The Wonders of Bi-Carbonate of Soda!

Bi-carb soda is one of my most favourite ingredients to use around my house!

In our house we use bi-carb soda in many ways on various cleaning jobs and also in our bath and personal care routines, you can even use it safely on your pets.

Bi-carb soda is a cheap and easily obtainable, environmentally friendly and kid safe alternative to many of your everyday cleaners and on top of all that it wont hurt your health!

We know bicarbonate of soda here in Australia under a few different names such as :- Bi-Carb, Bi-Carb soda or sodium bicarbonate.

Here are some everyday uses I find for bi-carb soda –

Keep a little shaker container  or bowl of bi-carb soda under the sink, when you have tea stains in your coffee cups or on your spoons or pans, simply shake onto damp utensils or dip your damp sponge into the little container of bi-carb and wipe over the stains to remove them.

To keep your washing up cloths from becoming smelly, rinse them in a bowl of water to which you have added some bi-carb soda, then put on the dish rack to dry thoroughly over night.

If you have badly burnt on food in your pots or pans it can be easily removed by sprinkling the area with bi-carb soda and a damp scouring pad, but please don’t ever use this on non stick cookware! I have included these images I took the other day of how well bi-carb soda works with burnt on cookware, this was all clean in a few minutes!

Baked on from frying chicken this morning. This had already been soaking with morning fresh for hours, and washed up.

Still damp from washing, i sprinkle bi carb into the burnt on grunge in the pan and leave for only a minute..

 

I wiped this out with my stainless steel ball thingy on this side..just wiped off mostly. A few spots needed a bit of a scrub but in less than two minutes it was this clean! The outside i just did the same thing but used a normal scourer and it worked as well

If you run out of detergent  for your dishwasher you can always simply mix two tablespoons each of bi-carb soda and borax (also found in your local supermarket, it is a water softener) to the dispenser and use as usual.

When your chopping board is smelling a bit iffy and needs a spring clean, sprinkle about a 1/3 cup of bi-carb soda on it and add enough water to make it nice and moist. Leave it to soak for 10-15 minutes and then give it a good rub, rinse it clean and let it air dry.

If you have been filleting fish or peeling onions, you can get rid of the odour by rubbing bi-carb soda into your damp hands then rinsing off.

No more smelly lunchboxes – just sprinkle the containers with bi-carb and top them up with hot water. Let this sit for the day and rinse it out and air dry.

If you get those annoying limescale deposits around the bottom of your taps, sprinkle the area with some bi-carb soda, then spritz on some vinegar, when it starts to fizz and bubble, scrub the area with an old toothbrush. Leave this on for around half an hour to do its job and then rinse the area clean and wipe down, this also works on your glass shower doors (I just use an old nail brush instead of a toothbrush for larger areas).

To clean your toilet just sprinkle it with bi-carb (I like to add a few drops of essential oil to mine), leave that sit for an hour or so, then give it a good scrub with your toilet brush and flush, all done. By the way bi-carb soda is good for septic tanks as well if you have one.

Sprinkle bi-carb soda onto your carpets and rugs to remove odours and freshen them up. Just sprinkle them with bi-carb and go to bed, in the morning, just vacuum them as usual.

You can sprinkle bi-carb soda onto your dogs coat and brush it through to give them a dry bath (really good in wet weather) to get rid of that doggy smell. It can also be used on your dog if it has any skin problems, just fill up your pets bath, add a few tablespoons of bi-carb to the water (you can add a dollop of their shampoo if you really want to) and wash as usual, then rinse thoroughly.

If you are using kitty litter, shake bi-carb onto the bottom of the litter tray before adding the fresh kitty litter. The bi-carb works like an odour eliminator, so be generous when using it.

Gosh..see why I really can’t live without my bi-carbonate of soda!?? These are just ways I use it around the house in my everyday cleaning, I have not even touched on how I use it for acne breakouts, facial exfoliating, teeth whitening amongst other things!

I will sign off for now though as I am sure I have given you enough to think about already this time round. If anyone is interested in reading how else I use Bi-carbonate of Soda, simply put a comment on the bottom of my post.

Also I would LOVE to read how you like to use your bi-carb soda at your house, and if you have any handy hints and tips – PLEASE SHARE!

Have a great week!

Amanda xox