Cleaning with common salt

The salt we are talking about here is table salt, common salt, or sodium chloride.

(Why the picture of lemons? - Please see below for tips on cleaning with salt and lemon juice!)

Any table salt from the supermarket or grocery store works fine.

This is how you can use salt in your cleaning programme.

General household cleaning:

Salt dissolves easily in water and can be used by itself or mixed with several other environmentally-friendly cleaners. You can combine it safely with vinegar, lemon juice, or washing up liquid.

Washing up:
Try it if you run out of washing up liquid. Just sprinkle a tablespoonful of salt into the water. Rinse the dishes well afterwards. You may want to wear gloves or use a skin cream after using it as salt is rather drying for your skin.

General cleaning:
Mix salt with vinegar for a good general purpose cleaner. Don't use it on lino, waxed surfaces, or marble. The vinegar may cause damage to the surface.

Vinegar and salt can be used for many general household cleaning jobs, such as cleaning sinks and tiles and glass.

It will also remove stains from teacups and teapots.

Oven and hob spills:
Oven and hob spills can be covered with salt. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes. Add a little water if necessary. Then wipe up. The salt absorbs the liquids and helps lift them from the surface. It is particularly good at absorbing grease and oils.

Cleaning pans:
Salt can be a great cleaner for cast iron pans. Sprinkle salt around and then wipe clean. You can even do this instead of washing it in water (if the pan only lightly soiled.) It helps protect the surface and makes it behave more like a non-stick pan.

Alternatively, use it with hot water. Rinse the pan afterwards and brush with oil.

Burnt-on food:
Add 3 or 4 tablespoons of salt to burnt pans as soon as the damage occurs. This makes them easier to clean.

Cleaning metals:
Salt can be mixed with lemon juice to clean some metals.

Use lemon juice or lime juice and salt to clean brass and pewter. Sprinkle salt into an empty squeezed-out lemon half and rub down the metal. Rinse off the gunk and buff the surface to a shine with a soft cloth.

Other uses:
Salt is also a valuable cleaning product for laundry. Please see my website Greenfootsteps.com for more tips.

See below for a few laundry tips.

Here are a few ways that salt can be used for laundry and other household tasks.

Delicate items

Salt can also be sprinkled on some (dry) materials to remove dust and dirt. If you have delicate fabric items or artificial flowers in which dust has become embedded in the folds, sprinkle a little salt onto the items. The salt will gather the dust and both can then be safely shaken out.

Excess detergent

If you pour out too much detergent, some salt sprinkled onto the lather will quickly reduce the froth without spoiling the cleaning power of the detergent.

An occasional replacement for detergent

I've also found that you can use salt and soap flakes together as an alternative to detergent. Just grate some laundry soap into the soap dispenser and add about a tablespoon of salt. You can also add sodium bicarbonate if you want to make sure your laundry is fresh-smelling! This seems to work pretty well, though I haven't done double-blind tests on it as a method!

I would not use it all the time, as it might affect rubber and metal parts of your machine adversely. I've used it off and on for months with no detectable problems. Contact your washing machine manufacturer if in doubt about the wisdom of this. Using salt and soap saves on the carbon footprint, too because you don't have to nip out to the shop to buy detergent!

So far, I use salt and soap for washing when my washball runs low, or when I think I need something slightly stronger than the washball.

(Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out my lens on washballs.)

Cleaning wine spills

Salt is great for cleaning red wine from materials. See a demonstration below from Youtube of how to clean red wine from a carpet.

How eco-friendly is salt as a cleaner?

You may be wondering just how much of this wonder cleaner we can tip down our drains into the waste water system!

Salt is extremely safe as a cleaner as it breaks down harmlessly. Salt as a road de-icer can cause some problems, mainly by causing rust in cars and some damage to nearby vegetation. However the only problem with salt as a domestic cleaner is if you use it a lot and then save the "grey water" for use on your garden. The salt concentration may be too high for your plants to handle.