10 Household uses of Baking Soda

I love finding little things you can do to make life easier and more efficient... and less expensive! Here are 10 ways you can use (inexpensive!) baking soda for your household chores.

1. To lessen the odor of your litter box, sprinkle a layer of baking soda on the bottom of the tray and cover with cat litter. Great if you have multiple cats!
2. Clean your veggies and fruit with a mixture of water and a small amount of baking soda.
3. For cleaner clothes, add about a 1/2 of a cup to your washing machine with loads.
4. To clean out your coffee maker run a mixture of baking soda and water through. After first cycle is complete, run through again with just water to cleanse the rest of the baking soda from the machine. To clean out your coffee pot take the water from the second cycle and add baking soda to the pot and let it sit for a few minutes. Gently clean with a sponge and rinse and it's as good as new!
5. Place a few open boxes in your fridge and freezer to control the smell. Stir the soda weekly and replace every few months.
6. To make your dishwasher sparkly again, run it through a cycle using baking soda instead of soap.
7. To help bug bite itches - make a paste of baking soda and water and apply a liberal amount directly to the bite. I personally LOVE this - it really works wonders!
8. To clean burned on food off of a pan - let the pan sit in a mixture of hot water and baking soda.
9. Add 3 Tbsp of baking soda to drains weekly and flush with hot water to keep them working freely.
10. Clean out lunch thermoses with a mixture of water and baking soda to remove food particles and odors.