You don’t need to fill a whole closet with different cleaners for every area of your house.
In fact, you only need a handful of cleaners to keep the germs and dirt in your home at bay, and one of those should absolutely be baking soda.
It is essential for your favorite chocolate chip cookies, but baking soda can also be used to clean and freshen up countless areas in your house.
It is truly a magical little cleaner that’s both gentle, yet has an extremely effective scrubbing power. Get rid of those chemical cleaners and start cleaning with baking soda.
One benefit of cleaning with baking soda is its alkali property which neutralizes acids in odors allowing it to remove strong, unwanted smells. It really is a toxic-free cleaning powerhouse!
Baking soda is cheap, safe, and effective when it comes to cleaning your home. So let’s avoid the harmful chemicals found in many commercial cleaning products and get started with a non-toxic cleaning routine today.
Clean Your Entire House with Baking Soda
1. Clean the Oven
You can clean the oven without harsh chemicals, in a mild and fume-free way, using only baking soda and vinegar.
It takes a little more elbow grease than when using commercial cleaners, but this non-toxic method works great when you want to clean your oven without chemicals.
2. Clean the Stovetop
It’s not only the oven you can clean using baking soda; you can also use it to clean your stovetop.
Just pour some baking soda directly on the grime, scrub softly and wipe clean with a wet cloth. You’ll be amazed at how easily the grime comes off.
3. Speed Up the Dish Process
Cleaning the dishes after a big meal can be a pain sometimes. Add just a few teaspoons of baking soda to your water-filled sink when you soak the dishes and the tough stuck on foods will be easier to scrape off.
4. Clean the Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink
Use a bit of baking soda and vinegar-soaked paper towels for a sparkling, fresher-smelling kitchen sink. Wet the sink, sprinkle baking soda over the surface and scrub, then rinse.
Finish by lining the sink with vinegar-soaked paper towels and leave for 20 minutes.
5. Remove Odor From the Fridge
The smells in your fridge are made up of food particles that float around and eventually settle into your other meals and leave your fridge smelling.
But storing a small glass jar of baking soda in your refrigerator can help you get rid of that awful odor so those smelly particles don’t linger or change the taste of neighboring foods.
6. Get Rid of the Smell From the Trash Can
The kitchen trash can doesn’t really give off a scent of fresh flowers. Sprinkle a small amount of baking soda in the trash bin once a week.
Your trash can won’t exactly smell like a meadow, but it will at least keep the unwanted smells at bay.
If you don’t want to go through the trouble of having to clean your trash, you can get a trash can with an odor control system.
7. Air Freshener Spray
Baking soda is an ideal ingredient for healthy, eco-friendly and budget-friendly air fresheners.
Just add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a small bowl and mix with a few drops of your favorite essential oil (optional).
Pour the baking soda mixture into an empty spray bottle, fill the bottle with water and shake.
This air freshener takes about 30 seconds to whip up, and you can spray it wherever you need it!
8. Remove shoe odors
No one wants (or should have!) to feel embarrassed over something so easily fixed as smelly shoes.
Freshen up a pair of sneakers by spraying your air freshener spray into the shoe (and your gym bag while you’re at it!) or simply just sprinkling a bit of baking soda into the soles.
Natural shoe deodorizer bags are also a great solution for eliminating the smell from your shoes and soles.
9. Freshen the Closet
Does your coat closet reek? Maybe you wore a coat on a rainy day and didn’t allow it to dry thoroughly before hanging it back in the closet. Or maybe your husband wore a pair of sneakers.
Place a small glass jar of baking soda in your coat closet to keep the musty smell at bay (especially in moist temperatures).
10. Brighten The Laundry Colors
It’s no secret that most clothes start to look washed-out and dull after a few washes.
Adding 1/2 cup baking soda to your regular amount of liquid laundry detergent will naturally boost your colored clothing and make your whites whiter.
11. Clean Your Hair Brush
Our hair brushes and combs can get really nasty after a while. Make sure that yours is fresh and clean by soaking it in a cup of water mixed with 1 tablespoon of baking soda.
12. Remove Coffee/Tea Stains
If you drink a lot of coffee or tea, your favorite coffee or tea mug probably have some ugly brown rings in it, even after washing them. Try cleaning with baking soda – it works!
You can clean those stains out by placing a teaspoon of baking soda and a cup of water in the cup. Wipe it around with a sponge and it will be clean!
13. Carpet Stain Remover
Baking soda is an inexpensive solution as a carpet cleaner that is completely safe for your entire family and the environment.
Mix 1 cup of baking soda with 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of white vinegar. Mix together into a paste and apply to the stain.
Let dry and then vacuum the carpet clean.
14. Soap Scum Remover
Soap scum buildup can be a source of frustration and is very difficult to remove when you green clean your bathroom.
Sprinkle a large amount of baking soda on a wet cloth or sponge and scrub. The soap scum should wipe away easily.
15. Grout Cleaner
You can sweep and mop your bathroom floors on a daily basis, but you’re still going to get grout and dirt on them.
Mix together 3 cups water, ½ cup baking soda, 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, 1/4 cup white vinegar in a spray bottle.
Spray floor, let sit for a few minutes and scrub.
If you can’t get rid of the grout no matter how hard you scrub, you may need to invest in one of these power scrub brushes that are specifically for cleaning grout.
These brushes attach to the end of your power drill. Imagine the cleaning strength.
16. Litter-Box Deodorizer
If you’re a cat owner you know how stinky litter boxes can get. Turns out the odor-fighting power of baking soda can help you out here too.
Mix in a bit of baking soda to your kitties litter box to naturally deodorize the space.
If your litter box really is a smelly story, you could always get one of these self cleaning kitty litter boxes that removes odors without any work from you.
17. Clean the Dog
It’s not just the kittie lovers who can benefit from using baking soda to get rid of that odor that you’ve grown too familiar with.
Sprinkle a bit of baking soda on your dog’s fur and massage it in with one of these slicker brushes.
They work great and you will be surprised at how fresh your dog smells and how good his coat looks.
18. Clean Kids Toys
Stuffed toys and animals usually bring a smile to your little ones face. But they also gather a lot of dust and bacteria that can cause health problems, especially for those that may bite on them or rub the toys against their face while playing.
You can naturally fight the effects of your little one’s grubby hands by wiping stuffed toys with a sponge dipped in a baking soda and water solution.
This odorless white powder that is baking soda does so much more than just leaven your cookies. It is truly a magical little non-toxic cleaner that can be used to clean, well, almost anything in your home. From your kid’s favorite toy to the smelly litter box and almost any stubborn stain!
Get started cleaning with baking soda and save several hundreds of dollars a year on chemical laden cleaning supplies.
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