Baking Soda and non-toxic cleaning

I cleaned with baking soda for the first time yesterday and I think I kinda liked it! I used it in 3 different ways and all seemed good. I liked it! Here's what I did.

1) My bedroom has seemed a bit stinky the last few days. I'm not sure if it's just because winter's over and we've had the windows closed for a long time, or if it's from years of Max puking/peeing on our carpets, or if it's because I'm just more sensitive to it because I'm pregnant. Maybe some combo of the above, but I haven't been thrilled with how it has smelled. So I started by spreading some baking soda all over the carpet and let it sit for about half an hour. I tested a smaller patch with my vacuum first to make sure that it wasn't going to cause a vacuum problem. Then I vacuumed it all up. I'm not 100% sure if it made a difference or not but it sure didn't hurt. I am going to try it on carpet all over my house.

2) In a further attempt to deodorize, I mixed some lemon juice with baking soda and have left a bowl of it in the room. It is supposed to suck up the smells. Again, not sure it's done anything but it doesn't smell bad. After these 2 bedroom techniques, so far I haven't smelled that bedroom smell I was displeased with. I want to give it a few more days to judge for sure but so far, so good!

3) Then I used baking soda to clean our bathroom tub. It took a LOT of elbow grease. I could really see the allure of scrubbing bubbles, which claim to do the scrubbing for you. But the tub and the faucets were clean and shiny by the time I was done. I had let a lot of dirt build up though so maybe if I do this every week, scrubbing won't be so hard. I didn't notice a huge difference in how clean the grout looked though, but I've heard maybe if the grout is stained, you should try some vinegar first and then baking soda after that, so I still have a shot with that. And it's not like dirty grout is so easy to clean, even with toxic cleaning products, so I will keep trying. After the tub was clean, I filled it with water and soaked a few lemon rinds overnight and left the bathroom alone.

When I went into it the first time this morning, the tub was so sparkily and let me tell you, it smelled pretty darn good too. Sort of like baking lemon bread. I would much rather my bathroom smell like that than some harsh cleaning product (especially Ka-boom, gross!) It's pretty pleasant all around.

My butt is sore from how hard I had to scrub the tub though, so if washing it weekly needs that much scrubbing, I'll either have some great ass muscles, or I'll give it up because it's too much work. But I'm definitely going to look into more non-toxic cleaning methods in the future.