7 Simple Uses for Baking Soda and Vinegar

Jen Wallace |

Sep 10, 2024

In our home we are all about resourcefulness, slashing our shopping costs and reducing our impact on the planet. We recycle, repurpose and aren’t afraid to get creative when it comes to cleaning our home and our personal care. To that end, we use baking soda and vinegar a lot. Our goal is to save our hard-earned money, while making better choices for the environment. That’s pretty much a win-win scenario in my household.

You too, can opt to use baking soda and vinegar instead of expensive cleaning and personal care products and make choices that benefit your family budget and reduce your impact on the planet. But lest you think that using baking soda and vinegar is somehow more difficult or less than optimum, think again. These simple kitchen ingredients are powerful tools that can make your home (and you) cleaner, less toxic and more eco-friendly.

And the real beauty of using baking soda and vinegar is that instead of buying several shopping bags full of specialized products, you can simply buy two items.

*Tip* Warehouse stores are a great way to stock up on both, baking soda and vinegar, and buying in bulk will reduce packaging waste.

Here are some ideas for how you can use baking soda and vinegar in your home.

Forget expensive and questionable teeth-whitening products and use baking soda to whiten your teeth instead.
Make your own all-purpose cleaner from vinegar and the essential oil of your choice. Don’t worry, the vinegar smell dissipates once vinegar dries, and the essential oils do help with that. One word of caution about essential oils, use care when using essential oils on food handling surfaces and for those with pets and children. Alternatively, you can use orange peels and vinegar to a vinegar cleaner.
Baking soda is a great abrasive (think AJAX replacement) cleaner and is great for restoring shine to sinks, cleaning ovens and removing stains from laundry.
Bring your jewelry back to life by using baking soda to remove tarnish and build up on your gold-filled, brass, nickel and sterling silver jewelry with this recipe.
Clean drains of soap build up by cleaning them once every few months with a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. Learn how here.
Apple cider vinegar can be great for your skin too. Use it as a facial astringent, skin softener and more.
Finally, bring back hard wood floors by using vinegar to lighten dark spots and to help remove stains. Learn more here.