Did you know table salt is good for cleaning? Here’s why.

By Alexis Rochester

Believe it or not, table salt (sodium chloride) is a handy thing to keep around your home and can be used for many things besides food flavoring.

It has the perfect physical and chemical composition to make it very useful for cleaning certain surfaces.

Plus, it is cheap to use.

Here are my favorite ways to use it:

1. Exfoliate kitchen

I use the term exfoliate because that is exactly what it does. If you have nasty grease or fat left in a pan or sink, pour cheap table salt on the surface, dry scrub with a sponge, then rinse with hot, soapy water.

The salt absorbs sticky, greasy texture and scrubs any surface well.

After cooking something greasy in a pan, I pour salt in it to absorb the fat. With a paper towel, I dump it out in the trash can.

It almost cleans it 100% with this method, but I follow up with hot, soapy water. Click here to see our photo tutorial.

2. Put out a grease fire

Along with salt absorbing fat when you clean like above, it can put out grease fires. Just pour salt onto the fire. It will absorb grease and suffocate the flames.

3. Clean stained glasses and pots

This is a great method for coffee pots or glass tea pots.

Fill with about 1/3 cup of salt and ice cubes (enough to fill up the pot). Vigorously shake the pot around, then let it sit until the ice melts. Rinse with cold water.

The friction of the salt and ice removes stuck-on residue leftover from drinks.

4. Clean garbage disposal

I used to put lemons down the sink and grind them up for the scent, but my plumber told me not to do that anymore because it dulls the blades and adds gunk down into the septic system.

Instead, I pour a bunch of salt down the drain, then run cold water (so it doesn’t dissolve as quick) down it while the disposal runs.

Not only does it eliminate odors, it also cleans the blades.

5. Clean after baking

If you roll out pie crust or cookie dough on a counter, you know it always leaves sticky residue that can be hard to get off. All I do is pour salt on the surface, rub it around with a cloth, then scrap into a trash can.

It gets all the sticky residue up fast!

Check out our blog post for more tips on using salt to clean carpets and copper too!

Alexis Rochester is an investigative chemist, blogger and founder of Chemistry Cachet. She shares science-based skin care, cleaning, gardening and health tips. She was diagnosed with RA at age 10, so she has a passion for pain management tips and research, along with sharing her journey through this disease. When she’s not writing for Chemistry Cachet, she is taking Pilates or Barre classes, and also received her Barre teaching certification this year! She grew up in Stephenville and recently moved back with her daughter, husband and bulldog. You can find her posting pictures and fun stories daily on Instagram. Also look for Chemistry Cachet on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn.