Economical And Non-toxic: Baking Soda
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| Baking Soda image courtesy of Pixabay.com |
Let's review some uses or cleaning hacks for baking soda today. Most folks know that this common item on our pantry shelves can be used for more than just making our cakes taste better. Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) can be used to hack right through cleaning tasks throughout our homes. It doesn't cost very much and provides an environmentally friendly and much less toxic way to keep our homes clean and smelling fresh.
I'm sure that most of you already know the old trick of opening a box of baking soda and placing it in your refrigerator to get rid of unpleasant odors. What else can you use it for?
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| Stainless steel sink image courtesy of pixabay.com |
Stainless steel sinks and appliances are quite popular in kitchens, currently. They do look great! Have you found that they are a little difficult to keep looking nice, though? My stainless sink shows water spots and they drive me crazy! I try to wipe water out after each use but my husband isn't so good about it. We have to be careful with cleaning stainless steel, abrasive products can cause scratches and a residue that will actually rust in time. Enter our friend, baking soda! I clean my sink with good old sodium bicarbonate. I just sprinkle a little in the sink, take a damp sponge and clean like I would with an abrasive product. Rinse it and it shines like new!
When it is time to bring out the pretty silver for a family dinner, I don't use those awful smelling silver cleaners. Nope, I use my baking soda to do the job. I don't have to worry about making sure about getting those toxic particles off of each piece and they look so clean and shiny. Just make a paste with baking soda and a little water and your silver will shine!
For my combs and brushes that accumulate oil over a span of time, I place some warm water in my bathroom sink; add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and let the comb and brush soak for a while. I rinse them off, dry them and they are ready to use.
Cleaning the microwave is now a cinch! I just dampen a sponge, sprinkle some baking soda on top and wipe the microwave down. Rinse with a clean sponge and I'm done.
Don't you hate to clean your oven? The products for this purpose smell so bad and can't be good to breathe in. My oven is actually a self-cleaner but the energy used to heat it up to the temperature it takes to literally burn off the soil is not good in my opinion. I sprinkle baking soda on the bottom of my oven and then spray it with water to dampen it. I let it sit overnight and then wipe it clean the next morning. I haven't wasted energy or created toxic fumes in my home and my oven looks awesome!
There are so many ways to use baking soda in our homes to cut grease, deodorize and clean. I've only mentioned my most favorites here today. What about you? Do you use baking soda for more than baking? What is your favorite baking soda hack?
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Excellent suggestions, Beverly. I've used baking soda for years for many cleaning chores. So prefer it to cleaning products with chemicals. And, it's inexpensive. I keep several boxes in my pantry for cleaning. Between baking soda and vinegar, one can clean just about anything safely. :)
ReplyDeleteI use baking soda often to clean, but have never even thought to clean my oven with it. I have a double over, one is self cleaning, but the other is not. Now I know exactly what I will do to clean that lower over! Thank you for this awesome tips for cleaning with baking soda.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of trying your baking soda cleaning method on my oven, too. My sink could use a good cleaning as well. Not only does the baking soda shine it up, the drain smells better when all is said and done. Thanks for the cleaning tips, Bev!
ReplyDeleteWe also use it for a lot of cleaning. All great tips for using something so simple. One other thing I use it for is to unclog a drain. I use 1/2 cup and then pour in some white vinegar stuff a cloth in it and let set for about 15 minutes, then flush with a pan of boiling water. Thanks Bev for the great tips.
ReplyDeleteI use baking soda in my fridge, but didn't know about these other hacks. Very interesting and useful article. I especially want to try cleaning my oven with baking soda. Thanks for moving me beyond the basics.
ReplyDeleteWhat a a great bunch of handy hints! I had read some of this before, but forgotten most of it. This is just the reminder I needed. I really like the oven cleaning idea. I may try it on the sweet potato burnt drippings in my over. I hate those toxic oven cleaners.
ReplyDeleteI love Baking Soda too. Harsh chemicals are not in my kitchen at all. I much prefer using all the ideas Bev has so nicely laid out for us. Thank you Bev for wonderful ways to keep everything nice a shiny.
ReplyDeleteWow, to clean silver?? I'm going to have to try this, I've never heard of this tip - I may have to give this a go tomorrow, am curious - great hacks here
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, I too use baking soda for cleaning my kitchen sink and oven. I sprinkle it on my carpets before vacuuming them to get rid of odors from carpet.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I've find out that baking soda in combination with super glue can be used to fix things. When we mix the two, they form a solid adhesive which can be shaped as per our needs.
That an amazing tricks. Thank you very much for the great article. Will try this for sure
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