Besides vinegar, my other favorite basic cleaner is baking soda. Take your old Parmesan cheese containers and fill them up with baking soda. You can also add essentials oils to the baking soda, if you’d like, but it makes it a little bit clumpy. Baking soda is an excellent abrasive cleaner to replace conventional chemical scrubbing cleaners.
Then just shake the baking soda onto surfaces you want to clean, such as the toilet, bathtub and sink in the bathroom, or the stove top, counters, and sink in the kitchen. Use a rag, microfiber cloth, or one of those green scouring pads and scrub away. You may need to get a second rag wet to wipe away the residue on the counter top or cook top, but in the bathroom you can just rinse it away.
Baking soda is also great as a carpet deodorizer. For this, you’ll want to add several drops (10-15) of essential oil to your baking soda container and shake it up to mix it together. Then sprinkle it around on your carpet or rug and let it set for 10-20 minutes. Vacuum as your normally would, and the baking soda will help to lift up dirt and pet hair, eliminate odors, and also leave behind a nice clean scent from the essential oil.
Baking soda is a great alternative to toxic abrasive cleaners. It works especially well when you shake on a little baking soda, and then spray with your vinegar and water solution. The mixture will fizz a little bit, let it set for a few minutes and the scrub the baking soda off. Baking soda also rinses away clearly and easily, so you don’t have to worry about chemicals left over on your work surfaces in the kitchen.
Have you tried cleaning with baking soda around your home? What is your favorite use for it?
Go here to read all the posts in the 31 Days to Green Clean series.
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I never thought to put the baking soda in a parm container, great idea! And it will probably be better for me to do that then to take the entire box and attempt sprinkling.
Yeah, when I get lazy and try to sprinkle straight from the box, it’s not so much of a sprinkle, but more of a dumping! 🙂
I am really enjoying your 31 days series. I am wanting to have a greener home and it is wonderful to learn all the different alternatives to chemicals and what I can do differently to clean. Thank you!
So glad you’re enjoying it Brooke! Please let me know if you have any questions I can help you with!
I really love this cleaning series and I’d love it if you linked this post (or any others) up at Small Footprint Fridays, a new sustainable living linkup!
http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/small-footprint-friday-sustainable-living-linkup-100512
Thanks Dawn, I would love to link-up! Thanks for sharing your link! 🙂
Life changing recipe (ok overeacting)
Oven cleaner for the lazy-mom-who-hates-to-scrub-ovens:
In a spray bottle mix 2 tbs baking soda with water until it’s full. Spray your hideous oven with it multiple times for 2-4 days. Take a sponge and wipe your oven, no scrub needed, from its hideousness.
In 5 minutes tops you have a CLEAN oven. Repeat as needed.
Bonus: You CAN bake between those 2-4 days because it’s only baking soda :)))
Thank you so much for sharing! You don’t even want to see the hideousness that is my oven right now! I told myself I would tackle oven cleaning as a part of this series (partially as a way to motivate myself to actually clean it!) and this sounds totally great and doable! I’m going to try it this week! 🙂
Is that recipe equal parts water and baking soda or just 2 Tbsp per bottle?
Hi Connie, It’s just 2 Tbsp of baking soda per bottle of water. Here’s the post I wrote about using this method to clean my oven: http://www.liverenewed.com/2012/10/31-days-to-green-clean-cleaning-the-oven-without-harsh-chemicals.html
~Emily
Love your page….hope you’ll join me at mine: http://www.facebook.com/MyGreenLivingCoach …see you there! Anne
This is so simple it’s crazy!!! I’ve just finished round one on my work oven and it’s almost all the way clean… and I run a conscious comfort food catering business, so I’m ALWAYS using my oven!!! I’m about to bake almond butter, dark chocolate cookies RIGHT NOW! haa! Thanks!!! xoxo
I’m so glad Joli!!