The Many Uses Of Baking Soda: Kitchens, Bathrooms, Even Hygiene!

by Texas Homesteader ~

Baking soda is great for cleaning, reducing odors & it’s a mild abrasive as well. But there are even some cosmetic uses too!

Here are some of my favorite ways to use baking soda.

I have a pretty extensive list at the bottom of this post listing my favorite cleaning posts. I encourage you to check it out, y’all, or click the button below for ALL our cleaning posts:

You’ll find the various easy ways I’m able to keep things here at our Homestead tidy.

Using Baking Soda As A Cleaner

But what about baking soda? Almost everyone has baking soda in their kitchen for use with cooking. And most people also know it’s very helpful with deodorizing too.

But baking soda is used pretty heavily at our Homestead for many other uses.

Scrubbing burnt-on food,

Cleaning kitchen sink,

Scrubbing bathroom shower, sink & toilet,

Brushing teeth,

Exfoliating Skin,

Washing hair,

Cleaning the dog!

By using this one product for so many uses I’m able to clean my teeth or my coffee mug with the very same product I use to bake bread or scrub the toilets.

CRAZY, right??!

Baking Soda Scrubbing Powder In The Kitchen

The kitchen is where my baking soda really shines, y’all!

Other than the obvious use of baking, I use baking soda in other important ways in the kitchen.

Its powerful scrubbing action simplifies my cleaning tasks with pure, non-toxic ease.

Cleaning Coffee Stains With Baking Soda

Sometimes I need to scrub out the coffee stains in my coffee mug. It’s an easy fix.

I have a small shaker of baking soda that I keep in the drawer next to my sink.

When coffee stains begin to form I simply wet the mug, sprinkle a little baking soda on my sponge and in a snap my coffee mug is sparkling white again.

Clean mug – no chemicals. Magic!

Scrubbing Pots & Pans With Baking Soda

I also use baking soda for cleaning various kitchen surfaces. It’s a mild abrasive so if you’re scrubbing burnt-on food from your favorite pan, baking soda is a cheap & non-toxic way to get a little more elbow grease in!

Just wet the pan and sprinkle some baking soda on a dish scrubbie and usually that burnt-on mess is gone pretty quickly.

I’m even able to grow my own Luffa Dish Scrubber so you don’t get any more non-toxic than that, y’all!

Natural Cleaning in the Bathroom

And baking soda is not just for the kitchen, I use it for cleaning other rooms in our home as well.

It’s so helpful for cleaning bathroom surfaces so I have another shaker bottle that I store in the bathroom for just this purpose.

When cleaning my shower doors I use a vinegar spray first to loosen up any soap scum.

After the vinegar spray has been left on the doors for about 30 minutes I sprinkle a little baking soda on my cleaning sponge and respray the bathroom doors with vinegar, using my sponge to scrub the soap scum away.

Then after a quick rinse – sparkling shower doors, very little effort…

I really like shortcuts with very little effort when it comes to cleaning, how about you?

I also use it in our claw foot tub in the same way. It’s really good at scouring away soap scum and leaving surfaces clean.

With a quick scrub & rinse the tub is sparkling white.

Of course that same scrubability (is that even a word??) comes in handy when cleaning the toilet too.

I sprinkle some baking soda into the bowl and use my toilet brush to clean the toilet bowl to a sparkling shine.

Why would I buy a specialty product to do what baking soda does for less money & less waste?

Baking Soda To Clean Teeth?

But what about other cleaning uses?

Well I’ve already mentioned that I drink coffee. LOTS of coffee. My dentist has told me it’s perfectly safe to use baking soda to help clean coffee stains from my teeth provided I do so very gently and not too often.

CAREFUL – baking soda can be abrasive!!

I think one day I may experiment with various ways to flavor the baking soda with essential oils or dried mint. Has anyone done this who can offer any advice?

Exfoliate Skin Or Wash Hair

I have yet another shaker bottle of baking soda in the shower. Occasionally during my shower I sprinkle a little on my wet hands and use it to exfoliate my skin.

Again – very gently or it’s much too abrasive to your skin! You don’t want to apply any pressure while exfoliating, just a gentle glide across your skin will do the trick.

I’ve also used a baking soda / water mixture to wash my hair when we ran out of Soapberry Shampoo. It worked great and after rinsing it out my hair came out clean as a whistle.

But I don’t use baking soda exclusively for shampoo as I’m worried it might be a bit too drying – can anyone weigh in here?

Homemade Dog Shampoo Using Baking Soda

I make a Gentle Dog Shampoo for our mini-Schnauzer Bailey. There are two homemade versions I make. And baking soda is an important ingredient.

Of course it makes sense though – baking soda is a deodorizer. Don’t you just love when you can whip up these products yourself instead of buying chemical-laden products? Me too!

Natural Non-Toxic Multi-Purpose Cleaner

So how’s that for a multipurpose no-toxic cleaner? All that cleaning in one very inexpensive box. Now that’s the kind of economy that really speaks to me!

And the box that baking soda’s sold in is compostable as well. So since I’m using repurposed shaker bottles there’s not anything going to the landfill for all these products in one, small, inexpensive box.

~TxH~

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28 thoughts on “The Many Uses Of Baking Soda: Kitchens, Bathrooms, Even Hygiene!”

Terri Presser at

I really need to get motivated and use baking soda for cleaning instead of the other harsh chemical cleans I mostly use. Thank you for sharing these great ideas with us at Good Morning Mondays. Now I just need to find where I fan get baking soda in a bigger bag. Blessings

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  Terri, I know here you can order it online from Amazon –> http://amzn.to/1yMS2yR . Sometimes you can find larger bags in the store as well but out here in the country shopping is so much more limited I haven’t been able to find baking soda at the local stores in large enough bags to suit me. ~~
  
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Margy at

My husband begs for the used up baking soda “freshener” I take out of the fridge to clean our batteries from the solar power system. That way we get double duty out of each box. – Margy

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Christy at

Thanks for such an informative post! I love baking soda for so many things, but now I have a few more to try! Love the baking soda shaker idea! Thanks for sharing at Idea Box link party – Cheers, Christy

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Jessie at

I love to use baking soda in my shower and on the tough dishes as well. I also use it to kill outdoor weeds. I never thought of keeping it handy in a shaker bottle! Thank you ma’am for that brilliant idea. 🙂

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JES at

Still drooling over your tub… But YES, we love baking soda in these parts too! Great idea on the coffee stains in the mugs as I haven’t tried that one yet. Perhaps it will work on the tea stains in my tea pot too? Thank you for sharing these great tips on the Art of Home-Making Mondays!

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  Thanks, I absolutely love that tub JES. It took 4 grown men (grunting & straining at that) to move that heavy beast into the house when we built it. It’s one of the old, heavy, well-made ones!
  
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Helene at

I love the idea of using more baking soda on the shower door! It’s a mess and the spray stuff gives me a headache!

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  I hate commercial cleaners too Helene – I haven’t bought a commercial cleaner (except Dawn dish-washing soap & occasionally dishwasher tabs) for about 8 years now. I hate the chemically smell too. ~~
  
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Betsy @ BPhotoArt at

I’ve replaced most household cleaners with baking soda and vinegar… it is so nice not to be overwhelmed by chemical fumes when cleaning 🙂 (Thanks for sharing at Happiness is Homemade, we’d love to have you next week too 🙂 )

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Matt at

I’ve been using baking soda for my hair for months and will never go back to shampoo. I switched in mid-winter, and the winter itching that normally drives me nuts went away. The greasiness is also gone. I can go for 2 days without washing my hair and it doesn’t get oily and smelly like it would with shampoo. I keep my hair short and tight, so I don’t bother with the acv conditioner. My daughter uses it, though, and she won’t go back to shampoo and conditioner. She has Locks of Love-length hair.

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Gentle Joy at

Baking soda IS so good for so many things!! For brushing my teeth, I often put peroxide on my toothbrush and then sprinkle some baking soda…..or I have put a drop of peppermint oil on the toothbrush, then sprinkled w/ baking soda……I have also made homemade toothpaste….. all are much better than commercial ones. I have used baking soda as a “fire extinguisher”……. had a little fire start in the oven and tossed baking soda in there and it put it out right away……. many many uses for baking soda. 🙂

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  Thanks for the hints, I sure would like to be able to provide something a little gentler for our dental hygiene. You’re right, that lowly, cheap box of baking soda is good for so many things!
  
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Crystelle at

Good ol’ baking soda to the rescue… I remember using it once when we ran out of toothpaste…… Pinning!! Happy Easter to you and yours…. 🙂
“hugs” Crystelle

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Amy @ Life to the Full at

Baking soda cleans up coffee stains, too?! That stuff is amazing. Thanks for the tips!

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Dena Norton at

Baking soda for coffee stains – who knew?! I need all the help I can get there….plenty of forgotten, partially drunk mugs laying around at our coffee-loving house! Thanks for the idea. 🙂

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Barbara Mc at

I’m a baking soda believer too. I did try one of the diy toothpaste recipes – coconut oil and baking soda. It tasted awful so I added peppermint essential oil. It still tasted horrible. I have to confess I didn’t make but one batch. If you find a better tasting solution, please post it!

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  I’ll be working on different methods of using baking soda for toothpaste Barbara. I’ve heard that using baking soda only for toothpaste is somewhat of a challenge but even if I don’t go 100% baking soda I’ll still be significantly reducing my commercial toothpaste if I’m only using a very thin film of it and topping it with baking soda. Baby steps! ~~
  
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thehungryegghead at

I have been using baking soda to wash my hair for over a year now. I mix 1 teaspoon baking soda with 1 tablespoon water and that amount is perfect for my hair. My hair is on the oiler side and halfway down my waist. I don’t need the vinegar rinse either.

When I first started the baking soda treatment it took about a week for my hair to get used to it. Now it works better for me than regular shampoo.

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  Good to know – I’m anxious to give it a try for a longer term. Thanks so much for weighing in! ~TxH~
  
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Karen at

Yet another helpful post. I’m going to search my pantry for empty shaker containers and follow your suggestions for cleaning with baking soda. I recently came up with a solution for dealing with the awkward boxes baking soda comes in… I ran out of baking powder and didn’t want to throw out the container it came in so I filled it with baking soda and now I have the convenience of the edge to level my measuring spoons on. Works like a charm. (Just make sure you clearly label the repurposed can.) 🙂

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  That’s a great idea Karen. I’m using a super-sized spice shaker jar with a double lid, one side with holes for shaking and the other side with both a straight and a rounded edge for a measuring spoon. But it sometimes becomes a challenge to get all the way to the bottom of the shaker jar when it starts getting empty. ~TxH~
  
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victoria witte at

Golly, I hope you don’t order your baking soda from Amazon. I went to your link and was amazed at the price! $25.99 plus $9.74 for a 5 pound bag?! I get that size at Walmart for about $5.00. Big difference.

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  Really Victoria? I’m going to have to check that out! (swoosh!) ~TxH~
  
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Kathleen Hall at

I use the no shampoo method for washing my hair. My hair is mid-length, so I use 1 1/2 tsp in 4 oz of water to wash my hair. I follow that with an apple cider vinegar rinse, 1 tbsp in 8 oz of water. I do not use the entire bottle each time, maybe 2-3 oz. I then rinse well. It does not seem to dry my hair out. My daughter and daughter-in-law have been using this method for much longer than I have. I use plastic squeeze bottles in the shower as dispensers.

I use baking soda to make homemade deodorant. The recipe I use is 1/3 cup virgin coconut oil, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot powder. You can add essential oils to scent it, but I like the mild coconut scent. It is not an antiperspirant, but I like the way it works. I live in Texas also so it does help even in our brutal summers. I smell sweaty after working in the yard in the heat, but I did with commercial products also.

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  That’s good to know Kathleen, thanks for sharing. I’d love to use baking soda & acv to keep my hair clean, I hate buying the commercial stuff when a more natural (and so much less expensive) option is so easily available. ~TxH~
  
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Judith @WholeHeartedHome at

I love it!! I do use baking soda for some things but thanks so much for the motivation for using it for more!! I love your blog and the cows and country look of the header.

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1. Texas Homesteader Post author at
  
  Thanks for your sweet comment Judith. I use baking soda so much for so many things – I used to buy into the mindset that you needed a specialty product to clean. Now vinegar, baking soda, and good ole soap & water comprise my cleaning arsenal. Thank you for your compliment on our header, it’s funny that when walking to the barn that day I loved the stillness of the pond & just snapped that shot with my phone, but it’s one of my favorite pictures as well. 🙂 ~TxH~
  
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