The Benefits of Using Lemon & Baking Soda to Clean Your Home
It’s common knowledge that lemon and baking soda are must-haves for cocktails (lemons-only please), cookies and cakes; but did you know that these two ingredients are also green cleaning powerhouses? Alone they each have their own benefits: lemon is a potent antibacterial and its clean citrus smell leaves behind a fresh scent that countless commercial cleaning products have been trying to recreate for years; and baking soda is an almost perfect drawing agent to pull out stains, odors and even venom from stinging insects. Not to mention that baking soda’s natural grit makes it an ideal scouring product when it’s combined with a little elbow grease.
Yes, alone these foodstuffs are excellent in recipes, but when used together they have the usefulness to replace every one of the toxic cleaning products under your sink. Their uses are virtually limitless, but just to get you started here are 10 ways we use this go-to cleaning combo in client homes and offices.
- Baking soda is a natural bleaching agent, which means it should be your go-to stain remover for everything from sheets to shoes. Just add a little of it to your detergent and run it through your wash or let the stained item soak before wiping and rinsing.
- Lemon banishes body odors from textiles with the added benefit of lightening the yellowish sweat stains that get left behind. Use it in your shoes to refresh a worn out pair, or soak a shirt in it before washing and rinsing as normal. Always spot test first to be sure the fabric isn’t sensitive to the active citrus.
- Painful bee sting? Soaking a hand or foot in a baking soda and water solution will draw out the stinging venom and soothe the throbbing pain. This is especially useful on animals that may have a negative reaction to over-the-counter products.
- We often use lemons to eradicate kitchen odors and caked-on food. Microwave a bowl of lemon slices and water and all you need is a damp cloth to wipe down the clean microwave after one minute on high.
- A microwave isn’t the only place in your kitchen with an odor problem. Turn the odor-fighting power of lemons on your stinky garbage disposal by grinding up lemon rinds and running a little hot water. You’ll be amazed how much better your kitchen smells afterwards.
- You can use lemons and baking soda instead of drying cleaning. Try this trick at home: soak a yellowing shirt, blanket or pillow in a lemon juice and baking soda solution. When the fabric lightens rinse with cold water and air dry.
- Mix baking soda, lemon juice and water and use it to scrub your kitchen and bathroom.
- Wood cutting boards are infamous for being as bacteria-ridden as they are beautiful. Squeeze enough lemons to soak your cutting board for at least one hour. When the wood lightens up and stains are gone, rinse with hot water and dry well before using.
- Thirty-to-45 minutes of soaking in a lemon juice and baking soda solution will lighten the grout in your bathroom or kitchen, especially when you scrub it in with a brush.
- Don’t forget the tried and true use for baking soda: cut down refrigerator odors by placing an open box in the back of the unit.
Talk to us: What creative uses have you found for this go-to combination of green cleaning power? If you’d rather not squeeze lemons and mix your own cleaning solutions, we suggest Ecospirit green cleaning products, which we also use in our offices. It’s a plant-based line of cleaning solutions that come ready-made for you to spray, wipe and clean.