Simply sprinkle baking soda onto a wet stain, leave it overnight and you'll be surprised by the results. Not only will the stain likely be gone, but so too will any related odors – no need for an additional paste. As long as you cover the entire area of the stain with baking soda, it should do the trick!
Sprinkle dry baking soda on the stain immediately, and let it sit for 15 minutes or until you can deal with the stain (early treatment is best). The baking soda will soak up liquid and pigment as it dries1.
If you use it quickly and rinse it off, you might be fine, but allowing a baking soda mixture to sit on the surface for too long can cause it to oxidize, which means that the surface changes color.
The acetic acid in vinegar acts as a disinfectant and reacts with the baking soda to lift stains. This combination is also great for brightening whites. With a little bit of scrubbing and leaving the paste to set for 30 minutes, I was able to almost remove the stains completely from my white jeans.
Bicarbonate of soda will work on a multitude of stains, from simple juice spots to the most stubborn of stains. When bicarbonate of soda mixes with water it forms a froth, this bubbling action is actually why bicarb can really infiltrate fabrics and lift stains from clothes.
Well, that would depend on its intended use. For instance, vinegar is potent at fighting mold while baking soda is great at fighting wine and coffee stains. The former is a better disinfectant but the latter is a phenomenal deodorizer.
Vinegar and baking soda are your best friends when it comes to stains. Most stains can be lifted by making a paste with vinegar and baking soda, rubbing it on the stain, and letting it sit for about half an hour. This works great for yellow underarm stains and old stains, as well as most food and drink stains.
“Use a solution of 50 percent vinegar and 50 percent water on the stain. Apply liberally and then treat with laundry soap and water. “DO NOT put the garment in the dryer until you have seen that the stain is gone,” he warns.
For most purposes, Harris recommends combining one part baking soda with two parts white vinegar. That combo can cut through grease and lift stains, sometimes better than store-bought cleaners, she says. Important: Never combine vinegar with bleach.
"Baking soda is basic and vinegar is acidic," says Bock. "When you put them together you get mostly water and sodium acetate. But really, just mostly water." Plus, vinegar causes baking soda to foam up. If stored in a closed container, the mixture can explode.
Although mixing vinegar and baking soda is not considered dangerous, you should still avoid mixing these in a container. Vinegar is acidic and basic soda is basic, so the by-products are sodium acetate, carbon dioxide, and water that are not toxic.
First neutralize with a vinegar solution (1 part white vinegar to 1 part water). Blot with a towel from the edge of the stain inward. Follow this with a solution of warm water and dish soap, then remove with a damp towel.
When it comes to cleaning, baking powder is less effective than baking soda. You'll have to use 4x more baking powder for every 1 part of baking soda required. Even then, baking powder won't be able to deodorise and remove stains as thoroughly as baking soda can.
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, a fine white powder that has many uses. You may wonder about bicarbonate of soda vs. baking soda, but they are simply alternate terms for the same ingredient. If your recipe calls for bicarbonate of soda, it is simply referring to baking soda.
'Baking soda will not bleach or lighten your clothes,' she reiterates, 'but it may have the effect of brightening colors and whites. ' For whitening, Penny recommends using an oxygen-based bleaching agent, such as Oxiclean, available at Walmart, or sticking to carefully using bleach in laundry.
Simply sprinkle baking soda onto a wet stain, leave it overnight and you'll be surprised by the results. Not only will the stain likely be gone, but so too will any related odors – no need for an additional paste. As long as you cover the entire area of the stain with baking soda, it should do the trick!
OxiClean has the best overall value for its ability to tackle tough, set-in stains on clothes and throughout other household areas. We think it's the best laundry stain cleaner on the market and can replace several products in the laundry room. OxiClean is also easy to use in most cases.
Mix 1 tablespoon of liquid laundry detergent with enzymes with 1 cup of water. Add 1/4 teaspoon of white vinegar and stir. Use a Dobie All Purpose Cleaning Pad to apply the detergent-vinegar mixture to your unidentified stain. Blot with the pad until the stain is gone.
To remove stains with vinegar via pre-treating, you can dilute the vinegar with water (vinegar 1:3 Water) or soak in undiluted vinegar and allow garments to soak between 15-30 mins or even overnight depending on the stubbornness of the stain.
Douse the stain with white vinegar, then apply a paste made of equal parts baking soda and vinegar. If this doesn't work, immerse the item overnight in a bucket of water containing a few tablespoons of detergent and vinegar. Rinse and wash the following morning.
The mixture quickly foams up with carbon dioxide gas. If enough vinegar is used, all of the baking soda can be made to react and disappear into the vinegar solution. The reaction is: Sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid reacts to carbon dioxide, water and sodium acetate.