Mark Your Fabric When Sewing

If you're someone who regularly sews new cushions for your home or new dresses for your closet, there's a high chance that you've used chalk to mark your fabric. This helps you map out your pattern and know exactly where to cut and sew, and it's an essential tool in any sewing kit. But what happens if you run out before you have the chance to buy some more? Well, soap can help.

Instead of using chalk, you can actually use a soap bar to mark out your fabric and guide you along the way. It does exactly the same job, and it won't leave any lasting marks.

Fix a Stuck Zipper

It's hard not to panic when you realize the zipper on your favorite pair of jeans or the dress that you're already wearing is stuck. You begin to wonder whether you'll be stuck in the dress forever, or whether you'll just have to throw the jeans in the trash. But you don't have to do either! There's a simple way to fix a stuck zipper, and it involves that bar of soap sitting under your sink.

By rubbing the soap over the zipper, you can grease it up and loosen it so it should slide up or down next time with ease. Plus, this soap hack should work on any type of zipper.

Make Your Pans Non-Stick

Let's be honest; pots and pans can be a nightmare to clean. As soon as you burn food in them, they're ruined. You then have to put all of your might into scrubbing them clean, which means you need countless cleaning supplies and a whole load of time - which most people don't have. You can make things easier by rubbing soap on your pots and pans before using them, though.

By rubbing a small layer of soap onto your pans before you cook, you can create a non-stick barrier that will stop anything from getting stuck to it. Then, cleaning them will be a breeze.

Keep Deer at Bay

While we love deer as much as the next person, having deer in your garden can be irritating. They eat all of your flowers and scare all of your pets, and it would be much better if they kept themselves to themselves. And if you want to keep deer at bay, you can use a bar of soap to your advantage. However, you'll also need a few pairs of old socks, too.

If you put chunks of the soap into the socks and leave them around your garden, it should ward the deer away from your property. Deer have a very strong sense of smell, after all.

Fix Squeaky Floorboards

There's nothing more annoying than the squeak of an old floorboard. It makes walking around your house an irritating experience, and means that you're constantly waking up the other people in your home. But you don't have to master DIY and replace your whole floor to fix these squeaky floorboards once and for all. Instead, you just need to grab your nearest bar of soap and bring this soap bar hack to life.

If you lather up the soap bar and then rub it between the cracks of the floorboards, you should be able to lubricate the boards and stop the squeak. Just make sure you dry up any excess water before walking on them again.

Make a Homemade Mosquito Repellant

Whether you love camping or you live somewhere where mosquitoes are part and parcel of everyday life, you'll know that having an effective mosquito repellant is hugely important. And while you could spend a fortune on chemical mosquito repellants, an environmentally friendly and budget-friendly alternative is using soap instead. Yes, you can actually make your own homemade mosquito repellant from soap - and you can either use a soap bar or liquid soap.

To do this, fill a spray bottle with soap and water and give it a shake. When you spray it onto your skin, you should be able to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

Prevent Smelly Backpacks

Whether your kids use them for their smelly gym kit or you use a backpack to store a smelly lunch, there's no doubt about the fact that backpacks can have a distinct odor to them. And while you could throw them in the washing machine, there's an easier way to reduce the odor of your backpacks. As you can probably guess by now, that trick includes a soap bar and a Ziploc bag.

Simply pop the soap bar into the Ziploc bag and then place it into the backpack. It won't take up too much space, but will provide instant freshness that will make it smell so much better.