I am really into Eco friendly cleaning. I have another hub about using vinegar as a green cleaner. It really is marvelous stuff. But, brilliant though it is, you cannot do all your household cleaning with it. Sometimes things need something tougher. Something more granular that can really scrub the grime away. At times like that I reach for plain old Baking Soda.

It is perfectly fine to use the kind of baking soda sold for baking. Indeed that is what I used because I had it in the house. Once I realised just how efffective it was as a green cleaning product I wanted to buy lots of it! But, since it comes in small packs it works out much more expensive that it needs to be. Buy large cartons of baking soda in the laundry aisle or ask your pharmacist to order it in. That way it will not be fine enough to use in baking but will be absolutely perfect for providing your home with a cheap green cleaner.

All those tiny particles within baking soda make it really good at scrubbing grime off just about anything.  And, best of all though those particles are tough, they are also very gentle.  Plastic can be scrubbed with baking soda without scratching at all.  Things like plastic sandwich boxes and plastic baby bottles are so easily spoiled by traditional cleaning with scourers or tough cleaners.  With baking soda they come up like new without the scratching.

Baking soda is happy, not only to scrub dirt away, it is also happy to soak up grease.  This makes a baking soda paste a really great oven and hob cleaner.  Much nicer than all those horrendous fumes found in ordinary oven cleaners, and just as effective.

We also use baking soda as an odour absorber.  It is remarkable how great a job it does at getting rid of nasty whiffs around the home.  Traditional air fresheners just cover up odours, while providing the atmosphere in your home with lots of chemical irritants which used over the long term can cause respiratory problems and increased chances of asthma and allergies.

If you need an effective green cleaner for scrubbing, de-greasing or freshening odours try baking soda.

Garbage pails, nappy bins, even waste paper bins; they all get so whiffy. Not surprising when you think what goes in them, and how it is kept closed for so much of the time, to seal in that smell. Simply sprinkling a little baking soda in the bottom of your garbage pail before adding your rubbish bag will keep it smelling fresh for weeks. Used in nappy pails it really keeps things fresh, though admittedly you'll need to sprinkle it a little more often to combat that really stinky stuff!

You can even use baking soda to get rid of smells absorbed by plastics and glass.  For example when an overnight soak with baking soda and water will eliminate the smells picked up in lunchboxes or pickle jars.

The next time you find a puddle of oil or grease in your oven sprinkle over some baking soda, leave for half an hour, then simply wipe it all away easily. Used as a scrub baking soda will quickly make greasy bath tubs sparkle like new.

Baking soda is safe to use as an Eco Green Cleaner on stainless steel, plastic, tiles, ceramics and much much more!

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