The Original All-Purpose Cleaner

Baking soda, plain old sodium bicarbonate, is the most useful substance in my house, bar none. In the bathroom, it’s tooth powder, tub-scrubber and skin-soother. In the kitchen, it sops up grease in pans and on the stove, adds bite to the dish towel for washing dishes without a dishwasher, and sucks odors out of the bottom of the garbage can. In the laundry, it softens water, kills odors and boosts detergents.

Baking soda’s also a good unscented air freshener. Let a sprinkling of it sit on carpets and upholstery to suck up odors before you give them a good vacuuming. That works when cleaning the fabric in your car, too. You can also put a quarter cup or so in a little jar or shaker container to make a room or car air freshener. If you want it to smell like something, you can drop in a vanilla bean, a cinnamon stick or any kind of aromatic oil.

Here's a cheesy video from Arm & Hammer that lays out the basics. I was hoping it would lay out all the properties of bicarbonate of soda that make it so special. It doesn't, but it does give you the rundown on what it is and what it does.

And here’s one ”weird tip” for using baking soda in the bathroom: Say you just finished a long milk or oil bath. If you’re not squeamish about cleaning in the buff, drain the tub and put a little mound of the baking soda you keep in the bathroom on your washcloth, give it a squirt of whatever liquid soap or shampoo you have handy. Crouch or kneel in the tub water and wipe that ring right off before you  ever exit the tub. Get out, rinse the sides, open the drain and scrub down to the bottom until the water drains out. If you time it just right, you’ll need minimal or no additional water to get it rinsed.

 I dare you to try that with your Scrubbing Bubbles!