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Baking Soda Mason Jar Shaker

Baking soda is one of the hardest working ingredients in my house. I have a box in the pantry for baking and cooking. I also have one box of baking soda in the freezer and one in the refrigerator to deodorize them. I hate a stinky fridge!

I change the boxes in the refrigerator and freezer every 30 days or so – mostly or so. Not out of laziness but out of eventually-shoved-in-the-back-of-the-fridge forgetfulness. Oops.

To make my life easier because you know I’m all about easy (oh my! That doesn’t sound very good) and to keep the open box of baking soda from spilling because I’m all about klutzy too, I made a baking soda shaker from a mason jar.





I cut the netting from a bag of fresh garlic to fit inside a Mason jar ring. I filled the jar with baking soda and screwed the DIY shaker top onto the jar.



 DIY shaker top

I made and Mod Podged a fancy pants label onto the front of the shaker jar to remind everyone this is baking soda for cleaning and not for cooking. The shaker top makes it even easier to shake, shake, shake the old baking soda on my mess to clean it.

I may pour some baking soda down the sink to 
deoderize the drains but it rarely needs the entire box.

After 30 days, the baking soda isn’t great for cooking or deodorizing but it still works for cleaning! I use baking soda to clean:

  • Baking soda and a sploosh of dishwashing detergent makes a great scouring cleaner. It deodorizes the drain as you rinse it from the sink – the lazy way!
  • Allowing a pan to soak filled with baking soda and water will make cleaning baked on food much easier! Sometimes if the pan is bad, I add a sploosh of dish soap.
  • A foaming baking soda and vinegar reaction cleans my oven door better than anything I buy in a store (and trust me, I’ve tried everything.)
  • A foaming baking soda and vinegar reaction followed by hot water will clear a clogged sink better than Drano.

Trying to get an extra use out of the things we use is one more tactic I use to save money. Using baking soda for cleaning may not save me a ton, unless you want to count the cost of not paying for spendy eco-friendly scrubs and cleaners.

How do you use baking soda?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Baking Soda is great for getting coffee stains out of coffee mugs. I usually use more than I should, but I tend to scrub the affect area with it.
Great Idea! I reuse glass jars all the time, but I love the concept of reusing those netted bags we so often get with our produce.
Donna Wilkes said…
Love this practical idea! I love my baking soda.
Looks nice! I like the way you reused a net bag as well as the jar.

But...don't you knock over the jar and spill baking soda through the net? Doesn't it clump from being exposed to the air all the time? I have always assumed (being pretty klutzy myself) that the shaker needs to have a lid on when not in use.

So I made my baking soda shaker from a small plastic jar with shaker top under a screw-on lid. It originally held oregano, and for a couple years the baking soda did smell like oregano, but for scrubbing that doesn't matter. I covered the original label with a small piece of wrapping paper that coordinates with my kitchen.
Clever idea! Thanks for sharing.
The baking soda may clump a bit but the netting takes care of breaking up the clumps when I shake it out of the jar for cleaning. I haven't had an issue with jar spilling like I do with leaving the open box under the sink. There's a photo of my kitchen sink set up in this post http://www.lazybudgetchef.com/2013/02/12-things-i-do-not-buy.html
This is a fantastic idea! I've Pinned it and now I'm thinking how great it would work for sprinkling powdered sugar onto French toast, too!

Thanks for joining my link party. :)
Niki said…
Clever, Clever...it is amazing what all Baking Soda can do!!
Laurie said…
I use an empty parmesan cheese container with baking soda and borax in it. Works wonders and non-breakable.