Magical

Okay, so I had an embarrassing situation over the past month and a half. I, who never really got acne was getting it bad along my jaw line. BAD. It was annoying, somewhat painful and it made me want to scream. But then 2 nights ago I decided to start using baking soda to wash my face. Problem solved. Really, after one time it had completely gone down and now you can barely see it.

Baking soda is my miracle product. I have tried explaining to people how good it is to always have a lot around but most are skeptical.

Baking soda is tough but gentle. It will work on things without leaving a scratch. For instance, I love the look of a stainless steel sink. Something in me just feels amazingly accomplished when one is shining. However, stainless steel sinks can get gross. Even when clean they can have horrible water spots. The answer? Baking soda of course! Just a little bit of baking soda (and if you want, add a drop of soap) and scrub scrub. It gets them shining like never before. This works for anything stainless (at least anything I've tried so far). I've shined up bathroom faucets that were just aged and ugly. I use it to really make my stainless steel pots and pans shine. Oh, and when my husband accidentally let something burn on hard and nothing else worked on getting it off, I turned to the internet. We made a paste of baking soda (just enough water to make a very thick paste) let it sit on top of the burned on spot for a day (or 3, we wanted to give it plenty of time!) and it came off completely without leaving even a hint of the problem behind! After that we used baking soda to keep our burner pans bright and clean.

It also cleans porcelain amazingly. Our home in England had water so hard that you had to use salts in the dishwasher just to get things clean. In the bathroom the toilet had hard water stains. Well, that would not do for when I had company. So my husband, a pair of gloves, and baking soda got the job done. He would hand scrub with baking soda until the porcelain gleamed. The bathtub? It looked brand new after I cleaned it with baking soda. I also used baking soda on our couch when I wanted to get stains that Sophie brought in out of the upholstery. Is your washer smelling a little off? Use baking soda in one of the washes to help freshen it up. And when we eventually have a baby and cloth diaper, baking soda is one of the things you can wash them with!

I use baking soda more often to brush teeth than I do regular toothpaste. It gets them squeaky clean, with no glycerin overlay. Even when I use regular old toothpaste I add extra baking soda. You can use baking soda in bath bombs. You can use it in your shampoo when you need an extra thorough wash (if you got something gross in it, or got particularly sweaty and greasy). Just be careful to only use a little....your scalp is sensitive you know!

I use a lot of products that most people have in the homes in order to clean my home and maintain my possessions. From baking soda to vinegar to hydrogen peroxide. I think there are some amazing ideas out there (even some books) to help make simple cheap products do an amazing job for you! Have any suggestions, leave a comment. Or better yet, do a post of your own and I will link to you!