Stretch the Baking Soda Box to the Freezer
August 27, 2008 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Home & Living
To keep food fresher, Arm & Hammer recommends opening up a box of baking soda in the fridge and freezer every 30 days.
Do you really need the whole box?
A simple reuse tip:
Refill empty spice containers that were headed for the trash. Glass jars with plastic tops containing holes are ideal. Anything with vents will work. My favorites are from Penzeys Spices.
Re-using spice containers will allow you buy fewer boxes of baking soda by sharing a single box among other containers. It saves money and cardboard.
Image: Ad from Farmer’s Almanac 1902, via flickr.
I was curious about this as well, and happened upon a Food Network program called “Food Detectives” (starring Ted form the old Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) which covered just this subject.
Baking soda will make a small improvement in reducing fridge funk, but it’s based entirely on surface area so the largest, flattest container, which exposes the most surface area will do the best job (in the show they used a baking tray).
That being said, they determined that “activated charcoal” does a far, far better job than baking soda. You can buy a small, vented container of activated charcoal designed to hang from the bottom of a fridge shelf, but they also mentioned that pet stores sell the stuff in bulk, making a nice DIY opportunity that will go far beyond what you can do with baking soda.
Hi Michael. I’m familiar with activated charcoal from having kept fish, plus my cat’s litter box has a place for it. I didn’t think about using it in the fridge though! Thanks.
I read your post and then Michael’s comments, so I’m waiting to see what better recyclable you come up with for de-stinking the fridge. Maybe one of the scent disks they sell for bath or car???
As for the spice jars. they are so pretty and I applaud your looking for ways to reuse them. Would they work for potpourri?
I’m thinking if you put gauze over the holes, you could fill the jar with herbs and spices. When the scent wears down, simply shake the jar to renew the fragrance.
Ooo, one more thought – I think I’m on a roll here – I’ve read that certain herbs discourage those little pesky pantry bugs. Could we make bug repellant, herb-filled recycled spice jars?
That sounds like a great idea. It seems like if you spread the soda out throughout the fridge that you’d get better coverage.
This was something my mom used as I was growing up. She always had an extra box of baking soda which she kept in the fridge.