Beyond Baking: The Ultimate Guide to Cleaning with Baking Soda

Life in Chicago moves fast. Between work, family, and trying to enjoy everything our amazing city has to offer, finding the time and energy for a thorough apartment cleaning can feel impossible. But what if the secret to a fresher, brighter home was already in your pantry? Let’s talk about the humble, powerhouse box of baking soda.

It’s hard to believe this little box packs so much punch, but trust me—baking soda is a cleaning superstar. I’ve been obsessed with its power since I started my cleaning business, and it’s only grown on me. As someone who loves finding the most efficient ways to clean, baking soda is a go-to for three key reasons: it’s a gentle abrasive, a powerful deodorizer, and a fantastic brightener. Let’s dive into how this $2 wonder can transform your home.

1. Sparkling Sinks & Surfaces (The Abrasive Power)

Ever walk into someone’s home and marvel at their perfectly shiny sink? The secret is often baking soda. Its mild abrasion scrapes away fine dirt and grime without scratching, leaving surfaces with a brilliant polish. This is a perfect first step before you consider a full deep cleaning help service.

How to Make Your Sink Shine:

• Sprinkle baking soda into your dirty sink.
• Wet a sponge or cloth, add a little dish soap, and scrub in a circular motion from top to bottom.
• Don’t forget the drain! Give it a few good scrubs.
• Rinse thoroughly with warm water and polish dry. The result will blow your mind.

2. Banishing Odors (The Deodorizing Power)

Baking soda is famous for neutralizing smells. From your fridge to your laundry, it’s a natural odor fighter. But its power extends even further.

Freshen Your Dishwasher:

If your dishwasher has a lingering odor, try this: toss a cup of baking soda into the empty bottom of the machine. Let it sit for up to 24 hours, then run the hottest cycle. It will come out smelling significantly fresher—a great maintenance tip between uses of a professional home cleaning service.

A Natural Personal Deodorant:

This might sound surprising, but baking soda is an incredibly effective underarm deodorant. Use an aluminum-free version from a health food store. After showering, pat about 1/4 teaspoon under each arm. It fights odor (not perspiration) for hours, saves money, and won’t stain clothes.

3. Brightening Laundry & More

Want your whites whiter and colors brighter? Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of baking soda directly into your washing machine drum with your detergent. It acts as a laundry brightener and a deodorizer, neutralizing smells on particularly pungent loads. It’s a simple upgrade to your routine that makes everything feel cleaner.

DIY All-Purpose Scrub for Bathroom & Kitchen

One of my favorite DIY recipes is an all-purpose scrub that tackles soap scum, grease, and grime. It replaces store-bought cream cleansers and costs just pennies.

• In a bowl, mix equal parts dish soap and baking soda.
• Add a few drops of water and stir until it reaches a pudding-like consistency.
• For an antibacterial boost in the bathroom, add 10 drops of tea tree essential oil.
• Apply with a very wet sponge in an “S” pattern, let it sit for a few minutes, then scrub and rinse.

For tougher jobs that this scrub can’t handle, it might be time to schedule a cleaning with the pros.

Cleaning Produce & Clarifying Hair

For Cleaner Fruits & Veggies: Remove pesticides and wax by sprinkling baking soda on wet produce, gently massaging it in, and rinsing thoroughly. For berries or grapes, soak them in a bowl of water with a tablespoon of baking soda, then rinse.

For a Clarifying Hair Rinse: Mix a spoonful of baking soda with your regular shampoo and massage it into your scalp for an extra-deep clean. It’s like a facial for your head! (Note: Check with your colorist if you dye your hair.)

When DIY Meets “Done For You”

Baking soda is a fantastic tool for daily upkeep and tackling small projects. But let’s be real—sometimes life gets too busy, or the job is just too big. When you need a comprehensive reset for your home, that’s when a trusted Chicago cleaning company like Jikas Cleaning can be a lifesaver. Think of us as your backup for when you need to get your space cleaned thoroughly and efficiently, so you can get back to enjoying your spotless home.

Whether you’re looking for a one-time refresh or regular maintenance, finding reliable cleaning services in Chicago means you never have to worry about the deep clean. You can handle the daily baking soda tricks, and we’ll handle the rest. It’s the perfect partnership for any busy Chicagoan who wants a clean home without the constant work.

It’s hard to believe that this little box of baking soda packs so much punch, but you got to believe me. Baking soda can be used all over the house and on your body to do a number of different amazing things. And I’m serious. I don’t get obsessed over regular pantry household items too often, but baking soda has been something that I have been into since I started my cleaning business back in 2006, and it’s only grown on me. Also, if you’re new here, welcome. This is the Clean My Space channel. My name is Melissa Maker, and I’m an accidental cleaning expert, which means I hate to clean, but I love to find the most efficient and effective ways to get the job done right the first time. So, if you haven’t done so already, make sure that you subscribe to the Clean MySpace channel. And of course, give this video a thumbs up if you also like to save time. By the way, I’ve had a cleaning company since 2006. And when I started making YouTube videos back in 2012, everyone was asking me where to get microfiber cleaning cloths. So, I started a company called Makers Clean in 2015. And if you want to get your hands on the most premium quality microfiber cleaning cloths you’re going to find on the internet, go visit Makers Clean. Also, it’s a small business and it’s female owned. And I’ve got a link for you down below. Baking soda serves three main purposes in cleaning. The first is it’s an abrasive. The second is it’s a deodorizer. And finally, it’s a brightener. So, you can see how it already has so many different applications. Going back to the first application, let’s talk about how baking soda can make your sink sparkle, no joke, like a diamond. If you ever go into someone’s house and you see that they have an absolutely perfect sink and you wonder what their secret is, let me just blow it for you. the secrets baking soda because it has the ability to provide a mild abrasion which means it can scrape dirt off a surface even dirt that’s very fine and hard to see. It leaves nothing behind on that stainless steel so that when you rinse it clean all you have is a beautiful clean shine and polish. So here’s what you have to do. Sprinkle a little bit of baking soda into your dirty sink. Then you can take a dish wand or a cloth or a sponge, get it wet, put a little bit of soap on there, and give it a nice scrub. I like to work from the top to the bottom almost in like a circular motion so I’m not missing anything. I get right down into the drain, give it a couple of scrubs there. Then I turn on some warm water, give everything a rinse, polish it up, and I promise you, your sink will blow your mind. Using baking soda around the house, you can pick up a box like this. say it costs about $2 and this is perfectly fine. But if you’re using baking soda on your body, I would strongly encourage you to find the aluminum free version of baking soda. You can find this at your local health food store or in the organic section at your grocery store. Now, um this bag was about 5 bucks. It’s about 454 g. You might be thinking that’s a lot for a little, but this bag will last for such a long time. And here’s the way I do it. I have this jar. This is an upcycled spice jar. I just keep this on my bathroom counter. I fill it up with baking soda and then when it runs out, I refill it. Now, in this case, I want to talk about using baking soda as an underarm deodorant. You might be incredulous. You might think that’s gross, but I’m going to challenge you. If you don’t believe me, go out and try this yourself for a week. You will be so impressed with how well this deals with odors. I mean, I’ve told people to do this, and I know cuz I I’ve used it myself for years. Not only do I save a ton of money, but it is so efficient that people who I’ve told about, and I know this for myself, say that it lasts for up to 24 hours. So, what you do is you portion out a little bit, like maybe about that much. What’s that? 1/4 teaspoon. Let’s say it’s 1/4 teaspoon. Then I even it out in my hands like this. And I do this as soon as I’m out of the shower. And you just lift up your arm, kind of pat it under. You’ll see a little bit of fallout, but hey, little bit of baking soda never hurt anybody. And then you just let it kind of fall off and go about your day. It takes seconds to apply. It doesn’t turn the underarms of your shirt yellow. And the most impressive thing is how it fights odors. Now, if you’re curious about perspiration, it doesn’t actually prevent sweating, but as we all know, our body actually needs to do that. We just don’t want it to smell like anything. We’ve talked about abrasion. We talked about deodorizing. Now, let’s talk about brightening. Baking soda is fantastic as a laundry brightener. So, what does this mean? It helps bring out the bright colors in your clothing. So, whenever you’re doing a load of whites or colors, uh you can throw in a half to 1/4 cup, so a/2 cup to 1/4 cup of baking soda directly in the drum if you have a front load or top load. And what that will do is it’ll just help bring out the colors in your laundry. Now, the other thing that it does as a side benefit is it helps deodorize. So, if you have a particularly smelly load of laundry, you can throw uh the same amount in and you’ll see your stuff will come out and it will smell nice and fresh. It won’t smell like anything perhaps aside from the detergent, but what the baking soda does is it helps to neutralize those odors. One of the things that so many of you love the Clean My Space channel for is effective DIY recipes. And this has to be one of my favorites. It’s an all-purpose scrub that I love using in the bathroom. You can also use it in the kitchen or anywhere where there’s a a particular amount of buildup, greasiness, griiness, soap scum. This works like a charm. This essentially replaces what you would call a cream or a powdered cleanser. So, here we go. You’re going to take a container and you’re going to make up the amount of product that you need on demand. So, you’re not making a bulk amount of it ahead of time. You’re only mixing up how much you need. So, what you’ll do is you’re going to mix equal parts dish soap and baking soda into a bowl. You can add a little bit of water to it, a few drops here and there, and keep stirring it until you get it to a puddingike consistency. And for added fun and value, you can throw in about 10 drops of your favorite essential oil. Now, when it comes to cleaning the bathroom, I always like to pack in an extra mold and mildew resistant antibacterial punch, which means I’m putting in 10 drops of tea tree essential oil. But if you would prefer to use another one, lavender is a great option, as is peppermint or eucalyptus. Have fun with it. Be creative. The point is, it’s an incredibly effective scrub. It’s easy to make and it’s very inexpensive. Now, once you have this made up, you’ll take your dampened sponge. You will apply it to whatever surface you need cleaned using the S pattern. You want your sponge to be really, really wet. Then you’re just going to let that sit for a few minutes. As we know, pre-treating does all the work for you. And when you’re ready, you’ll go back, flip your sponge over the scrubby side, scrub it on down with the S pattern, give it a nice rinse, polish it dry. You’ve cleaned like a pro for pennies. You might notice that when you pick up produce, it has a lot of coating or waxiness on it. That of course is pesticides and other things that are on there to preserve and protect the produce. But for produce where we are consuming the skin, it is especially important to make sure that we are cleaning that off. Not only to get rid of the pesticides and coatings, but also of course we want to just make sure we’re getting rid of any dirt or other unmentionables that might be existing on the surface of our produce before we eat it. So, a really easy and simple and inexpensive way to do this is to take your produce. Now, of course, you can do this a couple different ways. So, I’ll walk you through it, but a really simple way is just to take your produce, sprinkle a little bit of baking soda on it, splash it with a bit of water, and kind of give your produce like a little massage. I’m kind of just rubbing it around in my palms, and then giving it a rinse. It’s one extra step that you have to do. You kind of create like a little paste with the baking soda, but when you rinse it off, you’ll hear like kind of a squeak when you rub your finger against the skin because it’s just so clean and it’s free of all that stuff. Now, if you want, if you have a lot of things or if you’re doing something like grapes or berries, you can do this instead. You can take, let’s say, a tablespoon of baking soda, add it to a bowl filled with water, mix it around, and throw your produce in there. and then kind of give it a swirl either with your hand or a spoon and just run it through your fingers, let it sit for a little while and then strain it out and give it a rinse. And you’ll see the same thing happens. Your produce comes out much cleaner. If when you open your dishwasher, you notice that it hits you with a bit of an odor, there are a few things that you need to think about. First of all, does your filter need to be cleaned? But second of all, I would also encourage you just to leave your dishwasher door. My dishwasher is right here in case you can’t see it. You probably can’t. Slightly a jar. Did you hear that? It needs some oiling. But if you leave the door slightly open, it’ll help to let those odors circulate. But let’s say you haven’t done either of those. You open your dishwasher and it just kind of reeks. Well, here’s what you can do. Take a cup of baking soda and just toss it at the bottom of the dishwasher. Nothing fancy. Your dishwasher should be empty, though. And just let that sit even for up to 24 hours if you can manage it. given the flow of dishes in your home. Then when 24 hours have hit, just run through the hottest possible cycle you can on your dishwasher and you’ll see that by the time that load is done, your dishwasher will smell significantly fresher. I think I read about this tip probably close to 15 years ago in like 17 or Cosmo, like one of those girly magazines. I read about this tip. I’m like, let’s just even see if this works. And it did. So, I’ve been doing it ever since. And it is to clarify your hair with baking soda. Now, what does that mean? If you think about what goes on in the average person’s head of hair, they’re putting products on there. It’s, you know, your your scalp is collecting dead skin cells and oil and dirt. And even though you shampoo it and take generally good care of your hair, there tends to be some buildup over time. It’s the same reason why people like going for facials. So, think about doing this as kind of like a facial for your scalp. and to an extent your hair. So, here’s what I do. I take about a teaspoon or a tablespoon depending on how much hair you have. So, I probably go more toward the tablespoon because I have a lot of hair. Um, but you can use about a spoonful of baking soda. So, I portion some out in a tissue. I leave it by my shower because I’m not going to take this whole thing into the shower with me. And then I put shampoo into my hands. I just drop the contents of the tissue on top of that. And I kind of stir it around with my finger and I shampoo my scalp really well. You don’t need to do this on the rest of your hair. It’s just really something that’s nice for your scalp. And you you kind of just go for it for a while. Give yourself a nice extra long lather. When you rinse it out and you come out of the shower and you condition and whatever else you do, but when you come out and your hair dries, your scalp will feel so much cleaner, so much less dirty, greasy, heavy, like you know, you just get that buildup feeling after a while. It just feels so good. So, if you’re someone who uses a lot of product or you feel like you work in an environment where your hair and your scalp gets quite a bit dirty or greasier than average, I think you will love this. Now, the one caveat is if you color your hair, you just want to check with your colorist and make sure that the baking soda will not affect your dye job. So, now you know what you need to know about baking soda and maybe a little bit more than you thought, but I’m happy for you. So, the next time you go grocery shopping or add something to cart, please make sure that you’re adding some baking soda as well, because there are so many uses that I didn’t even cover in this video. And that leads me to this week’s comment question, which is, what are some of the ways that you use baking soda at home? Let me know in the comments down below. I’m very curious. And let’s just call the comment section a mass repository for baking soda cleaning tips. If you like what we do here at Clean MySpace and you want to support us, we’re a tiny little team. you can consider becoming a member. Also, if you want cleaning tips and tricks and product reviews sent straight to your inbox, you can sign up for our newsletter. It’s called The Dirty Dish, and I’ve got a link to that down below. If you like cleaning with baking soda, trust me, borax is next on your cleaning to-do list. You can check out a video all about how to clean with borax right over here. and reminding you if you haven’t done so already to subscribe to the Clean MySpace channel.