What is baking soda good for in cleaning?

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) does three cleaning jobs: it scrubs as a mild abrasive, it absorbs and neutralizes odors, and dissolved in water it makes a gently alkaline wash for refrigerators and fixtures. A 1 percent solution measures pH 8.2, barely above neutral, and its maker classifies it as not hazardous. That mildness is its value and its limit. It will not dissolve hard-water scale, it does little to heavy grease, and mixing it with vinegar uses up both. This page covers the jobs baking soda does, the surfaces it scratches, what it reacts with, and how to store it.

Three things baking soda does well

1. Scrubbing

Dry or as a paste, baking soda is a fine, soft grit. New Mexico State University Extension lists it as "a mild abrasive" [1], and University of Georgia Extension uses it with salt on tubs "as you would scouring powder" [2]. For cooked-on spills in an oven, NMSU says to sprinkle baking soda on the wet area, scrub gently, then wipe clean [1]. The method for the whole oven, and why lye oven cleaners are a buy-not-make product, is on the ovens and stovetops page.

2. Deodorizing

NMSU lists baking soda "to absorb odors, deodorize" [1], and UGA's garbage can deodorizer is 1 cup of baking soda with 1 teaspoon of tea tree oil [2]. Deodorizing is a cleaning claim. Killing the bacteria that cause odor is a pesticidal claim under federal law, so a baking soda product you sell can say it removes or absorbs odors and nothing about the bacteria behind them [3].

3. A mild alkaline wash

Dissolved in water, baking soda cleans without leaving a soap smell. UF/IFAS gives a refrigerator cleaner of 2 tablespoons of baking soda in 1 quart of warm water, with dry baking soda rubbed on hard-to-clean spots, and specifically says not to use soap because it leaves an odor [4]. UGA's plumbing fixture cleaner uses the same ratio, 2 tablespoons per quart of water [2].

What baking soda does not do

• Dissolve mineral scale. Scale needs an acid. Baking soda is alkaline, so on a crusty faucet it is only an abrasive.
• Cut heavy grease. It is too weak an alkali. NMSU reaches for washing soda "to cut heavy grease" instead [1]; the difference is on the washing soda page.
• Kill germs. In Rutala and colleagues' 2000 laboratory study, baking soda reduced all four test bacteria by less than 3 log10 (less than 99.9 percent) [8], and no germ claim can be made for it. The study's results are on the does vinegar disinfect page.
• Clean better with vinegar. See below.

Why baking soda and vinegar cancel out

Church & Dwight's Safety Data Sheet for baking soda states that it "reacts with acids to yield carbon dioxide" [5]. The fizz you see when vinegar meets baking soda is that reaction. The acid and the bicarbonate neutralize each other, the carbon dioxide bubbles off, and what is left is mostly water with a little sodium acetate dissolved in it. You end up with less acid and less baking soda than either ingredient alone.

NMSU publishes a drain method that pours 1/2 cup of baking soda followed by 1/2 cup of vinegar, waits 10 minutes, then flushes with hot water [1]. That is the publication's method and it is reported here, not recommended. A slow drain is usually a physical clog, and the drains page starts with the plunger and the drain snake. The combinations page covers when the bubbling might do some mechanical work and when it does nothing.

Use the two separately instead: baking soda paste to scrub, rinse, then vinegar on its own for scale.

Surfaces baking soda scratches

Any abrasive can scratch a surface softer than its grit or a polished finish. The one named source on this is the stone trade: the Miracle Sealants Company's stone care booklet says "Do not use scouring powders or creams; these products contain abrasives that may scratch the surface," and adds "Don't use household abrasive cleaners such as dry cleansers or soft cleaners" on natural stone [6]. A baking soda paste is exactly that kind of soft abrasive cleaner.

For glass cooktops, high-gloss finishes, plastic lenses and anything with a manufacturer's care sheet, follow the sheet, and test a paste on a hidden spot before scrubbing where a scratch would show. The surface table gathers the sources by surface.

Church & Dwight's hazard figures for baking soda

The sheet is from 2009, before OSHA aligned its rules with the GHS system, so it uses the older format. It is still the manufacturer's statement of hazard for the product.

The physician's note is the line that matters most at home: baking soda is low in hazard, but not something to swallow in quantity. If a child eats a large amount, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 [7].

Storing baking soda

Church & Dwight's instruction is short: "Store in cool, dry areas and away from incompatible substances" [5]. In practice:

• Keep the cleaning box apart from the box you bake with, and label it, so a box that has absorbed refrigerator odors or sat under the sink does not go into food.
• Keep it dry. Damp baking soda cakes and loses its free-flowing grit.
• A paste or solution you mix is a homemade cleaner like any other. Make what you will use, and keep it in a labeled container that is not a food or drink container (the bottles and labels page explains why).

Where baking soda goes from here

For a scrub you can make for sinks and tubs, the scouring powder page quotes the published powder and paste recipes and says which surfaces they scratch. If you need more alkali than baking soda gives, read the washing soda page next.

References

1. New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension, Griffiths and Koukel, Green Alternatives to Toxic Household Products and Hazardous Waste (G-313), revised February 2019. https://pubs.nmsu.edu/_g/G313/index.html
2. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension (Pamela R. Turner and Sharon M. S. Gibson), *Green Cleaning: Recipes for a Healthy Home*, HACE-E-73-1 (Green Clean Booklet), revised October 2018. https://site.extension.uga.edu/greenway/files/2024/09/10.18_Green-Clean-Booklet_update.pdf
3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Determining If a Cleaning Product Is a Pesticide Under FIFRA, last updated July 6, 2026. https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/determining-if-cleaning-product-pesticide-under-fifra
4. University of Florida IFAS Extension, Griffin and Cantrell, Homemade Household Cleaners (FCS3319), Release Date October 7, 2025. https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FY1449
5. Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Material Safety Data Sheet: Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda), MSDS-960, issued January 20, 2009. https://www.physics.purdue.edu/primelab/safety/MSDS/Retired%20SDS%20and%20MSDS/2017%20removed%20safety%20sheets/MSDS%20updated%20to%20SDS/baking%20soda%20%20-%20Arm%20and%20Hammer.pdf
6. Miracle Sealants Company, Natural Stone Care Made Simple: Caring for Your Stone Installation, 2017 edition. https://www.rustoleum.com/~/media/RustoleumUSA/Pages/miracle-sealants/documents/care_guides/Miracle_Sealants_Company_Basic_Natural_Stone_Care_2017.ashx?la=en
7. Poison Control (National Capital Poison Center), Poison Statistics: National Data 2024. https://www.poison.org/poison-statistics
8. Rutala WA, Barbee SL, Aguiar NC, Sobsey MD, Weber DJ, Antimicrobial activity of home disinfectants and natural products against potential human pathogens, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 2000;21(1):33-38, doi:10.1086/501694. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6D70C6F5E3928DDB3365FB9AF7CCD8E9/S0195941700071782a.pdf/antimicrobial_activity_of_home_disinfectants_and_natural_products_against_potential_human_pathogens.pdf