I tried out five different baking soda hacks—which ones worked?

如果您曾经上网，那么您很可能看到了谈论“黑客”或新颖的捷径，这些文章使您的生活变得更加轻松。在审核时，我们已经谈论过Mac计算机黑客,干燥机板骇客,lemon hacks, and, of course,小苏打骇客.

Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is anabrasive, absorptive saltthat can take on many stains and smells. As far as the topic of hacks go, baking soda is perfect—it’s cheap, easily available for purchase, and not special enough that you have to justify using it to yourself.

有意义,有吨baking soda hack articles out there. While there were plenty of lists of baking soda hacks, though, I didn’t see many articles actually showing the hacks working in real life. So, out of curiosity, I picked a few baking soda hacks that I found online, and tried them out. The results were mixed, but overall, I was pretty impressed with the myriad of ways baking soda is the easy answer to an annoying problem:

•Deodorizing smelly sneakers
•美白牙齿
•Removing sweat stains
•Acting as dry shampoo
•Preserving cut flowers

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Deodorizing smelly sneakers

I’m an amateur runner who logs about 8 miles per week, so it’s probably not surprising that my running shoes smell. According toour baking soda hacks article, baking soda can get rid of nasty shoe smells with little to no effort on my part. All I had to do was pour a bunch of baking soda into two old socks, cinch the socks closed with rubber bands, and then leave the baking soda socks in my smelly shoes.

I ended up leaving the socks in there overnight, and I will say that the smell from my shoes was downgraded from “gag-inducing” to “normal worn shoe smell.” The sharp, smelly tang was largely gone, but my shoes still smelled worse than my normal “not sweating, just walking around” sneakers. I tried the trick again right after I went for a run, and it reduced the odor, but to a lesser extent. My suspicion is that it’s harder for the baking soda to remove both odors that have been present for a while and have really embedded themselves into the fabric of the shoe and smells that are very new (i.e. sweat that's still wet) and haven’t “set” into the shoe yet. For relatively new smells that have dried into the fabric of the shoe, though, you may have more success. One way to increase the likelihood that your shoes will be deodorized may be to use more baking soda in each sock—I only used enough baking soda to fill each sock about halfway.

My recommendation:Use this hack to help keep new shoes smelling fresh, and older shoes smelling tolerable, but don’t expect miracles if you’re using this hack on older shoes.

Does it work?Yes (mostly)

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Tooth powder/teeth whitener

According tothis baking soda hack list, you can whiten your teeth and/or use baking soda as a tooth powder. This one isn’t really a stretch, since baking soda is found in many whitening toothpastes.

为了尝试这个骇客，我将牙刷弄湿，将其浸入小苏打中，然后像使用牙膏一样刷牙。然后，按照视频中的建议，我第二次用常规牙膏刷了。我每天两次刷牙五天，老实说，我真的没有注意到牙齿的白度有所不同。

What I did notice was that my teethfeltcleaner because the baking soda basically scoured my mouth clean each time I used it. However, that clean feeling came at a cost: After a week, my mouth felt pretty tender from being scraped clean twice a day. Indeed, Colgate mentions that baking soda helps with surface stains, but with too much use,could damage your tooth enamel. Also, the baking soda didn’t really taste bad, but it had kind of a salty, bitter taste. And for whatever reason, I was much more likely to dribble it all over myself during brushing.

My recommendation:Use this hack only in short bursts, or if you forgot to bring your toothpaste somewhere.

Does it work?Generally no, but it works fine in specific circumstances

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Remove sweat stains

If you’ve ever worn white or light-colored T-shirts, you’ve probably had to toss one or more of them out because of gross-looking sweat stains centered around the collar and arm pit area. While we have recommendations for how to get rid ofa ton of stains, including sweat, the tough part about sweat stains is that you don’t actually notice them until it’s too late, and they’ve been baked into your T-shirt.

Forthis hack, I mixed four tablespoons of baking soda with enough water to make a goopy paste.

然后，我将糊状物涂在坑污渍上，让它静置一个小时。小时升起后，我将T恤，粘贴和全部扔进了正常的洗衣机周期和正常的干燥机周期。

To my surprise, the pit stain, while still noticeable, was not as prominent as it was prior to using the baking soda. I wouldn’t say the T-shirt was restored enough that I could wear it out and about, but the pit stain had been downgraded from “gross pit stain” to “mild discoloration.” If it was this effective on a baked-in pit stain, it might be even better to use it before the sweat stain is permanent.

My recommendation:如果您在衬衫上大量汗水，并且怀疑可能会污渍污渍，请在将T恤扔入洗涤之前，在将T恤扔到洗涤之前，并可能会防止或极大地减轻对T恤的任何汗水污渍的伤害。如果您开始注意到小汗污渍，请使用此黑客将T恤恢复到以前的荣耀。

Does it work?Yes

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干洗发液

因为小苏打是吸收气味,石油s, and cut through grease, using it as a dry shampoo seems reasonable enough. To prepare for this hack, I didn’t wash my hair for two days, and it was a gross, oily mess. Following the directions inour baking soda hack article，我将小苏打洒在头发上，尤其是沿着我的零件，然后将其擦入根部。我让它坐在头发中一个小时，然后将其刷掉。

My hair didn’t feel noticeably cleaner, except for my roots, which were a bit drier and felt as though some of the grease and oil had been removed. It’s the ends of my hair that kept brushing my face, though, and that part of my hair still felt like a yucky mess. For this to be entirely effective, I think you’d have to douse your whole head in baking soda, not just your roots.

My recommendation:If you’re really desperate, this hack may help your hair feel less greasy, but otherwise, just keep a small can ofdry shampoowith you; it’s much more effective at cleaning your hair when you don’t have time for a shower.

Does it work?不

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Preserving cut flowers

Sadly, cut flowers only have a shelf-life of five to six days, and that’s if you use the flower food and swap out the water every day, instead of just letting them sit in a vase of water without further intervention.

Forthis hack, all it takes to extend the lifespan of your cut flowers is swapping in clean water every day, along with a pinch of salt and a pinch of baking soda.

With the addition of the salt and baking soda, the cut flowers definitely stayed perky, while the flowers that didn’t get a salt-and-baking-soda boost started to wilt; the positive effect of the baking soda and salt became more obvious over the course of a week or so.

My recommendation:Definitely use this baking soda and salt hack if you want to preserve cut flowers for more than a few days.

Does it work?Yes

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小苏打有很多用途，但希望我的经验为您省去了任何偶然的小苏打骇客，为您节省了一些反复试验（和失望）。即使其中一些骇客的作用并不完美，也要保留小苏打在手上，以防您需要烘烤，清洁或仅保留冰箱气味。

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