[tweetmeme] Last month I read an article about baking soda for camping in the Hints From Heloise column.
If you are planning a summer camping trip, there’s one essential item you should add to your checklist: It’s my favorite – baking soda. It will be useful for many things:
- Freshen sleeping bags, tents, hiking boots or back-packed clothing by sprinkling with baking soda. Do this the night before leaving and then take the items outside and give them a good shake or two to remove all the baking soda.
- You can extinguish most campfires by pouring baking soda on them. Before leaving the campsite, you must be sure to double-check that the fire is completely out.
- Out of deodorant or forgot to pack it? Dust your underarms with baking soda, and you’re ready for the day.
- No toothpaste? mix a little baking soda with water and put it on your toothbrush.
- Burned dinner in a camping pot? Use baking soda to get it sparkling clean without a lot of scrubbing. Sprinkle in enough baking soda to cover the bottom of the pan, along with enough water to moisten. Let it sit, and then scrub the gunk out.
What tricks do you know that use baking soda while camping or around your house?
I know that placing baking soda in your refrigerator will help remove odors… what else have you got?
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I think you can sprinkle it on a damp sponge and use it to clean sinks and tubs.
I have used baking soda for both cleaning burned food out of pots and pans, and for extinguishing fires in grills. Amazing how quickly it will put out a fire!
That makes sense to me – like a natural “soft scrub”
I’ve never tried it for burned food, but want to try it in a pot that has a weird water stain in the bottom of it….
I’ve never tried it for anything other than emergency carpet freshener b4 I vaccumed.
And it’s great for that!!!
Baking soda is pretty versatile stuff because of it’s chemical properties. It is amphoteric which means it will react with both acids and bases. Since many odors are classic examples of acids or bases, bicarbonate is useful in eliminating many odors. By mixing it with vinegar, you can make some pretty sick volcanos.
Bicarbonate is also the active ingredient in Alkaseltzer and other antacids.
All of your uses above are valid chemical uses except the one about camp fires. You could throw pretty much any kind of salt or even sand onto a fire to snuff out a fire. There’s nothing special about baking soda here.
I think the reason all those things work on the camp fire is because they block the oxygen to the fire I’d think right?
I remember making volcanoes back when I was in elementary school – good times 🙂
You can use it to raise the total alkalinity of a swimming pool. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the pool store chemicals! There’re actually a lot of household items you can use for pool maintenance… check out http://www.poolcalculator.com/ if interested.
I have a friend that does that. I’m going to pass that link along to Michael – he’s my pool boy 😉
Thanks for telling me about it!!
I can’t believe I forgot this one. It’s great in case of a BEE STING! Make a paste of baking soda and water and place it on the area that was stung. It immediately relieves the pain and it never itches later. Of course, if you have allergies or are showing the signs of an allergic reaction (such as hives, difficulty breathing, throat or tongue swelling) you obviously need more serious medical help than baking soda.
I’ve never heard that. I wonder if it would work on a bee sting too???
Must add baking soda to my list of life’s essentials along with duct tape and WD40! 😛
White vinegar is another good one 🙂