Welcome to Lifestyle Wednesdays! Here at Dandelion Summers, our goal is to provide you with only the purest products to help you enjoy a healthy, toxin-free environment. But there are also many very inexpensive things you can do each day, often with ingredients you already have, to further reduce the toxins in your home. Each Wednesday, I will be sharing simple changes you can make around the home and in the kitchen to help you live a healthy, natural lifestyle. Today I wanted to share one of my favorite non-toxic cleaners; one that you most likely have in your kitchen cupboard, and that is a real workhorse when it comes to non-toxic cleaning: baking soda.

Photo Credit: lynnfang.com

Baking soda was one of the first things I learned how to use when I was first married and decided that I didn’t want any toxic cleaners in our home. As the years go by, I keep finding more and more reasons to love this simple, inexpensive ingredient. Because of this, I have decided to divide this post into three parts. For this first part, I will share some ways I like to use baking soda in the kitchen. Here are some of my favorite uses:

• Stainless Steel Pan Scrubber: Sprinkle some baking soda on a damp pan and scrub with a washcloth – make sure to go with the grain of your pan!
• Silver Polish: Okay, honestly, we don’t own any real silver (yet) but it works wonders on our stainless steel flatware and it can be used on silver as well. Just make a thick paste with baking soda and water and polish with a soft cloth, then rinse with warm water and rub dry with a towel.
• Polish Your Sink: If you have a stainless steel sink, rinse out your sink, sprinkle some baking soda all around, and scrub with a soft cloth or sponge, concentrating on the places around the faucet and drain spout (use an old toothbrush if you need to). Your sink will look brand new! This will work in other types of sinks as well, the stainless steel ones just really shine after this!
• Garbage Disposal Cleanse: A great way to deodorize your garbage disposal is to pour some baking soda and vinegar down the drain, wait a few minutes, then turn on the faucet and the disposal and rinse it out. No more yucky odors!
• Glass Stove Top Cleaner: If you have a glass-top stove, baking soda will clean it much better than the harsh chemical stuff. Sprinkle some baking soda onto a damp stove, then scrub with a “no-scratch” scouring pad (3M makes these).

Next week I will share some of my favorite uses of baking soda in the rest of the house. Stay tuned!

What are some ways you use baking soda in the kitchen?

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