Baking Soda is a famous product used the world over for all kinds of purposes including putting out fires, in cooking, for medical remedies, personal and for a cleaning agent. Most modern housewives like Moi use it in cleaning and cooking. It has a few aliases including bicarbonate soda, sodium bicarb, bicarb soda. In Australia and NZ it is often just referred to as bicarb.
I keep three boxes of baking soda in my house. One in the laundry, one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen! Yeah! I’m a bit obsessed with my bicarb and personally, I don’t like to mix those uses up.
Baking Soda in the bathroom
I keep the one in my bathroom for my teeth. Mix a little bicarb with lemon or lime and brush your teeth with it once a week. This paste makes a cheap and very effective teeth-whitening solution!
Baking Soda in the laundry
The second box is in the laundry. I’ll throw baking soda in with my laundry from time to time to get rid of dirt on really soiled clothes. I also use vinegar for a similar purpose so be sure to check out my cheat sheet on Ways to Use Vinegar too.
Baking Soda in the kitchen
Finally I keep a box of Baking Soda in the kitchen. I use it for cleaning and other purposes, which you will see from my extensive list below.
Baking Soda has had a history too! This little white powder started it’s life in Ancient Egypt as a natural deposit called Natron. Back then it was used as a soap and as a cleaner. The stuff went commercial in 1791 when a French chemist called Nicolas Leblanc reinvented the product and called it Soda Ash. Finally, in 1846 two New York bakers, John Dwight and Austin Church went industrial with this powerful powder and set up a big factory to bring Baking Soda to the world.
Again. Where would be without these wonderful entrepreneurs?
So whether you’ve been bitten by a bug and need relief for that, or your baby has nappy rash, you’ll find some fabulous tips here. Keep a laminated version of this list in the laundry, bathroom or kitchen for quick reference or access it on your phone when you need quick tips.
This money-saving list will help you to brush your pet, tenderise meat, save money on baby products and brighten up the colors in your clothes!
The white powder, that is Baking Soda, is truly amazing. As for the price? Best $2 you can spend this year!
100 clean and clever uses for baking soda
Add baking soda to
- Add directly for relief on a bug bite
- Add to a bath for nappy rash
- Add to a pet brush
- Add to a stew to tenderise meat
- Add to bath water to soften skin
- Add to laundry to brighten colours
- Add to laundry white loads
- Add to shampoo for a cleaner wash
- Add to shoes and socks to stop fungus
- Add to a bath for a child with chicken pox
- Add to a bath for a child with measles
- Add to water in a vase
- Add with water to a bee sting.
- Apply with water to cradle cap
- Add to cordial and make Gatorade
Clean with baking soda
- Clean a coffee pot
- Clean a lunchbox
- Clean a canvas mark using a toothbrush
- Clean a mirror
- Clean a thermos
- Clean a vinyl floor
- Clean ashtrays
- Clean baby bottles
- Clean garage floors
- Clean out a teapot and porcelain
- Clean pet cages
- Clean shower curtains
- Clean silver
- Clean smelly food containers
- Clean stainless steel
- Clean Tupperware
- Clean walls
- Clean your fridge
- Clean your oven
Combine baking soda with
- Combine with cinnamon for deodorant
- Combine with corn flour for baking powder
- Combine with vinegar and pour down drains
- Combine with water and corn flour to make clay
Other uses for baking soda
- Deodorize garbage bins
- Dissolves rust on a battery
- Drink with water for heartburn
- Dust over soft toys to freshen
- Fix a urinary tract infection
- Flush it down a toilet to clean
- Freshen veggies
- Fridge and freezer deodorizer
- Get your sink to sparkle
Baking soda is helpful!
- Help a jellyfish sting
- Help an ulcer
- Help cure acne
- Help dry skin
- Help grimy hands
- Help reduce a rash
- Help with skin irritations
- Help with sunburn
Keep baking soda handy
- Keep a cup in a clothes cupboard
- Keep in the shed in case of fire
- Keep near the oven for small oven fires
Make stuff with baking soda
- Make air freshener
- Make beans digestible. Soak with water.
- Make marble floors shine
- Make omelettes fluffy
Here are some other misc uses
- Polish for chrome
- Polish steel
- Put in kitty litter to absorb the smell
- Reduce dust in a doghouse
- Refresh a kitchen sponge
- Repel ants
- Repel rain off a windscreen
- Rub on before dicing onions
- Run through a coffee machine with water to clean
- Run through your dishwasher cycle
- Take camping as an all round product
- Take the acid out of sauce
- Throw on a fire to put it out
- Wash fruit to freshen it up
- Whiten teeth
Remove stains and smells with baking soda
- Remove greasy stains
- Remove heavy taste from wild game
- Remove milk smell from baby clothes
- Remove plastic stuck to a toaster
- Remove stains from hands
Soak items in baking soda & get sprinkling!
- Soak a comb in water and baking soda
- Soak a hairbrush
- Soak a smelly fish before cooking
- Soak false teeth in baking soda and water
- Soak in a pot overnight to clean.
- Soak nappies
- Sprinkle around to repel bugs
- Sprinkle in an ashtray
- Sprinkle on carpets to clean
Use it for everything!
- Use as a general cleaner
- Use as a general spot cleaner
- Use as surface cleaner
- Use in a vaporiser to clear a stuffy nose
- Use it like you would Jiff
- Use straight as emergency deodorant
- Use to scrub a pot
- Use with rock salt to clean the BBQ
- Use with water as glass cleaner