How to clean with salt: 11 do-it-yourself remedies for ecological cleaning

If you use salt only in the kitchen, you should know that it can also be useful for house cleaning. Try it to eliminate wine stains or to brighten up the dark colors of your clothes, but also to clean the silverware.

Salt can be excellent to clean your home, an economic and eco-friendly "natural detergent" that we can use to revive the colors of our clothes, wash the floors and much more. Along with baking soda, vinegar and lemon, salt is one of the key ingredients of do-it-yourself detergents. The cleaning power of the salt is given by its hygroscopic potential, that is the ability to attract and retain liquids. So let's see how to use it in an alternative and ecological way.

How to use salt for house cleaning

From the floor, to the refrigerator up to the flatiron, let’s see some tips to quickly and easily clean our house with salt.

1. Refrigerator

If your refrigerator has stains and bad smells you can prepare a detergent by adding a teaspoon of salt to a liter of water, and spray the mixture on the sponge that you will rub on the refrigerator. In this way, all the shelves will be clean and white.

2. Floors and hard surfaces

We can also use the sanitizing power of salt to clean floors, tiles and hard surfaces, except marble, which is a more sensitive material and could be damaged. The salt gives these surfaces brilliance and it will allow you to have always shiny and bright floors. Add a handful of salt to 1.5 liters of hot water. For more stubborn stains, add a little baking soda as well. Used as a creamy compound, it also helps to clean the joints: fill a glass with half water and half coarse salt and mix to obtain a homogeneous mixture, pour it on a toothbrush and apply it on the joints that will turn white in a few minutes.

3. Silverware and coffee maker

Even the silverware will be revived if it is immersed in a basin with water and salt: the stains will be eliminated and the objects will find again their brilliance. Or, if it is particularly blackened, just create a paste with flour, vinegar and salt and rubs. If you can't clean your coffee maker, simply dissolve a teaspoon of salt in the water and bring it to the boil to remove all coffee and dirt residues. If you add a little lemon juice, the moka will be even more brilliant. If the sink is clogged, you can use boiling water with two tablespoons of coarse salt to use it again without problems.

4. Plastic containers

To clean the glass containers, it would be good not to use dish detergents. Better to opt for a mixture of hot water, vinegar and coarse salt. Just shake with energy and then rinse for incredible results.

5. Stainless steel and aluminum

To clean the kitchen sink or aluminum shelves, mix a small cup of salt with lemon juice. Apply this soft paste to the surface with a soft sponge, rinse with a damp sponge and then dry with a clean cotton cloth. When you have to clean a burned pot, you can use salt, vinegar, a few drops of fresh lemon and a little flour to create a paste similar to a scrub to clean the pan. For aluminum, you can also use a mixture of hot water and baking soda, pass it over the surface and then dry with newspaper.

6. Flatiron

To clean the plate of your iron, you can pass over the coarse salt by rubbing with a slightly damp steel sponge until it becomes glossy. Water and limestone stains will disappear.

7. Flue and barbecue

The salt can also clean the flue: to remove the soot, just throw 2 salt punches on the fire each time the fireplace is lit. Salt is also useful in reducing the smoke and flame of the barbecue. If you do not want to "poison" your neighbors, it is best to resort to this remedy.

8. Natural deodorant

The salt is able to absorb odors and, if placed in the shoes, it will eliminate all the bad smells. In addition, salt fights sweat stains, whose yellow halo can be removed with water, white vinegar and coarse salt.

9. Remove mold and rust

When you have mold problems, you can mix salt and lemon juice and rub the solution over the stain. Also when you have rusted objects, the same compound can be used to make them come back as new.

10. How to use the salt to dehumidify the rooms

Salt is also a natural dehumidifier and it is perfect for fighting mold formation. Just insert it in breathable bags to place in the most humid places in the house for incredible results. Alternatively, 200 grams of salt can be put in a dry and cut plastic bottle, and in 3-4 days it will absorb moisture.

11. Spice up the colors of your fabrics with salt

To brighten up the dark colors that have faded after many washes, you can soak your clothes for an hour in a basin where you have mixed two tablespoons of coarse salt, a glass of tea and a glass of vinegar. Your clothes will come back new. On the other hand, if you need to whiten cotton garments, simply dip the clothes in a bowl with a teaspoon of salt for every liter of water, leaving them to soak overnight. If you need to remove wine stains from the clothes, all you have to do is mix salt and baking soda with a tablespoon of water to make a whitening cream. Apply it on the stain, leave for an hour and then wash.