Sodium Bicarbonate or popularly known as baking soda can be your best pal not only in the kitchen but in your day-to-day beauty regimen, cleaning, and cleansing, and even help incorporate fire safety in our homes.
It is so versatile that because of its properties and abilities, scientists have come up with unique and amazing ideas for its use not only in the kitchen but also in the many aspects of our daily lives.
For many years, baking soda has become such a popular household item that it is not uncommon to see in our kitchen. We know that it can make our cakes fluffier and more decadent but there are hundreds of unusual uses of baking soda than we care to imagine.
Join LFS Consulting as we explore the amazing ways we can use baking soda outside of our kitchen.
1. Remove Stains From Your Mug
As an integral part of the new work from home setup, some workers have admitted that they can’t fully function without first having their cup. Sometimes, however, consuming coffee can leave you in a sticky situation. If left on open space, liquids could dry out from the coffee leaving stains that are sometimes too hard to handle.
By mixing warm water and baking soda, you can easily take care of those stains and go back to enjoying your everyday coffee on that favorite mug.
2. Teeth Whitening
Want those pearly whites to shine brighter, take half a teaspoon of baking soda and one teaspoon of lemon juice or water. Mix them together until a paste is formed. Use the paste as you would commonly use toothpaste and voila, you have your very own tooth whitening toothpaste.
3. Inexpensive Mouthwash
As an odor neutralizer, baking soda can help eliminate that stinky breath in the morning. By mixing half a teaspoon of this magical powder in a cup of water, you can have you very own mouthwash that does not only mask the smell with minty scent but completely banishes the odor away.
4. Face and Body Exfoliant
As an alkaline ingredient, baking soda can be a great exfoliant. By neutralizing the skin’s acid barriers, it can remove dirt, dead skin cells and grime from every nook and cranny.
5. Hair Clarifier
Skip the expensive spa day and make your own hair clarifier at home. Save your hair from accumulated serum, sprays, mousses, leave-on conditioners by mixing your daily shampoo with a quarter-size portion of baking soda. Due to product build-up, hair can become frazzled, flat and dry. But with this hack, you can have your own spa in the comfort of your home without spending a dime.
6. Deodorant
Although human sweat is generally odorless, our pits can easily catch bacteria which breaks it down to acidic waste resulting to pit stench. Baking soda usually neutralizes acids and bases thereby removing odors without leaving any pit stains like some other strong antiperspirant.
7. Oven Cleaner
Studies have shown that the microwave is the most often used equipment especially for those who are looking to save time in preparing everyday meals.
Tough oils can easily accumulate in our microwaves. From oil splatters and burning butter, these stains will make you break out a sweat. However, baking soda as a scouring powder can help take care of mold, mildew, and stains. Likewise, because of its deodorizing component, it is a great cleaner and deodorizer.
8. Relaxing Foot Soak
Who wouldn’t want to have their very own foot spa at home? Because of its exfoliating properties, baking soda has a variety of uses in skincare. It is very ideal for removing dead skin cells and will help soften calluses.
Note however that because of its abrasive properties, it would be helpful to take caution before adding baking soda in your daily skincare as it can sometimes result in redness and irritation. Doing a skin patch can help check for any adverse reactions.
9. Drawing Out Infection
Baking soda can be a home remedy for boils. It can help draw out the pus and as a result, helps dry out the boil. Its alkaline properties help create an inhospitable environment for the bacteria inside the boil.
Nonetheless, to avoid aggravating the infection, home remedies should be taken as what they are and are not meant to discount the requirement for any medical attention especially when you haven’t had your anti-tetanus shots or the infection is so grave that antibiotics might already be necessary.
10. Can Extinguish Fires
In emergency situations, having baking soda on your kitchen shelf can be a lifesaver. For grease-related fires where using water as an extinguisher can do more harm than good, baking soda has a smothering effect on the fire by releasing carbon dioxide and helping suck the heat from the grease to the extent that combustion is no longer possible.
However, note that baking soda is not a substitute for having an actual fire extinguisher in our offices and our homes.
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