Do you own a box of baking soda already? This white powder gets used in a lot of baking recipes to make sure the baked goods end up nice and airy. But you can also use that same stuff you put through your food for a ton of cleaning tasks. In a previous article, we already wrote about all of the benefits of cleaning with baking soda and we’ve also written about what not to clean with it. This time, we’re focusing on the use of baking soda in your laundry routine.
Baking soda is relatively cheap and has a ton of benefits.
1. Odours
Bacteria and sweat can leave behind some nasty odours in our clothes. Different kind of towels and cloths can start to smell after a while as well. Usually, your regular old laundry detergent isn’t sufficient to get rid of these smells because it doesn’t contain enough enzymes to handle the bacteria. Luckily, we’ve got our baking soda nearby! Add half a cup of baking soda to your washing machine. It will regulate the pH value of the water and this will help the detergent do its job. Do your clothes have a particularly pungent sweat or smoke odour about them? Soak them in a bath of warm water and one or two cups of baking soda before washing them in the washing machine.
2. Combined with bleach
If you use baking soda in combination with bleach, the bleach often works much better and you’ll need a lot less of it too. For every half a cup of bleach, use half a cup of baking soda as well. Sprinkle the baking soda into the drum of your washing machine and then add the dirty clothes. Don’t put the baking soda in the laundry detergent compartment.
3. Fabric softener
If you live in a place with hard water, your clothes and towels can come out of the laundry feeling a little tough and stiff. That’s why a lot of people use fabric softener. However, fabric softener isn’t actually very good for your laundry! It can leave behind soap residue, which actually causes the clothes to become smelly more quickly and it also makes your clothes wear more easily. Instead of fabric softener, use baking soda! This will soften the water and make your clothes nice and soft as well. Baking soda is also much better to use if you have a perfume allergy or sensitive skin. Children often can’t deal very well with the perfume in fabric softener either.
4. Iron
Apart from using it in the laundry, you can also use baking soda to clean your iron. It’s a soft scouring product which you can use to mildly scrub away soap and water stains off your iron. Make a thick paste of baking soda and water and rub this onto the iron in circular motions using a clean cloth. When all the stains are gone, apply some white vinegar to a cloth and use this to wipe away the baking soda residue.