House Cleaning Tips Using Baking Soda

Introduction

Baking soda may appear to be humble. However, it’s one of the few household items that is used everywhere from cooking to cleaning and making school project volcanoes. If your cleaning needs are more rigorous, you can search for “cleaning services near me” and hire professionals to do the work for you. For now, let’s check out house cleaning tips using baking soda.   

Tips & Tricks

1. Bathroom drains – Bathroom drains can get dirty pretty easily. From human skin, sweat, and soap scum to hard water scales and more. They can become full of bacteria and fungi and get stinky pretty easily. However, you can’t use all kinds of harsh chemicals to clean the drain either. They can be very abrasive and corrosive. That’s where baking soda comes to the rescue. 

Once a week, use baking soda to clean everything from the tub and sink to the shower drains. Run hot water through the drain before using baking soda. Next, pour in half a cup of baking soda and let it sit there for around 15 minutes. Proceed to rinse it with hot water to wash away the remaining debris along with the musty smell.

2. Scrub the shower – Your shower can also be kept clean and fresh with baking soda. Sprinkle a small amount of baking soda along with a few drops of dishwashing liquid on a wet microfiber cloth. Work the cloth between your hands to create a thick lather and use it to scrub the shower walls. To clean the shower floor, sprinkle baking soda across the surface with dishwashing liquid over it in the “S” shape. 

Now use a wet brush with medium stiff bristles to scrub the shower floor. Finish off by rinsing the walls and floors with warm water. You can also clean the shower curtains with baking soda and keep them odor-free. Use a damp microfiber cloth with baking soda to clean the shower curtains and rinse them with warm water. 

3. All-purpose scrubber – From the above-mentioned uses, you already know that baking soda packs quite a lot of scrubbing power. When you use it with a sponge, you can apply that scrubbing power without increasing abrasiveness. Sprinkle baking powder on a sponge with a non-scratching scrubbing surface. Use the sponge to scrub your sinks, toilets, and tubs and remove stubborn residue without damaging expensive tiles. 
4. Cut the grease – Your kitchen can get very messy and full of grease from oil vapors settling on many surfaces. You may have given up on your scorched stove drip pans. However, with baking soda, you can breathe new life into those pans and don’t need to waste your money on replacing them. 

Remove the dirty pans and place them inside a small tub or a sink. Boil vinegar in a bowl inside the microwave. Now, sprinkle baking soda on the pans and pour boiling vinegar over them. Allow the mixture to sit there for half an hour before wiping the grease with a wet sponge. Next, rinse the pan clean. If that doesn’t get all the grease out, you can repeat the process a couple of times.     

5. Clean an oven – Make a paste with baking soda and water and apply it to the sides, floor, and ceiling of your oven. Now, fill up a spray bottle with vinegar and spray it on the walls, floor, and ceiling. This will create a foaming action and loosen all the grease and muck from the oven surfaces. Repeat the process till you see baked-on food particles and grease coming off those surfaces and wipe them off with a clean rag.  
6. Unclog the drains – If you have a slow-moving kitchen drain, it’s due to months or years of food debris being stuck to the drain walls and the drain opening. To clean that off and unclog the kitchen drain, shake a few tablespoons of baking soda into the drain. Pour in boiling vinegar and the resultant fizz would break up the clogs and loosen most of the food debris. Rinse it off with water. 
7. Clean the sink – You need to be careful while cleaning stainless steel kitchen sinks so that you don’t leave a scratch or damage its finish. The best way to do that is by leveraging the power of lemon and baking soda. Cut a lemon in half and sprinkle baking soda on it. You can also make a paste out of lemon juice and baking soda. After that use the lemon as a scrubber on the sink basin and the sink walls. Go along the grain of the stainless steel so that you don’t leave any scratches. 
8. Clean painted surfaces – Painted surfaces require gentle cleansing so that they can maintain their finish. Sprinkle baking soda on a damp sponge and lightly rub it over your painted furniture and walls to remove dirt and stains. After the filth is removed, you can use a clean cloth to wipe it dry. This way you can remove even fingerprints and greasy smudges without damaging the paint. 
9. Polish steel appliances – You can make a great cleanser and polish for your steel appliances at home by making a paste out of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Create the paste in a glass bowl and use a soft sponge to clean and polish the external surfaces of steel appliances. Just make sure to follow the grain while you do so. You can also use the same paste for bringing back the shine to your kitchen utensils and remove greasy residue that builds and gets caked on baking pans. Apart from that, you can also use the paste to clean the grout between the floor or wall tiles.     

Conclusion

The greatest advantage of baking soda is that it’s cheap and widely available in supermarkets everywhere. You can buy in bulk and use that to clean everything from floors and kitchens to furniture upholstery and bathtubs. If your cleaning needs are more demanding, you can search for “cleaning services near me” and hire pros for the job.