Image: Flickr,solylunaf

Possibly the most potent items in the natural, organic home for cleaning are baking soda and vinegar.  We all know, of course, that mixing the two creates spectacular volcanoes at the grade school science fair.  The reason for this reaction is the same reason both substances are such great cleansers.

For today, we're going to focus on baking soda.  I've used baking soda for years as a simple, easy, and cost-effective way to clean many things.  In fact, most of us have had at least one box of baking soda in our refrigerator or down in the smell-prone areas of our basement or garage.

What makes baking soda effective is that it's alkaline, but only mildly so.  If you'll remember from high school, the alkaline-acid level of things is measured by pH.  A level of 7 is neutral while anything greater than that is alkaline and anything less is acidic.

Baking soda has an alkaline level of around 8-8.3 pH, so it's only slightly so on the scale of things.  This is why you can handle it with your bare hands and not likely have a reaction.  Other great aspects of baking soda are:

• It's non-toxic – even if you eat a whole box of it, you're only going to get a stomach ache and possibly a little stopped up.

• It's got more uses than you can shake a stick at.

• It's cheap and easy to find and there's no such thing as “unnatural” baking soda unless it has additives like perfumes or detergents, so buying pure baking soda is hard to mess up.

Most baking soda is made from soda ash (aka sodium carbonate) by dissolving the ash in a carbon dioxide-rich liquid, with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) being the result.  Baking soda is used in cooking, cleaning, as a medicine, and more.  We're going to focus on its cleaning uses here.

As an odor-eater, baking soda has few competitors for its voracity, longevity, and usefulness.  Because it works in a totally benign way (sucking up the odor, rather than covering or masking it), it's all-natural, safe, and requires no input from the user nor a power outlet to plug into.  Plus, once it's done doing its job sucking up odors, it can still be used for cleaning and scrubbing.

To use baking soda in the refrigerator, put some in a shallow bowl in a heap or just open a small box of it and put it in the back of the 'fridge.  In the garbage can, just sprinkle it in the bottom of the garbage pail (or bag, if you use them) and that's it.  It's safe for the landfill, so no special precautions need to be made.

To clean kitchen surfaces like counter tops, stove tops, etc. just dampen a cloth and sprinkle soda on the cloth or dampen the surface to be cleaned and sprinkle soda directly on it.  Then wipe until clean.  It works marvelously well in this way.  It's safe on stone, linoleum, wood, laminate, and pretty much all surfaces.

For burned-on food deposits on pots and skillets, sprinkle baking soda onto the mess, then fill it with water and let it soak overnight or all day.  It will scrub clean easily after that.

These are just ways to use baking soda in the kitchen—and just a few ideas at that.  Baking soda can literally be used all over the house for thousands of applications.  It can be used in the bathroom, the laundry, the garage, on carpets, and more.  It's truly the most versatile of the cleaning aids you can use as an organic solution for cleaning in your home.

How do you use baking soda?  Got recipes or ideas?  Share them in the comments!

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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