Why You Should Never Mix Baking Soda And Vinegar When Cleaning

Mixing baking soda (often known as bicarbonate of soda) with vinegar might produce lots of impressive-looking bubbles that look like they should clean well. However, here’s why you should never mix the two ingredients when cleaning.

As someone with more than a passing interest in green cleaning, I have spent a lot of time in natural cleaning spaces on Instagram and Pinterest. And I have lost count of the number of times I have seen well-meaning people recommend making natural cleaning products that combine vinegar and baking soda.

Whilst combining these two ingredients generates some mighty impressive-looking bubbles that look like they should clean really well, in truth, they don’t.

Combining the two ingredients is really not a good idea. It’s a waste of two green cleaning ingredients that work perfectly well independently of each other. And secondly, combining the two does not make for an effective green cleaning solution.

Let me explain fully why you shouldn’t mix the two.

By the way, I’m in the UK. I do prefer the term bicarbonate of soda rather than baking soda. However, I know a lot of readers find my posts with the search term ‘baking soda’, so that’s why I’m using this particular term today.

Why You Should Never Mix Baking Soda With Vinegar When Cleaning

Ok, are you ready for a bit of chemistry? I promise I’ll keep things as simple as possible.

If you think back to early secondary school science lessons, you might have learned about acids, alkalis, and bases. In case you missed that lesson, here’s a useful summary.

How is secondary school chemistry relevant to green cleaning? Well, it’s important to know that vinegar is an acid and baking soda is a base.

A base is any substance that reacts with an acid to form a salt and water only. This means that when combined, acid and bases neutralise each other to create a roughly pH-neutral salty water solution.

This means that when you mix vinegar and baking soda, this reacts to form water, carbon dioxide, and salts. So, in other words, you get a weak, salty, sparkling water solution.

They react together instantaneously. The fizzing that you see when you mix the two is the sign of the chemical reaction happening. There are no real cleaning benefits to this fizz.

The Full Science Breakdown

If you want to get deeper into the science, then this is the full chemical reaction that describes what happens when the two ingredients are combined:

CH₃COOH + NaHCO₃ = H₂O + CO₂ + CH₃COO^– + NA⁺

Here, CH₃COOH is acetic acid, the main acidic component of vinegar. NaHCO₃ is sodium bicarbonate, better known as baking soda. When the two meet, they immediately react. The bicarbonate breaks apart and releases carbon dioxide gas (CO₂), which gives the characteristic fizz. Water forms at the same time (H₂O), and the remaining acetate team up with sodium to create sodium acetate (CH₃COO⁻ + Na⁺) – the salt.

You wouldn’t deliberately clean your kitchen with weak salty water and expect great results. There are definitely more effective ways to clean than mixing vinegar and baking soda.

Why Do People Mistakenly Mix The Two?

I’m certain that when people see vinegar and baking soda fizzing when they react, they assume that mixing the two ingredients creates oxygen bubbles that lift the dirt away.

Alternatively, as vinegar makes for a great natural cleaner, as does baking soda, people think combining the two multiplies their cleaning superpowers.

I think most people who advocate mixing the two ingredients would be disappointed to hear that they are cleaning with nothing more than salty water.

What Should I Clean With Instead?

Wondering what you should clean with instead. Here are my top suggestions:

Vinegar On It’s Own

I am absolutely not discounting these two ingredients. Vinegar on its own, or mixed with appropriate ingredients, makes for a fantastic natural cleaner. Here’s my ultimate guide on everything you need to know about using white vinegar for cleaning.

Use this to find out more about using vinegar for cleaning, including more on what you can and can’t mix vinegar with.

Vinegar is quite an anti-social ingredient and doesn’t like to be mixed with many things. As such, I’d really advise checking out this guide before making any vinegar-based cleaning products. In some cases, it can even be downright hazardous to your health to combine vinegar with certain products, so do make sure you are well-informed.

Baking Soda On Its Own

Baking soda can also be used in many different homemade cleaning products (just keep it away from vinegar!). I use it all around my home and would not be without it. You can read my full guide to everything you need to know about cleaning with baking soda.

If you want to use both baking soda and vinegar in your laundry routine, then it is entirely possible to do so without cancelling each ingredient out. Here’s exactly how to use baking soda and vinegar in your washing machine effectively – there’s a slight knack to it, but it’s really easy to keep the two products separate.

Other Natural Cleaning Products

There are also myriad ways of cleaning your home effectively using natural ingredients that don’t involve making salty water.

As a starter for ten, here are a few of my favourite tried and tested natural cleaning products to make that really work:

• How to unblock a drain naturally
• How to clean stainless steel using vinegar and olive oil
• Make your own natural cleaning wipes
• How to make a homemade cleaning spray
• Make citric acid cleaning spray

Want to know more? You can find more natural cleaning products to DIY this way. I’ve got tonnes of recipes and guides to help keep you right.