Borax + Baking Soda win again: how to make homemade scouring powder

Is there anything that Borax and baking soda, once combined, can’t clean up? Actually, don’t answer that.

You all know the childhood song: Comet, it makes your teeth turn green. Comet, it tastes like gasoline. That song was written because Comet is nasty and it doesn’t belong touching the stuff you touch with your naked body, like your bathtub*.

It was time to clean the Foundry bathtub and I had to think fast. Truthfully, I had plenty of time. I’m just trying to build up suspense for this blog post.

I found this recipe for “scouring powder” (the generic name for Comet) and noticed it contained my two favorite household cleaning ingredients: borax and baking soda. So I gave it a try, and it works great!

The recipe is: equal parts borax, baking soda, and salt.

So here’s the updated, ever-expanding list of commercial household products I’ve replaced with diy recipes:

• Shampoo and conditioner
• Laundry Detergent
• Dishwasher Detergent (never wrote a post about this one. It’s equal parts borax & baking soda)
• Scouring Powder

Anyone else have any other household products that they make themselves? Even if it doesn’t use borax or baking soda.

* There’s a product called Bon Ami that’s a lot less caustic. So if you must buy a commercial scouring powder, buy that one. But if you’re into that kind of stuff, why did you read this post?

Childhood money memory

When I was a boy, my dad felled a tree in the front yard and chopped it into firewood. He said he’d pay me 25 cents per log to move them to the wood pile in the back yard.

I worked all day and moved about 400 fire logs, earning myself nearly $100! Which at the time was probably a year’s allowance.

That was the last time my dad ever paid me a per-unit fee for doing work for him.