Multitask with Baking Soda
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 09. 5.07
Photo credit: iamthebestartist
There's more to baking soda than unclogging drains and fluffing up cakes and muffins. (Mmm, cakes and muffins.) Strange but true: More than 100 tons of the popular refrigerator deodorizer were used to clean the Statue of Liberty's inner copper walls during its 1986 restoration, primarily because of baking soda's ability to attack grease by turning it into, well, soap.
Some of the white powder's more-unexpected applications: exfoliating your skin, fighting fires, cleaning up grease spills, and curing nasty bouts of indigestion. ::Real Simple
Difficulty level: Easy
See also: ::62 Uses for Vinegar
Please tell the rest of the world about baking soda. It's impossible to find reasonable quantities of it in Scandinavia, and it costs at least five times as much as in the US. I don't feel justified using it to deodorize my fridge when it costs so much, much less to use it in a shower scrub, laundry detergent, and all the other things you can do with it.
In the UK baking soda is known as 'bicarbonate of soda', although stores have started carrying it under the 'baking soda' label. You can't get it in big boxes like the Arm & Hammer brand in the US though, although that may come with the growing eco-movement in the UK.
I'm working on using up my regular toothpaste and will start brushing with Dr Bronner's peppermint soap mixed with a bit of baking powder.
Great find, love the Real Simple magazine, I used to subscribe to it in the US.
lorryfach, I can get a 5 pound bag of baking soda for about $10. If you want I could ship one to you. It lasts us about six months.
I was recently asked to list my favorite "Green Products." I think the person doing the asking was a little perplexed when I said, "Um... vinegar? Ooh, and baking soda!"
Seriously. Good stuff.
I've just recently taken two back to back visits to Europe whom are so much more environmentally conscious than most Americans. Can someone tell me what the big hype is about baking soda and vinegar...the different uses so I can get it on it?
could not find any significant amounts of baking soda... only little packets with 15 g at a time for around 90cents... approx 60$ for 2 Pound!! if anyone could send me a large bag for around 10$ + postage and handling would be great!!
I live in Switzerland
hugs
could not find any significant amounts of baking soda... only little packets with 15 g at a time for around 90cents... approx 60$ for 2 Pound!! if anyone could send me a large bag for around 10$ + postage and handling would be great!!
I live in Switzerland
hugs
Found some baking soda called Natron in German- in a pharmacy... in Zurich but again for 100g 10$
very expensive.... I need two tablespoons at least each week for my naturemill compost...
any info / help on getting Baking soda in Switzerland much appreciated
hugs