Baking Soda Eureka

After stumbling across a nifty little book called Baking soda: over 500 fabulous, fun, and frugal uses you've probably never thought of by Vicki Lansky, I decided I had to know how my life could be improved by baking soda. I mean, baking soda? Sure, it’s handy for making cookies, but over 500 uses? Would it do my dishes? Vacuum the carpet? Well, it turned out this book was chock-full of interesting, inspiring, and downright wacky uses for our pal in the yellow box (and, in fact, it does do both dishes and carpet). It amazed me that something used in food could also be put to work in all sorts of cleaning and hygiene and kid-friendly projects.

I decided to experiment first with drain cleaning, since I am always very uneasy about the poisonous drain uncloggers on the market, and my tub drain has been a little sluggish lately. I enthusiastically poured the soda down the drain, and the next morning I poured distilled white wine vinegar over it. Holy cow! In a flashback to chemistry experiments gone horribly awry in high school, the fizzing bubbling rising-out-of-the-drain reaction was terrifying and the coolest thing I’d seen in ages! Once it calmed down a bit, I took the advice of a wise colleague and poured boiling water down as well. Now, my drain is speedier than a downhill train with no brakes, and yet I was liberated from the guilt that plagues me when I know I’ve done something evil to the environment, like used commercial drain cleaner. Hallelujah for bicarbonate of soda!

For my next trick, I am trying to work up the guts to use it to clean my contact lenses. If that works, there is truly nothing the little yellow box cannot do.

by AA @Main