5 DIY Baking Soda Solutions to Keep Your House Clean

5 DIY Baking Soda Solutions to Keep Your House Clean

If you're looking for more cost-effective, efficient ways to keep your house tidy and neat, baking soda is one ingredient you need to have on hand! It's good for a lot more than just freshening up your fridge, and it's high time it started getting used to the fullest of its potential. Keep your house smelling fresh and bright with some of these neat baking soda solutions!

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Baking Soda + Water = All-Purpose Surface Cleaning You can create a number of excellent cleaning solutions with just baking soda and water. For most stains on floors or counter surfaces (and even stainless steel sinks), all you need to do is sprinkle down a bit of baking soda, and wipe it down with a warm, damp cloth or sponge for a good, shiny clean. If the stain is quite bad bad, make a paste out of the baking soda instead, using just a few drops of water and scrub it off with a damp cloth. (Adding a touch of vinegar or lemon juice doesn't hurt either!)

Burned-on, stuck-on messes To remove the icky, burned on stains from pans, baking sheets, stove tops, and ovens, wet the area with a bit of water, top it with baking soda and salt (about 1/3rd cup of salt to every 1 cup of baking soda), spritz it with more water and let it sit overnight. The next day, just wipe it away with a warm, damp cloth! (Alternatively, a paste made from baking soda, salt, and a few drops of water can be effective at removing those stains too -- it just might take a bit more elbow grease on your end).

Removing stains from wood (and particularly wood cutting boards) For stained wood, it's time to break out the baking soda, lemon, and salt. First, sprinkle the wood surface with a bit of salt. Cut a lemon in half, squeeze just a few droplets of the lemon out onto the salt, and then use the flat side of the cut lemon to scrub the stained areas. Sprinkle baking soda over these lemony areas, then rub the wood in small circles with a dishtowel for a few minutes. Rinse the lemon juice off in warm water for about 1 minute, pat it down, and let it air dry. You should have a much cleaner wood surface afterward!

Super-effective Laundry Detergent Adding baking soda to your laundry routine can help you get great results with every load, particularly if you have hard water in your area. Just 1/2 cup of baking soda added to your regular amount of liquid laundry soap can make your clothes softer and cleaner. In fact, you may even be able to use less than the usual amount of laundry detergent with each load using this trick!

Odor Elimination You probably already know that a box of baking soda in the fridge (or cupboard, or freezer) helps eliminate unwanted odors, but that same property can be applied to lots of other not-so-sweet smelling things around the house too! A bit of baking soda sprinkled into the bottom of your kitchen trash can, cat litter box, carpet, running shoes, et cetera can go a long way in getting out unwanted scents. For your fabrics, just vacuum out the baking soda after 15-20 minutes.

Photo by The Glossier