6 unique ways you can use dishwasher tablets you didn’t know about

They say good things come in small packages, and that certainly rings true for dishwasher tablets. Yes, they can fit in the palm of your hand, but they’re also great at helping you clean a multitude of things around the home – and no, not just your bowls and plates.

From the kitchen, to the bathroom and even the laundry, there’s a use for them in every room of the house (and even outside too!).

Burnt pots and pans

Yes, you could leave your pots and pans soaking in a sink filled with water and detergent, but that usually involves some elbow grease as well to remove the burn marks and leftover food on the bottom.

Instead, you can simply fill the dirty pots with water and place a dishwasher tablet inside, according to the Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Then bring the pan to the boil and allow to simmer for around 10 minutes. If the burnt areas still won’t budge, then you can repeat the process again. Be rest assured it will clean away the grime without strenuous scrubbing!

Bins

Bins are one of the most bothersome items to clean in the kitchen. Whether it’s the juices from a leftover meal or something else disgusting, it doesn’t take long for foul odours to start escaping the bag and seep through the house.

To get the bin back to its former glory, Better Homes and Gardens recommends filling an empty bin with boiling water, dropping in a dishwasher tablet and letting it soak for an hour or so. Then rinse the bin with water and and voila! It will be sparkling clean and smelling fresh once again.

Oven glass

Ovens really do take a beating when it comes to oil and grime build up, but a swift once over with a dishwashing tablet is all you need to get it sparkling clean once again.

Heaps of people have shared their stories online showing themselves restoring their ovens to pristine glory with the handy cleaning tablets, including in an article published by New Zealand outlet Stuff.com. One woman said she simply dipped a dishwasher tablet into warm water and then scrubbed it over the inside of the oven glass, before wiping away the dirt and grime with paper towel. And guess what? It ended up sparkling clean!

“The whole process took around 10 minutes and the after photos don’t even do it justice because the oven glass is actually spotless,” she wrote in the article. “I’ve got so much oven pride, I keep opening it to show my boyfriend and as much I don’t want to cook in it, at least I now know how to clean it.”

Washing machine

Yes, washing machines are designed to clean our clothes, sheets and towels, but sometimes they need a clean themselves. And some people have been using a dishwasher tablet to do so.

This hack was originally posted on Facebook group Mums who Clean and involves placing a few dishwasher tablets in the machine and then running a cycle on hot. Since then a heap of people have tried out the trick, and to their amazement it has worked.

“I did this the other day! Bloody amazing!” Sharni Richards wrote on the page. “And my machine had this musty smell I couldn’t get rid of, now it’s gone!”

While Marilyn Masters said: “[I] Do this all the time now. It’s brilliant! Even gets dog hair out of the machine. Best home hint I’ve ever heard.”

Toilets

Cleaning the toilet generally isn’t too difficult, but sometimes when the stains in the bowl have been there for a while, a normal toilet clear just doesn’t work. So, if you’re facing this dilemma, or just want an extra sparkly toilet, you can simply drop one dishwasher tablet in the bowl, give it a bit of a scrub and then flush once it has dissolved. It’s as simple as that!

Patio furniture

During the warmer months it’s always nice to sit outside with your morning cup of tea and listen to the birds chirping, but when the outdoor furniture is dirty and dusty it’s not so appealing.

So, before you head out for a relaxing sit in the sunshine, grab a dishwasher tablet, dip it into a bucket of warm water and scrub away any marks. It works a treat!