Watch: 5 surprising uses for laundry detergent

We all use laundry detergent in some form or another and we know how good it is at getting our clothes clean. But we also wanted to see whether there was any truth to some of the claims online and on social media around alternate uses that promise to save time and money.

Laundry detergent tips and hacks include anything from mopping floors to cleaning upholstery, as well as getting it to work on carpets and surfaces. Watch our video above to see our tests in action, and keep reading to find out which of these worked and which ones were nonsense. On the whole, our results showed these hacks to be a mixed bag with varying different levels of success.

A word of warning first, though – make sure your detergent isn't going to be harmful to anything you're cleaning, especially if it's not being used for its original purpose.

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1. Mopping floors

If you've run out of your usual floor-cleaning product, some users on social media suggest using liquid laundry detergent as a substitute.

In our tests we found that mixing a teaspoon of laundry detergent with a couple of litres of hot water created a good amount of suds that cleaned upminor dirt and food spillages quite well. So it can be worth it as a temporary substitute, but you're not likely to want to stop buying specialised products because of this trick.

However, it wasn't without its downsides and it's certainly no cheaper than buying a bottle of dedicated floor cleaner. Plus if you've got fancy tiles or flooring, you run the risk of the chemicals in the detergent causing damage.

No chemicals are needed to clean your floors if you use a steam cleaner. Find out which are the best steam cleaners we've tested

2. Cleaning upholstery

If there's one of these hacks that we would consider a hidden gem for laundry detergent usage, this would be it – we were very impressed by using detergent to clean sofas. But again you have to be careful that it doesn't react badly with the material, and it's vital to take care not to oversoak your settee.

You only need half a teaspoon of detergent with a litre or two of warm water and a soft sponge to apply it. It should help to get rid of marks, freshen up your upholstery and leave a fresh smell with no trace of any sticky residue.

It can even be more cost effective and eco-friendly than using a branded fabric refresher.

Find out the best stain removers for clothes and fabrics in our tests to help you to remove tough food and drink stains

3. Cleaning carpets

While mopping floors with laundry detergent worked to an extent, we didn’t have much luck cleaning carpets with it.

Any advice online that suggests adding laundry detergent to your carpet cleaner machine is best ignored, as it creates too many suds and it can even damage your appliance.

Carpet shampoo is much more effective at lifting these kinds of stains, so our advice instead would be to use a dedicated product along with one of our recommended best carpet cleaners.

See which carpet stain removers are helpful to have on hand for banishing tricky stains and marks

4. Cleaning surfaces

This is unfortunately another big no-no. We found laundry detergent highly unsuitable and it won't be up to scratch for getting your kitchen or bathroom spotless.

In our tests, we mixed water and a little laundry detergent in a spray bottle. While it had a fair level of success against visible food spills, toothpaste and soap scum, a lack of disinfectant in most laundry detergents will mean they fail to do the most important task of killing germs.

A dedicated product should be your first point of call instead, but even if you don’t have a specific surface cleaner to hand, then washing-up liquid is a far better option than laundry detergent.

Take a look at our laundry detergent reviews to compare all of the washing powders, laundry liquids, capsules and pods we've tested

5. Removing stains

You could argue it's the least surprising result of the lot, but laundry detergent applied prior to washing is an excellent way to rid your clothing of stubborn stains without having to invest in a dedicated stain remover.

Simply apply neat and leave it to work for at least 10 minutes before placing your clothing in the washing machine. We found it was hugely effective on both stubborn red wine and coffee stains.

Provided your fabric is machine washable, this will most likely work a treat.