8 Baking Soda Uses That you Didn’t Know About

Baking soda is one of the most important household staples. It is there, right now, in your fridge, or your kitchen cupboard. You can bake cookies, use for stomach pain, or even bring it out for washing. Baking Soda has been a constant in your life for a long time. Still, there is a lot to know about baking soda uses.

What is baking soda?

Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is a chemical compound. It is widely used in baking. It has a leavening component making the dough to rise. It is white and crystalline. However, it is available in powder form. It activates when it comes in contact with acid or liquid.

Difference between baking soda and baking powder

Baking powder is a complete leavening agent. It is a mixture of baking soda and acid, that is needed for the rise. Baking Powder is generally made of corn-starch. It restricts activation of base and acid while storing the product. When they come in contact with water baking soda same as baking powder, reacts to it. Most of the recipes will suggest you go for baking powder. The recipe demands double-acting kind. The double-acting kind reacts in two ways. Once when it is mixed with liquid at room temperature and when it is heated.

Uses of Baking Soda

It is hard to list down sodium bicarbonate uses. A packet of baking soda can come to the rescue in quite unusual situations. It can be used in personal care, washing, cooking, and many more. Sometimes bicarbonate of soda uses is noticed in home remedies. Let’s check them out.

8 Baking Soda Uses

Washing vegetables

The recent coronavirus pandemic has taught us a lot of things. One of the most important things is to wash the produce that we get from the store. Mix a quarter cup of baking soda with water. Soak the vegetables, fruits, and other raw produce into the mixture. About an hour later, take them off. Then rinse them with clean water. It will help you to clean your vegetables and keep your family away from any kind of virus threat.

Plant Care

Baking Soda makes easy home-made pesticides. It keeps the ants away from your plants. Add a teaspoon of baking soda to a liter of water and spray them on your plants. Repeat the procedure for a day or two. The ants will surely disappear. It is also a good repellent for mealybugs that can affect your plant easily after plant attacks. But we would advise you to do it after sunset. You must let the plant do their job in the morning.

Stink remedy

Remember that disgusting smell that follows you with a smelly gym bag? Probably you have already tried a lot many things to get rid of the smell. But they have disappointed you badly. Here comes one of the very helpful baking soda uses. There is an easy hack to get rid of that smell using baking soda. Just sprinkle a fist full of baking soda in the bag or into your shoes. It will absorb unwanted odors. You can try the same with litter boxes. You can get rid of the litter smell just by covering the bottom of the box with baking soda. Pour litter on the top of it and say bye to the stinky smell.

Clean your kitchen gadgets

If you were wondering how to clean your kitchen electronic gadgets, here we have an answer to it. Baking soda uses to ensure a clean kitchen. It can clean your microwave, oven, refrigerators, and everything else that you can probably think of. It can also deodorize these kitchen gadgets. Take some sodium bicarbonate on a damp cloth and remove stains from the walls of these gadgets. Using bicarbonate of soda for cleaning is very popular and is much easier to do so.

DIY deodorant

You don’t need to spend a lot on deodorants anymore. Make your DIY deodorants with a bit of baking soda and essentials oil of your choice. You will get plenty of deodorant recipes out there on the internet. Some people just sprinkle it over as natural deodorants. Excessive baking soda uses can be a bit rough for your skin. It is advisable to go through any of the recipes to make your deodorant.

Homemade antacid

One of the very useful baking soda uses, it is a safe antacid. It gives relief to the heartburn caused by acid reflux. The stomach acid goes upward and it gives a very unnatural feeling inside the body. Taking a teaspoon of baking soda will decrease the acid content of your stomach.

Clean crayons from the wall

If you are a parent, you know what we are referring to. Most of the kids think of the wall to be their canvas. It is important to let the kids express their hearts out. On the other hand, it makes the walls look quite dirty. Take some baking soda on a damp cloth and rub them gently. Crayon colors will come off smoothly.

Personal care

One of the many baking sodas uses, personal care is probably the most underrated one. Bicarbonate of soda freshens your breath. It helps in polishing the teeth to make you look even prettier while smiling. It acts as a fantastic exfoliator. Add baking soda to the water in a 3:1 ratio. Rub the thick mixture in circular motions. Clean it with damp clothes. The dead skins will not be visible anytime soon. If you are running out of your shampoo, baking soda can come as a rescue. However, for homemade shampoo, we would suggest you look after the recipe online.

Baking soda uses are never-ending. Probably there will be a never-ending list of the uses of baking soda. Now that you know so many types of baking soda uses, I am sure you will figure out some of based on the above suggestions. The best part of baking soda is, it is damn cheap. We found out the most inexpensive yet natural way to solve so many daily household issues.