Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Cleaning with Vinegar

Vinegar is one of the best natural cleaning products for around the house. It has so many uses, and is very cheap. In our house, we go through it faster than milk! It's effective against bacteria, mold, mildew, and even some insects!

Here are some tips and uses I've collected over the years. (All of the following are for distilled white vinegar, unless otherwise stated.)

- Keep a spray bottle of 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water handy. Use for wiping down countertops, tables, stovetops, and any other surface you'd use Lysol or something similar on.

-Spray full strength around window sills, doorways, and anywhere else you see a trail of ants. This kills their scent trail.

-Mix 1 cup vinegar with 1 gallon warm water and mop linoleum or no-wax vinyl floors. (Test on a hidden area first.)

- Add 1/4 cup to the rinse water in your steam cleaner to help take up the soap.

- Add 1/2 cup to the rinse water in your washing machine to help soften clothes. Use instead of fabric softener.

-Add 2-3 cups to your washing machine and fill with hot water. Run an empty cycle. This helps clean the soap scum out of your washer.

- Apply full strength to bath tubs to clean soap scum off of it. Works with sinks as well.

-Pour 2 cups into toilet bowl and allow to sit over night. Brush and flush for a clean toilet.

-Add about 1/4 cup to a sink full of hot water to disinfect baby toys.

-Soak bottle nipples in a vinegar solution to kill the bacteria that causes thrush. If nursing, soak bras in vinegar/water mixture before washing.

-Use a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar to clean windows. Use a lint free cloth or newspaper to wipe.

-Add 1 cup of vinegar to to water resevoir in your coffee pot, and fill with warm water. Run the cycle. Discard the vinegar water, and run 2-3 more cycles with clean warm water. This will help remove any build-up in your coffee pot.

-Spray undiluted vinegar onto weeds. Be careful as this will kill grass, plants and flowers as well.

There are several other uses, but these are my most frequent!