The Best Heavy Duty Kitchen Cleaner is Already in Your Pantry

When I’m not using baking soda and lemon for baked goods and vinaigrettes, you can find them in equal measure in my DIY cleaning products.  

Consider the All Purpose Vinegar Cleaner your everyday surface cleaner, and this baking soda and lemon cleaner (BSL) your whoops-that’s-gonna-stain version…For those occasions when you spilled turmeric all over your kitchen counter instead of your soup pot. Or when your oven is so grimy you can no longer peek excitedly at a cake through the oven window.

As such, I use BSL primarily to remove surface counter stains and lift away oven grime. But if you’re so inclined, it can also be used to lighten kitchen and bathroom tile grout after a thirty to forty-five minute soak. How it works: the acid from the lemon creates a chemical reaction with the alkaline baking soda to cut through grease and grime.  

To prepare the BSL paste: mix ½ cup of baking soda and the juice of one lemon in a bowl. Or if you’re more laissez faire as I am about cleaning potions, simply sprinkle a bit of baking soda directly over the offending stain, and follow up with a good squeeze from half a lemon. Allow it foam up a bit for a few minutes, then scrub away with a sponge or scouring pad. Be sure to run a damp cloth over the stain/surface afterwards to avoid any irritating grit leftover from the baking soda.

And voila! That’s all there is to it! While you might just turn to other bottled cleaning agents for these types of occasions, I can’t recommend this dream duo enough. Not only does it keep you  clear of all the toxic chemicals, but it also consists of two simple ingredients that most everyone already has on hand.

NOTE: Do not use lemon on marble, granite, etc. as its acidic properties will etch its surface and make it dull.