homemaking hack: the best pot scrubber ever {is in your pantry}

You guys know we eat a lot of beans around these parts. :)

After just a couple of rounds of beans on the stove, my pans look like this despite all my scrubbing efforts:

This big cast iron pot was new- it was a surprise gift from my husband last month, and I'm in LOVE with it. Even more in love with it than my first cast iron stovetop oven. If the house was on fire I would grab my children first, and depending on the location of the fire, it would be a toss up between grabbing this pan and my Macbook next. {Who needs wedding photos anyway?? :P}

Other than their amazing cooking ability, the best part about these pans is that stuff doesn't burn and doesn't stick easily to them. So the bean residue almost worried me. I wasn't sure what I could do- and then I suddenly remembered the best cleaning tool ever was sitting in my pantry:

I didn't look it up, and I hadn't read it before- but what doesn't baking soda clean really?

It was worth a shot:

A whole minute or two later with a scrub brush and here's what it looked like:

eeeeekkkk! :) It was magical. Just like that. Baking soda and coconut oil are my new best friends {and everyone else's old ones, hahahah!}.

But I had more to test- how about 5-6 years of grease build-up on my skillet?

This one was much tougher of course, but after a several minutes of soda and scrubbing, here's what it looked like:

I didn't get it all, because I was happy with that result- definitely good enough for me! :) {obviously the attitude that got me to the "before" state in the first place :P)

And then, there was the bean crockpot that wasn't so pretty:

I scrubbed it and forgot to take an after but the baking soda worked on it too!

If I had any doubts about baking soda before, I don't now. It's way cheaper and even better than almost any product you can find. {If vinegar was less smelly I might love it as much.} :)

Baking soda is amazing. Can I get an amen? :)



What is your favorite baking soda use?
I had to laugh, but I had no memory whatsoever that it would scrub pans, but my dad says it's the way you do it. What? How did I miss that? I knew it made good toothpaste and cookies. ;)

If your house were on fire, and you had the chance to grab three things {after family and pets were safe of course}, what would they be?
I think if I still had my very favorite old Bible I actually would grab it first, but all of my current ones are fairly new so we're still making memories together. :) I might go for my purse or our social security cards, passports and birth certificates. hehehe. :P

Do beans leave a residue in your pot too? What do you think- is it more likely to have that skillet grease residue if you have a gas stove?