Mix Eggshells With Baking Soda — Watch What Happens

[00:00:00]There's a can of scouring powder under your kitchen sink right now that cost you five bucks, [music] and there's a free replacement for it sitting in your trash can. This morning's eggshells, plus the box of baking soda you already own.

[00:00:14]Mix those two together and you get one of the most useful, least expensive substances in your entire house. It cleans, [music] it deodorizes, it feeds your garden, and it doesn't scratch a thing. Let's get into it.

[00:00:29]First, let's prep those shells.

[00:00:32]Before we mix anything, we need to do this right, because raw eggshells can carry salmonella. That's [music] not a scare tactic, that's just a fact.

[00:00:42]The bacteria lives on the outside of the shell, and it doesn't care that you're about to make a cleaning paste with it.

[00:00:49]So, here's the process.

[00:00:51]>> [music] >> Rinse your shells as you use them and let them air dry on a paper towel.

[00:00:55]>> [music] >> Once you've collected a decent pile, a dozen or so, spread them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven at 250° for about 20 minutes. It does two things at once.

[00:01:07]>> [music] >> It kills off any bacteria, and it dries the shells out completely, so they turn brittle. Brittle [music] is what you want. A damp shell bends. A baked shell shatters.

[00:01:20]>> [music] >> Now, grind them.

[00:01:22]A coffee grinder or a spice grinder gets you a fine, flour-like powder in about 15 seconds.

[00:01:29]No grinder?

[00:01:30]A mortar and pestle works, or you can seal them in a freezer bag and go to town with a rolling pin.

[00:01:37]Just know that hand crushing [music] gets you gritty flakes, not powder. And for a few of the hacks coming up, the difference matters. Store the powder in an old spice jar or a mason jar. It keeps basically [music] forever.

[00:01:53]Why this combination actually works.

[00:01:56]Here's the part most videos skip, and it's the part that makes everything else make sense.

[00:02:02]An eggshell is about 95% calcium carbonate.

[00:02:06]That's the same mineral that makes up limestone, marble, chalk, and seashells.

[00:02:11]Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, a close [music] chemical cousin.

[00:02:16]When you mix them dry, nothing dramatic happens. There's no fizz, no bubbling, no color change. They just sit there.

[00:02:25]And that's [music] exactly the point.

[00:02:27]They're not reacting with each other, they're stacking their strengths.

[00:02:31]Look at it through hardness.

[00:02:33]>> [music] >> Scientists rank mineral hardness on something called the Mohs scale, 1 to 10, where a diamond is a 10.

[00:02:41]Baking soda sits at about 2.5. Calcium carbonate sits at three. Now, compare that to what's in your kitchen. Glass is around 5.5. Stainless steel is around 5.5. Ceramic glaze and porcelain are six or higher. Enamel cookware, same story.

[00:02:59]Every one of those surfaces is significantly harder than the stuff in your bowl, which means this mixture physically cannot scratch them.

[00:03:08]But burnt-on food, coffee residue, soap scum, grease film, all of that is far softer than 2.5.

[00:03:17]So the abrasive tears through the grime and slides right over the surface underneath.

[00:03:23]Meanwhile, baking soda brings chemistry to the fight.

[00:03:27]In water, it forms a mildly alkaline solution around a pH of 8.3, which helps break [music] down fats and grease and neutralizes acidic odor molecules.

[00:03:39]Calcium carbonate barely dissolves in water at all, so it stays intact and keeps scrubbing while the baking soda does the chemical work. One is the muscle, one is the solvent. Together, they beat either one alone.

[00:03:53]>> [music] >> The basic recipe you'll memorize, and you'll be using it constantly from here on out. 1 Tbsp of ground eggshell, 3 Tbsp of baking soda, and [music] just enough water to make a thick paste. Write that down. Here's what you can do with it.

[00:04:11]Number one, the all-purpose scouring paste. Start here because this is the one you'll use every single week. Mix up the paste, [music] scoop some onto a damp sponge, and go after the stuff in your kitchen that never quite comes clean.

[00:04:27]Cooktops with that hazy film around the burners, the greasy ring on the range hood, the soap scum on your shower door, the bathtub, [music] the stovetop backsplash.

[00:04:40]What you'll notice immediately is that it has real grit to it.

[00:04:44]>> [music] >> It feels like it's doing something in a way that spray cleaners never do.

[00:04:50]But, it rinses away completely and leaves no chemical smell, >> [music] >> no residue, and nothing you'd worry about your kids or your dog getting into.

[00:05:00]>> [music] >> Compare that to what's in a lot of commercial scouring products, bleach, surfactants, >> [music] >> fragrance blends, and often a much harder abrasive like silica, which sits at a seven on the Mohs scale and absolutely can dull a finish over time.

[00:05:18]Ever noticed how an old sink loses its shine?

[00:05:21]That's usually years of abrasive too hard for the job. This paste can't do that. It's chemically incapable of it.

[00:05:29]Make a batch fresh when you need it because it takes 10 seconds, and once it dries out, it hardens into a cake in the jar.

[00:05:39]Number two, rescue a burnt pot.

[00:05:42]We've all done it. You walk away from a pot of rice for 4 minutes and come back to a black crust welded to the bottom.

[00:05:50]Don't reach for the steel wool. Steel wool is around a four on that hardness scale and it will leave permanent swirl marks on stainless steel.

[00:05:59]>> [music] >> Instead, cover the bottom of the pan with hot water, add a generous three or four tablespoons of baking soda, [music] and let it sit for at least an hour.

[00:06:09]Overnight is better. The alkaline solution goes to work loosening the bond between the burnt carbon and the metal.

[00:06:16]Then pour off the water, sprinkle in a tablespoon or two of your eggshell powder, and scrub with a damp sponge.

[00:06:24]The soak does the chemistry.

[00:06:27]The eggshell does the demolition.

[00:06:29]Stuff that felt like it had been fused to the pan lifts off in sheets. This works on stainless steel, cast iron that's already been stripped, enamel Dutch ovens, and glass bakeware. One warning, skip it on nonstick coatings.

[00:06:47]Those coatings are soft and while the mixture won't scratch metal, PTFE is a different animal entirely. Nonstick gets soap and a soft sponge, period.

[00:07:01]Number three, clean your oven door and glass bakeware.

[00:07:05]Oven door glass is one of the most frustrating surfaces in a house.

[00:07:10]>> [music] >> It's got years of aerosolized grease baked onto it at 400° and commercial oven cleaner is genuinely nasty stuff.

[00:07:19]Most of it is built on sodium hydroxide, which is lye, and the labels tell you to wear gloves and ventilate the room for a reason. [music] Your paste does the job without any of that. Spread it thick across the glass and walk away for 20 or 30 minutes.

[00:07:39]The baking soda's alkalinity works on the grease the entire time it sits. This is the same basic principle the commercial stuff uses, just dialed way down to a level that will not [music] burn your skin. Come back, scrub in circles with a damp cloth, and wipe clean. [music] The grease comes off in gray streaks.

[00:08:02]Glass is at 5.5 on the hardness scale, roughly double what is in your paste, so there is zero risk to the door.

[00:08:11]The exact same approach works on that casserole dish with the permanent brown ring, or the glass baking pan you have been embarrassed to bring to potlucks.

[00:08:22]Give it a thick coat, give it half an hour, and give it a scrub.

[00:08:27]Number four.

[00:08:28]Clean inside narrow bottles and thermoses.

[00:08:31]This one [music] is a genuinely old trick, and it's still the best solution to a problem nothing else solves.

[00:08:39]You've got a thermos, a water bottle, a narrow-necked vase, or a glass decanter with a stained interior, [music] and there's no brush on earth shaped to reach the bottom corners.

[00:08:53]So, here's what you do.

[00:08:55]Instead of grinding your shells to powder, crush them coarsely so you've got [music] sharp little flakes.

[00:09:02]Drop a small handful into the bottle, add 2 Tbsp of baking soda, and about an inch of warm water, >> [music] >> cap it, and shake it hard for a solid minute or two.

[00:09:15]Those shell fragments become thousands of tiny scrubbers >> [music] >> bouncing around inside, hitting every square inch of the interior.

[00:09:27]The baking soda water lifts what they knock loose. Dump it out, rinse well, and that cloudy film and coffee stain is just gone.

[00:09:37]It's the same principle as a rock tumbler running in your kitchen for free.

[00:09:43]Give it a couple of extra rinses when you're done. You want to make sure all the shell fragments are out before your next cup of coffee.

[00:09:51]Number five, erase coffee and tea stains from mugs.

[00:09:56]Speaking of coffee stains, [music] that brown ring inside your favorite mug is worth understanding.

[00:10:01]>> [music] >> Coffee and tea are loaded with compounds called tannins, and tannins bind to the microscopic pits in a ceramic glaze.

[00:10:11]Once they've set in, dish soap doesn't touch them, and the dishwasher just bakes them in deeper.

[00:10:17]>> [music] >> That's why you can wash a mug 50 times and still see the ring.

[00:10:24]The fix takes about a minute. Sprinkle a spoonful of baking soda and a pinch of eggshell powder in the bottom, add just enough water to make a slurry, and scrub with your thumb and a paper towel or a sponge.

[00:10:39]The stain comes off almost instantly, and you're not going to scratch the mug.

[00:10:44]Ceramic glaze is a six or seven on the hardness scale, >> [music] >> more than double your abrasive.

[00:10:51]For a really neglected mug, the kind where the interior has gone fully brown, make the paste, coat the inside, and let it sit for 15 minutes before you scrub.

[00:11:04]The alkaline soak breaks the tannin bond, and the eggshell sweeps away what's left.

[00:11:10]Same trick works beautifully on stained travel mug lids and the gunk in the crevice of a French press.

[00:11:19]Number six, whiten grout.

[00:11:22]Grout is porous and light-colored, which is a spectacularly bad combination.

[00:11:28]>> [music] >> It absorbs everything, soap scum, body oil, mildew, spilled coffee, and holds on to it. Mix your paste on the thicker side for this one.

[00:11:39]You want it to be more like frosting than pancake batter, so it clings to a vertical wall instead of sliding down into the tub. Work it into [music] the grout lines with an old toothbrush and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then, scrub.

[00:11:56]The eggshell grit is doing the important work here. It gets down into the porous texture and physically dislodges the grime, while the baking soda lifts the greasy stuff. Rinse with warm water and stand back. If you want to take it up a notch, once you've scrubbed, spray a little white vinegar on the paste. It will foam up like a science fair volcano. That's carbon dioxide gas being released. And it's happening from both ingredients at once, since both the baking soda and the calcium carbonate in the shell react with acid.

[00:12:34]Those bubbles push loosened dirt up and out of the pores. Let it fizz out, then rinse thoroughly.

[00:12:42]Number seven. Deodorize your refrigerator twice as well. Everybody knows the open box of baking soda in the fridge. Here's why it works and [music] how to make it work better. Most of the smells in a refrigerator come from acidic compounds [music] such as sour milk, fermenting produce, that container of leftovers you're afraid of.

[00:13:04]Baking soda is alkaline, so [music] it chemically neutralizes those acidic odor molecules on contact rather than just masking them. But an open box only exposes a few square inches of powder to the air. That's the bottleneck. So, take a small open jar or a shallow bowl and fill it with a mix of baking soda and coarsely crushed eggshells, [music] roughly half and half.

[00:13:29]The shell fragments do two things.

[00:13:32]They're calcium carbonate, [music] so they're mildly alkaline and neutralize odors, too.

[00:13:38]And more importantly, they hold the powder in a loose, airy structure >> [music] >> with far more surface area exposed than a packed box.

[00:13:47]An eggshell also has somewhere between 7 and 17,000 microscopic pores running through it, which is how a developing chick breathes. And all of that [music] porous surface is available for trapping odor molecules. Swap it out every couple of months. Cost, zero.

[00:14:06]Oh, number eight, kill shoe odor.

[00:14:11]Shoe odor is a bacteria problem.

[00:14:13]Bacteria in your shoes feed on sweat and give off acidic waste compounds.

[00:14:19]Isovaleric acid is the main culprit, and it's the same compound that makes certain cheeses smell the way they do.

[00:14:27]Alkaline powder neutralizes acid. That's the whole mechanism.

[00:14:32]Take two old socks or two coffee filters, fill each with about a quarter cup of baking soda, and a tablespoon of crushed eggshell. Tie them off and stuff one in each shoe overnight.

[00:14:45]The baking soda neutralizes the acid.

[00:14:48]The eggshell keeps the mixture from packing into a dense brick, and adds [music] absorbent porous surface area that pulls moisture out of the lining.

[00:14:57]And moisture is the real enemy.

[00:15:00]Bacteria need damp to multiply. Pull the moisture out of a shoe every night, and you're not just covering the smell, you're shutting down the factory that produces it.

[00:15:10]Works on gym bags, hockey gear, ski boots, and the closet in general.

[00:15:16]Refresh the sachets every month or so.

[00:15:19]Number nine, deep clean a stainless steel sink.

[00:15:24]Stainless steel sinks pick up a dull, cloudy film, a mix of hard water minerals, soap residue, and grease.

[00:15:32][music] And most people attack it with a scrubby pad that's harder than the steel, which is exactly why so many older sinks look permanently hazy.

[00:15:43]Those aren't stains, those are scratches.

[00:15:46]Your paste can't scratch stainless.

[00:15:48]Steel is around 5.5, [music] you're bringing three. Wet the sink, sprinkle baking soda across the whole basin, then sprinkle eggshell powder over it, and scrub [music] with a damp sponge working in the direction of the grain. Stainless steel has a visible grain, and following it makes any existing marks less noticeable.

[00:16:10]Get into the corners and around the drain, where the buildup is heaviest.

[00:16:14][music] Rinse it all out and dry with a clean towel.

[00:16:19]Drying is not optional here. A big part of that cloudy look is dried on hard water mineral deposits, and if you let the sink air dry, you're just laying down a fresh layer.

[00:16:32]The sink will actually shine, probably for the first time in a while.

[00:16:38]Number 10, make a fizzing drain refresher. Your kitchen drain smells because there's a biofilm of grease and food gunk coating the inside of the pipe, feeding bacteria. Here's the treatment. Pour half a cup of baking soda down the drain, followed by a couple tablespoons of eggshell powder.

[00:16:58]Then pour in a cup of white vinegar.

[00:17:00]You'll hear it go off immediately.

[00:17:03]That's the acetic acid in the vinegar reacting with both carbonates and releasing carbon dioxide.

[00:17:09]>> [music] >> That foam expands to fill the pipe and physically agitates the gunk on the walls.

[00:17:17]Let it work for 10 or 15 minutes, >> [music] >> then flush with a full kettle of boiling water.

[00:17:23]The boiling water is the part people skip, and it's arguably the most important. [music] It melts the softened grease and carries the whole mess out.

[00:17:34]Now, an honest caveat, because a lot of channels won't tell you this, this freshens a drain.

[00:17:42]It does not clear a clog.

[00:17:45]If your sink is standing full of water, foam isn't going to fix it. You need a plunger, a drain snake, or a plumber.

[00:17:55]Use this as maintenance monthly, and you'll be much less likely to ever need the snake.

[00:18:01]And don't put whole egg shells down a garbage disposal. That's a myth.

[00:18:06]The membrane wraps around the blades, and the shell grit settles in the trap.

[00:18:12]Powder [music] rinsed through with plenty of water is fine.

[00:18:15]Handfuls of shells are not.

[00:18:19]Number 11, >> [music] >> polish tarnished silverware.

[00:18:23]If you've got silver that's gone black in a drawer somewhere, this is the most satisfying hack on the list.

[00:18:31]Line a glass dish with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Lay the silver on the foil so it's physically touching the metal. This part is [music] essential.

[00:18:42]Sprinkle a few tablespoons of baking soda and a tablespoon of eggshell powder over everything, then pour in boiling water until the pieces are submerged.

[00:18:52]Within about a minute, you'll see the black start to fade.

[00:18:56]This isn't scrubbing, it's an actual electrochemical reaction.

[00:19:01]Tarnish is silver sulfide.

[00:19:03]In a hot alkaline bath, aluminum is more reactive than silver, >> [music] >> so the sulfur atoms migrate off the silver and bond to the aluminum foil instead.

[00:19:14]The tarnish literally leaves the spoon.

[00:19:17]You may even catch a faint rotten egg smell, which is the sulfur being released.

[00:19:23]That's why the contact matters. No touch, no circuit, no reaction. The eggshell powder is your cleanup crew afterward.

[00:19:32]Any stubborn spots in the engraving come off with a gentle rub, and at a hardness of three versus silver's 2.5, you want to be light-handed there and use a soft cloth. Rinse and dry immediately.

[00:19:47]Number 12, make homemade sidewalk chalk.

[00:19:50]If you've got kids, this is a good Saturday afternoon.

[00:19:54]And here's the fun part. [music] You're not making a substitute for chalk, you're making actual chalk.

[00:20:00]Real chalk is calcium carbonate.

[00:20:03]Eggshells are calcium carbonate. This is the genuine article.

[00:20:08]Grind about six baked shells into a fine powder.

[00:20:12]Mix in a teaspoon of flour and a teaspoon of baking soda.

[00:20:16]Add food coloring and stir in water a little at a time until you've got a thick paste. Think toothpaste, not soup.

[00:20:25]The flour binds it. The baking soda keeps [music] the texture light so it crumbles onto pavement instead of scratching it.

[00:20:33]Pack the paste into empty toilet paper rolls [music] lined with wax paper, stand them upright, and let them dry for two or three days until they're rock hard. Make sure you use shells that have been thoroughly cleaned and baked.

[00:20:48]Any leftover egg protein in your chalk will smell genuinely awful in about 48 hours. Then hand it to your kids and let them figure out that they're drawing with breakfast.

[00:21:01]Number 13, >> [music] >> pretreat laundry stains. Baking soda has been a laundry booster for a century and there is real chemistry behind it.

[00:21:11]Raising the water's pH helps detergent surfactants do their job on oils and body soil. For a targeted [music] stain, collar grime, cooking grease, a food spill, make your paste, work it into the fabric with your fingers or a soft brush, and let it sit for 20 minutes before washing. The eggshell [music] powder is the difference maker here. A liquid pre-treater just soaks in. A gritty paste gets worked mechanically between the fibers, >> [music] >> physically dislodging the particles that dyed the fabric in the first place.

[00:21:45]The baking soda then holds them in suspension so the wash carries them away instead of redepositing them. Then wash normally and toss an extra half cup of baking soda straight into the drum for good measure. One rule, [music] check the care label and test an inconspicuous spot on anything delicate or brightly dyed. Alkaline solutions can be rough on wool and silk and on certain dyes.

[00:22:12]Number 14, >> [music] >> clean your grill grates. Wire grill brushes have a documented problem. The bristles come loose, stick to the grate, [music] and end up in food. Emergency rooms see it every summer, so a lot of people are looking for an alternative and this is a good one. Fire up the grill for 10 minutes [music] to carbonize whatever is on there, then shut it off and let it cool until it is warm but safe to touch. Make a thick paste, spread it on the grates, and let it sit for a half hour. Then scrub with a balled-up sheet of aluminum foil held in tongs or a wooden grill scraper.

[00:22:52]The [music] carbon and grease crust on a grate is soft, much softer than the grate itself, whether it is cast iron, stainless, or porcelain [music] coated.

[00:23:02]So the eggshell shears the crust off while the baking soda cuts the grease bonding it down.

[00:23:09]Rinse thoroughly and dry it completely.

[00:23:12]If it is bare cast iron, wipe a thin coat of oil on right away.

[00:23:17]You have just stripped the seasoning along with the grime and bare cast iron will flash rust in a matter of hours.

[00:23:26]Number 15, the garden. What actually works and what does not?

[00:23:31]I want to end on this one because you've probably heard eggshell garden advice that isn't quite right and I'd rather tell you the truth [music] than tell you what's popular. Here's what genuinely works.

[00:23:44]Finely ground eggshell powder is a real soil amendment. It's calcium carbonate which is the same active ingredient as agricultural lime and it will gradually raise the pH of acidic soil and add calcium.

[00:24:00]The key word is finely ground. Toss half a shell in a planting hole and it'll still be sitting there still recognizable next spring. Surface area is everything. Powder breaks down in months. Chunks take years. Eggshell halves also make excellent free seed starting pots. Fill with potting soil, plant your seed, and when the seedling's ready, crack the shell and plant the whole thing. And shells belong in your compost pile where they add calcium, potassium, magnesium, and trace minerals.

[00:24:33]Here's what doesn't work. Eggshells as a slug barrier is one of the most repeated garden tips on the internet and multiple trials have found slugs cross crushed eggshells without much trouble.

[00:24:46]Their bodies are protected by a layer of mucus. [music] Save yourself the effort.

[00:24:50]And blossom end rot on your tomatoes is more nuanced than add calcium. Most garden soil already has plenty of calcium. The problem is usually that inconsistent watering prevents the plant from transporting that calcium to the fruit.

[00:25:06]Fix your watering schedule first. That's the actual cure.

[00:25:11]Eggshell powder helps over the long run in genuinely calcium poor soil, but it's not a rescue.

[00:25:18]And one important warning, leave the baking soda out of the garden entirely.

[00:25:23]This is the one place the combination breaks up. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and sodium accumulates in soil, damages structure, and stresses plants. Eggshells in the garden, yes.

[00:25:39]Baking soda in the garden, no.

[00:25:42]So, there it is.

[00:25:44]Two things you already have that most people throw away.

[00:25:49]Replacing half the cleaning aisle for free with nothing on the label you would worry about.

[00:25:55]Start with the scoring paste.

[00:25:58]1 Tbsp eggshell, 3 Tbsp baking soda, and a splash of water.

[00:26:05]Try it on the one thing in your kitchen you have given up on.

[00:26:09]Then come back and tell me in the comments what it fixed. I read them all.

[00:26:15]Thanks for watching. Hit that like button, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss a video.