When you find something that’s life-changing, you want to share it with the world. That’s what happened when I discovered Fels Naptha Soap. This little bar of soap will change your life. It’s so inexpensive, and you can use it for so many things. Check out these uses for Fels Naptha Soap that are life-changing.
17 Uses for Fels Naptha That Will Change Your Life
I like grabbing Fels Naptha on Amazon for a few reasons. One it's delivered right to my door. Two I can buy in bulk. Three I can use my free Amazon Gift Cards so I pay nothing out of pocket.
What is Fels Naptha?
Fels Naptha is a laundry soap bar & stain remover that has been around since 1894. It was very popular during the great depression for cleaning all over the house because it was cheap. So housewives found new ways to use this product to stretch their budgets!
Related: 22 Frugal Living Tips from the Great Depression
How to use Fels Naptha?
The main was Fels Naptha is known to be used now it is making your own laundry soap but there are so many more ways to use the soap that you probably didn't even know about! Check out the list below.
#1. Treat cold sores – As weird as it sounds, you can treat cold sores with Fels Naptha by washing the area with the soap. Yup, it’s that simple! I love this so much better than other cold sore treatments.
#2. Bug repellant – Bugs can be annoying when they’re in your home. Cut up chunks of the Fels Naptha and place it around your home. You may be surprised as to how quickly those bugs are repelled.
#3. Use Fels Naptha as a scent – When you have a stinky area in your home, like the trash can, use Fels Naptha as a scent guard. It will help keep away the stinky smell out of your house!
#4. Make your own laundry detergent – You may already know that Fels Naptha is popular to use in laundry detergent. It helps to get your laundry super clean. I shared my DIY Laundry Soap recipe. Amazon even sells a laundry soap kit with enough stock to make laundry soap for months!!
Related: 28 Amazing Uses for Lavender Oil
#5. Whitening whites – People have used Fels Naptha for many years to whiten their whites. You will want to soak the Fels Naptha in hot water, along with the whites.
#6. Use as an insecticide – Mix Fels Naptha with hot water and put in a spray bottle (and label it!). Spray your plants with this mixture.
Fels Naptha Gets out even red wine stains!#7. Get out stains – Need a great stain remover? Soak those stains in Fels Naptha. You can get out baby stains, chocolate, it can even get wine out. I used to use the Oxi Clean Gel Stian Stick and swear by it but I've switched to Fels Naptha and it's MUCH cheaper!
#8. Repel rodents – For some reason, those mice do not like Fels Naptha. Just cut up into chunks and put around areas in which the rodents hang out.
#9. Remove grease – Are your hands or clothes full of grease? Wash your hands with Fels Naptha. You can soak your grease-stained clothes in Fels Naptha.
#10. Clean your carpets – Stains on your carpet can be a real downer. That’s where you use Fels Naptha. This magic bar can be used to get those stains out of your carpet. You will want to grate it and mix it with hot water. Scrub with a scrub brush or use in your carpet cleaner for great results.
Related: 10 Unusual Uses for Lemons
#11. Fels Naptha uses for acne – Nothing is more annoying than acne on the face. You can help eliminate acne by washing your face with Fels Naptha. It will dry out the acne and help you get some relief.
#12. Lice prevention – Instead of waiting to get lice, prevent it with Fels Naptha soap. You can wash your hair with it. However, it if gets in your eyes that can be painful. Make sure you proceed with caution.
#13. Get rid of those sticky labels – When you’re washing a cup and there is a sticky residue left behind, you can use Fels Naptha to get it off. Use the Fels Naptha bar and rub it on the sticker, soak in hot water, and repeat. Skip the Goo Be Gone!
#14. Get rid of squeaky sounds – Have a squeaky door or hinge somewhere in your house? This is another one of these great uses for Fels Naptha. Simply rub the bar on the squeaky part and let the Fels Naptha work its magic.
Related: DIY Better Than Windex Glass Cleaner
#15. Clean between grout – Make a Fels Naptha and hot water mixture to scrub the grout in your home. Watch it turn from brown to white quickly.
#16. Mildew in the shower – Nothing is worse than mold and mildew, use your Fels Naptha/hot water spray mixture to deep clean your shower.
#17. Deal with poison ivy – Whether you have poison ivy on your clothes or your skin, you can use Fels Naptha to help get rid of poison ivy for good.
Use Fels Naptha is clean dishes!
#18. Make dish soap – Just like laundry soap, you can use Fels Naptha Soap to make dish soap. 1 part of grated Fels Naptha to 2 parts water warmed on the stove until all combined.
#19. Clean counters – Take a wet sponge and rub a bar of Fels Naptha Soap on it then clean your sinks and counters. I like using it with a magic eraser, I haven't found a stain I can't get out with it!
#20. Remove ink – Use it to remove ink from your skin and many other fabrics including leather. As a mom, this comes in handy with 5 kids!
Related: 13 Items They Made During the Great Depression (But We Pay for Now)
#21. Protect your garden – Dissolve 1 bar grated Fels Naptha in a 5 gallon bucket. Then full the bucket half full of hot water. Now in a cheesecloth, 2 heads of unpeeled garlic, put 2 bunches of chopped scallions, 4 eggs (uncracked) and 1 small can of chili powder. Tie up your cheesecloth with twine.
Tie it up really good and then place the bundle in the bucket and crack the eggs. Fill the bucket up with more hot water and top with the lid. let sit for 1 week then pour it into a sprayer. Spray the area that you want to keep the deer and other animals away from.
You will need to reapply every 2 weeks or after it rains but just a head up, this smells nasty!
#22. Sink cleaner – Using Fels Naptha with a soft cleaning brush will clean up sinks. You can rub a wet par over the are you want to clean then use the brush to scrub it. I have also been told to dissolve some soap into the water and add some lemon essential oil for cleaning as well.
Use Fels Naptha Soap to clean your shoes!
#23. Clean your shoes – Rub a bar over your shoes before washing them to remove stain and odors.
#24. Skip the scented trash bag – Use Fels Naptha to clean your trash can out then place a 1 inch cube at the bottom of the can it will give a scent and repel bugs.
#25. Treat mosquito bites and chigger – These bites itch like crazy! Super easy wash the area with Fels Naptha soap and pat dry, don't rub.
#26. Tanning Hides – Yes it's possible! Use 1 bar per gallon of liquid.
Related: 10 Unusual Uses for Lemons
#27. Clean Outdoor Furniture – Rinse off your outdoor furniture then run a bar of Fels Naptha all over it and then take your soft cleaning brush and scrub that dirt out!
#28. Clean aluminum – If you have aluminum pots and pans this is a great cleaner for them! Use it like dish soap.
#29. Fels Naptha eczema – Many say using Fels Naptha as a bar soap on their eczema and it helps lessen it.
Fels Naptha uses to clean your car
#30. Clean Your Car – The same way Fels Naptha removes stains in your house will remove stains in your car, on the floor, and on the seats.
#31. Ring around the collar – We know by now Fels Naptha is huge on getting stains out but did you know they specialize in getting out the ring around the collar stains?
Related: Homemade Foaming Soap Trick That Saves You Money!
#32. Clean your refrigerator – Kids get into your fridge and spill something? Fels Naptha is great to help you clean it up especially those super sticky stains like jelly that has been hiding in the back on the fridge!
#33. Clean paint brushes – Painting around the house or doing DIY projects? Use Fels Naptha to clean your paint brushes. It will lengthen their life and save you money!
#34. Clean towels – We use towels around the house all the time! To clean up spills and messes, even to remove makeup in a pinch. This can start to really ruin your towels. Use Fels Naptha to clean your towels will get all those tricky stains out.
#35. Wash your hair – This soap is great for getting out all the residue from lots of hair products and help to strip hair color without killing your hair. Use it when needed but not every day, though they did use it more often in the Great Depression.
Keep in mind that some uses for Fels Naptha soap can be a skin irritant, so you don’t want to use it too much! You can dilute it a bit and still get the benefits!
I am a mom to 5 kids, homeschool mom, blogger, social media junkie, Frugalista, Book Worm, and Closet Want-to-be Chef. We are a Roadschool family (homeschooling on the road while traveling fulltime).
I grew up learning ways to save from my mom and grandma. I started my own coupon journey when my first child was born in 2009 and started the blog on 2010 when baby #2 was born to share my tips with everyone who kept asking about how I was getting diapers for $1 a pack!
Click here to learn more about starting a blog.
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Here’s another use for the Naptha soap. It is very good for washing after chigger and tick bites. It relieves the itch and reduces the soreness/swelling of the bits, and helps remove any of the bugs that still might be hanging around. After my recent bout with chiggers and ticks it worked great to help with the healing.
Thank you for these awesome ideas. I have used fels-naptha for many years as a laundry detergent and it does a wonderful job. wouldn’t use anything else. I love having more ways to use this great product. 🙂
My wife says she knew most of these. In San Diego, Fels Naptha has become not available except possibly Wal Mart which we only shop at when there is no other choice.
It is FANTASTIC for poison ivy. I have a severe allergy to poison ivy. I had to be put on prednisone for it. Fels Naptha was the only thing thing got rid of it and gave me some relief.
Thanks for that comment. My fiance was just told at the hospital to get this soap to help with his poison sumac.
Can I use Fels Naptha on a nylon, lycra black top? Concerned it will discolor the black which would be worse than the small stain.
I’m going to be honest and say I don’t know. I did some digging and don’t see a lot of information. I am so sorry! One lady siad she uses it on her sports jerseys that are Nylon based with no problems.
If you use Fells Naptha as a laundry detergent you know it will not harm your Lycra. I do a lot of cycling and wash my bibs and jerseys with Fells. I also wear a lot of Under Armor and Cool Max shirts made of Lycra. They all get washed with Fells and have for years. No problem with Fells Naptha and Lycra.
Any idea how to get rid of the smell from shampooing my carpet with Fels Napha, baking soda and castile. I have a reaction where my head hurts, eyes and throat irritated, and lungs feel bad and nose sorta burning feeling. Went over it twice with water, after it dried sprinkled baking soda all over and run an ozone generator. Still bothering me. Any help appreciated.
Some have added some essential oils when shampooing. We don’t have carpet any more so I don’t have any personal suggestions sadly.
I just heard that this soap can be bad for septic system. Do you have any information or comments about that? I used to make my own laundry detergent with Fels but haven’t for awhile, would like to start again.
Thank you.
We have a septic system and never had an issue. I also use RidX once a month too.
You can substitute yeast packets for ridx. Our plumber gave us this info.
Couple of leaves of cabbage works like rid-x in your septic system.
I was wondering if I could use Fels napha on the aluminum part of a crock pot which would be the heating element? And what would be the best way to do it because the heating element part of the crock pot can’t be soaked in water. Or is there some other way to get it clean? I have saw a few things on Pintrest and I tried putting ammonia in a glass bowl and let it set in crock pot over night with the lid on and it didn’t work for me. Really would like to get the stuff off it where stuff has spilled or burnt on food. Please help me!!!
I honestly don’t know if you can I have only used a wet clothes on mine.
Bar Keepers Friend, read all about it. http://www.BarKeepersFriend.com
Can fels naptha get rid of athlete’s feet from your shower tile and get rid of that yellow and black color from between the tiles
I’m not sure about athletes feet. I want o say yes because it’s soap but I don’t know for sure. I have found for the tile grout if the Fels Naptha doesn’t get it all I will use Oxi Clean and water. I have a container of Oxi Clean and it’s last me a year because Fels Naptha does great on almost everything.
Bórax works great for athletes foot. Look up Earth clinic dot com for other uses.
A salad shooter made quick work of grating a complete bar. Now I have plenty of small pieces to mix with hot water as needed. Caution with small children though. It looks like grated cheese.
Question…. When I was younger my mother would use Fels-naptha for head lice killer..but I forgot how long we had to leave it on before rinsing it off. Any idea?
Hi Danielle, where do ilI get this Fels Naptha soap. Which supermarkets keeps this soap.
Just about all of them have it in the laundry isles.
I buy FelsNaptha from Walmart
I love fels-napha. A family member and I got really bad hives from Gain laundry pods. I washed with fels-naptha and then washed all of the clothes with it. I knew it would work because I used it previously for poison oak. It got rid of the oils from my skin and clothes. The other family member who lived across town went to the hospital and got shots and antibiotics and creams and kept getting reinfected. I had no idea that she had the same reaction as me. We talked on the phone a month later. She was shocked when I mentioned that this soap cured everything in 48 hours. She had wished that she had talked to me about this first. It would have saved her a lot of time and frustration.
I use Fels Napa to clean my makeup brushes. It works so well but is this safe to do?
What amount of felsnaptha do you shred for laundry soap & the amount of borox and ? to add to Fels? Sorry forgot what the 3 item was!
Also what is the amount of Fels and & water to clean grout?
FelsNaptha is great for cleaning makeup brushes !
I’m going to be hiking a long distance and weight limits of my pack are crucial.
Ive been looking for a singular product for shampoo, body and laundry.
Is Felsnaptha safe for regular bathing not just poison ivy and bug bite/repellant prevention?
I am very interested in trying so many of these ideas. I was wondering if you have made a simple reference chart with the proportions used on mixing for the different applications. I would really love a one page reference chart as I make and use these old remedies.
I have some carpet stains from my MIL old dog. I can’t get out so far. I don’t want to use to much soap in the mix because that can collect the dirt all over again.
Thanks for all your helpful tips
I rubbed stains in my bathroom throw rugs with the bar then laundered with a bit of detergent and stains were gone.
Floor carpet I’d (guess) to rub stains and brush them. Someone posted about carpet earlier. But a small amount soap & water is an idea. Maybe worth doing if stains are bad.
Read above about adding a dot of essential oil too.
Margy
Fels Naphtha used to considered the go to remedy for dirty language & back talking! Often the threat of it was enough to cure the problem!