peeked in there the other day and it needs to be cleaned! It needs to be cleaned in a major way. There’s a trick I’m going to be trying using my trusty Dawn dish soap.

I’m going to take the cooled rack off the grill and put it in a large trash bag. Then I’m going to add a gallon of water and a 1/2 cup of Dawn Ultra to the bag. My plan is to leave it in there overnight and then clean the rack the next morning! I know Dawn Ultra will help me take care of all that grease that’s built up!

Ultra Dawn contains 3x more grease cleaning ingredients per drop versus non-Ultra Dawn! A drop of Dawn and the grease is gone! That’s how I know I’ve got this grill project handled this year!

Dawn Ultra and warm water are also the perfect combination for cleaning the outside of the grill too!

Homemade Ice Pack

While I love Dawn for cleaning, one of my absolute favorite ways to use it is to make my own homemade ice pack! Dawn Ultra and Dawn Ultra Clean Lemon Twist both work amazingly well for this. If your child has decided, like mine has, that her new favorite color is yellow then I highly recommend making some ice packs using Dawn Ultra Clean Lemon Twist.

But I usually go with the classic blue because there’s just something I love about it. To make your own reusable ice packs, all you have to do is put some Dawn Ultra in a zippered sandwich bag (I usually fill it about half full) and pop it in the freezer. I like to use packing tape and even double bag them to make sure they stay sealed.

Once the Dawn Ultra is frozen it will still be flexible so it makes a great ice pack for those summer bumps and bruises! You can put them back in the freezer and use them again and again!

DIY Bubbles

Bubbles are one of the things my kids love. They have since they were little and still do! It’s so easy to discover you’ve run out of bubble solution in the middle of a summer afternoon when you don’t want to run out and buy any!

Dawn Ultra can be used to make some great DIY bubble solution. You need a few basic ingredients:

• 4 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup Dawn Ultra dish soap

Mix the water and sugar together until the sugar dissolves completely. Then add in the Dawn Ultra and let it sit for a few hours for the best bubbles!

It’s easy to mix up a batch in the morning so it’s ready for afternoon fun!

Kiddie Pool Cleaner

Things like ice packs and bubbles are important parts of summer break. But cleaning is huge too! Dawn Ultra is a powerful new formula that helps us get through more dishes in less time with 50% less scrubbing! That same cleaning power works on everything I need to get cleaned up for summer fun!

We have a little kiddie pool that we put in the driveway for the kids to play in. It can get pretty icky after a few days. All I have to do is dump the water and scrub the pool with a bit of Dawn Ultra dish soap and a sponge. Then I rinse it and we’re ready to play again!

Outdoor Furniture Cleaner

If you have any plastic patio furniture, you probably know what I have discovered. It can get pretty gross over the non-summer months. But instead of throwing out the old chairs and just starting fresh, a little elbow grease goes a long way.

Mix a little Dawn Ultra with some warm water and use it to wipe down your plastic furniture. Then rinse it off and you’ll feel like you have brand new furniture! It works really well on the winter and spring grime!

Swingset Clean Up

Just like cleaning your plastic patio furniture, you can clean all of the plastic parts of your swingset. We used our Dawn Ultra mixture to clean:

• Slide
• Swing seats
• Chain covers
• Rock wall holds
• Telescope
• Wheel

If it’s a plastic part, Dawn works great to get off the grime that builds up during the non-summer months!

Swim Goggle Prep

We do a lot of swimming and that can mean dealing with foggy goggles. But if I rub a tiny drop of Dawn on the inside of the goggles and then wipe it off, it helps prevent them from fogging up! This is a trick I learned when I was growing up on swim team. We used baby shampoo then but Dawn works wonders too!

Pre-Treat Stains

Stains are a fact of life when you have kids. In the summer the stains seem to multiply as the kids play more and enjoy treats like bright-colored ice pops! If you run into stains that are oil based like butter (popcorn anyone?) and cooking oil, you can put some Dawn Ultra on the stain and scrub it gently until the stain disappears.

This also works for a lot of different pen inks. After you work on the stain, just put it in the laundry like you usually do.

Goodbye Ants

With more sticky snacks like ice pops making an appearance during the summer months sometimes we run into some ants. I make a soap spray using some Dawn Ultra and water. I spray down the counts and shelves where we see any ants and then wipe it dry. I love that it’s safe around my kids and my pets but keeps the ants away!

Say No to Insects

You can use a similar mixture of Dawn Ultra dish soap and water in a spray bottle to help keep insects off of plants and other areas you don’t want them. I use about 1/2 of a tablespoon mixed into 8 cups of water for the plant spray.

No Fleas Either!

If you’ve ever dealt with pets and fleas, you know how challenging it can be. While Dawn Ultra can help get your dishes clean faster, it can also battle fleas. I recommend using the blue Dawn Ultra for this as it has worked really well for us. We give the dog a warm bath and then instead of shampoo we soap him up with a bit of Dawn and then rinse him well.

Catch Fruit Flies

While we’re on the topic of pests, if you have a lot of fruit around and notice those pesky fruit flies, Dawn can help you with those too!

In a small bowl or cup, mix some apple cider vinegar and a few drops of Dawn Ultra. Then set the bowl in the area where you usually see the fruit flies. The vinegar will attract the fruit flies and then they will get stuck in the Dawn! Then you can just empty the bowl and start again if needed!

Weed Killer

When it comes to summer, we find ourselves outside a lot more. Grambo loves to garden and Carrigan is learning how to help. She’s in charge of taking care of the weeds. Recently a friend told me that Dawn dish soap can help with the weeds too!

You really want to use a vinegar that has a 10-20% acetic level. It will work faster than using common distilled white vinegar with 5% acidity. Then mix 1 gallon of vinegar with 1 cup of salt and 1 tablespoon of Dawn dish soap.

Put the liquid in a spray bottle and spray those weeds during the sunniest time of day! It’s a mixture that I feel good about letting Carrigan help with!

Poison Ivy Rescue

My kids don’t always stay on the sidewalk, especially when they’re playing during the summer. If you happen to run into the dreaded poison ivy while at a park or on a hike, blue Dawn Ultra and help!

Wash the affected area with Dawn dish soap to remove the oil and help keep it from spreading. For over 40 years, rescue workers have used Dawn to help clean wildlife that have been affected by oil so it’s gentle enough to use to clean away the Poison Ivy oil too!

Hair Cleaner

Sticky hands, gum, or anything else that causes your child’s hair to get all stuck together is also the perfect time to break out Dawn Ultra! It is great at helping get out greasy residue and sticky things!

Put a drop of Dawn on your fingers and rub it on the sticky parts of the hair. Then use your fingers or a fine tooth comb to work the sticky stuff out!

Stop Those Squeaky Doors

Are the kids running in and out of the house all day long during the summer? Does your backdoor squeak the way our screen door does? If you put a few drops of Dawn on the door’s hinges it will help them glide and make things a bit quieter around your house!

On our most recent trip to Sam’s Club, I was able to stock up and get ready for summer. The extra-large Dawn Ultra 90 oz. bottle is perfect for getting me through the summer! It’s equal to 11 refill bottles* which means we can take care of more things without creating as much waste!

Did you know that one drop of Dawn Ultra concentrate contains 3x the power of the leading bargain brand? That means I can use even less Dawn dish soap than I have in the past and get the same results!

love that I can buy both Dawn Ultra and Dawn Ultra Total Clean Lemon Twist in bulk at Sam’s Club! It’s convenient and I love that buying in bulk means less shopping trips for me and less waste for the environment!

Visit your local Sam’s Club or use Club Pickup at samsclub.com to try out Dawn Ultra and get ready for summer!

*compared to 8oz. bottles