While it’s an integral part of every home, cleaning the bathroom is often a dreaded task, with the abundance of nooks and crannies that all need equal attention. Two popular household options are baking soda as a bathroom cleaner, and vinegar as a bathroom cleaner, each being praised for their ability to make quick work of dirt and grime. But, are using these really enough to get your bathroom clean, or should you be adding in a more potent option? Below we’ll dive into how capable baking soda and vinegar are, what they are good to use on, but most importantly, whether they are enough or not.
Understanding The Chemistry: Bases and Acids & How They Work
To understand how baking soda and vinegar work as bathroom cleaners, we first need to know the chemistry behind these two substances. Calling something a base or acid simply refers to their pH level, which is a range of numbers from 0-14 that indicates how neutral they are. Baking soda has a pH of 9 (base), while vinegar has a pH of 2.5, making it a fairly strong acid.
Why does this matter?
When we combine baking soda and vinegar, they react to create sodium acetate (salt) and carbonic acid (water). The carbonic acid breaks down into carbon dioxide and water, which causes the bubbling reaction you see. The acid breakdown aids in removing dirt and grime, while the water assists in rinsing away leftover residue.
Combining Baking Soda Bathroom Cleaner and Vinegar Bathroom Cleaner: Potent Enough?
While these two bathroom cleaning agents are often combined together, the solution isn’t really potent enough to get a good deep clean from them. This is because the bubbling reaction you see quickly subsides and renders it less potent for long-term cleaning purposes. Plus, because the reaction you get when mixing the two is instantaneous, you can’t premix them.
The real power of baking soda and vinegar as bathroom cleaners is in using them separately to capitalize on their individual strengths, and then pairing them with a traditional bathroom cleaning solution like ROG3 for those deep, tough, and grimy areas.
Where to Use Baking Soda as a Bathroom Cleaner?
Baking soda’s strength as a bathroom cleaner is in its fine particles. It works as a gentle abrasive, making it suitable to scrub away dirt and grime without causing damage to most surfaces. It can also work as a deodorizer, neutralizing odors by breaking down the molecules that cause them. This makes it great for tackling the hard-to-remove stains that lurk at the bottom of the toilet bowl, and in the grooves of your tile grout.
Where to Use Vinegar as a Bathroom Cleaner?
Using white vinegar as a bathroom cleaner works well because its mild acetic acid content is great for dissolving greasy molecules without causing harm to most finishes (avoid natural stone). You can use it to achieve a:
- Mix equal parts vinegar and water into a spray bottle to achieve streak-free and sparkling glass/mirror surfaces.
- Soak a cloth in vinegar and directly apply it to hard water stains to dissolve the mineral deposits.
- Use vinegar’s antimicrobial properties to work as a deodorizer on counter-tops, sinks, and toilet seats.
How Do These Natural Cleaners Match Up?
Now don’t get us wrong; you can definitely mix baking soda and vinegar together for cleaning areas that require a fast-acting solution, like descaling a showerhead or unclogging a sink drain, just don’t expect the mixture to work really well on deep-seated grime or stubborn stains. These may require a more powerful cleaning solution that is designed to tackle the bathroom’s nastier build-up. If your bathroom is harboring some difficult-to-clean corners, our ROG3 products are perfect for tackling hard water stains, mold, mildew, grout dirt, soap scum, and mineral buildup on all of your bathroom’s surfaces.