Vinegar: Not Just For Cooking

Vinegar, most commonly used for food preparation, is making its debut as a household cleaner. Vinegar is becoming like Duct Tape in my house. The more I learn about it the more I think it can do anything! It can be an ingredient in a delicious recipe, disinfect a counter top, make your laundry softer, unclog a sink drain, and even make your hair shinier.

The National Geographic has an article that goes over a few ways they suggest for you to use vinegar as a natural disinfectant, click here to find out more.

I'm going to share with you some of the vinegar 'recipes' I use on a regular basis in my house.



Deodorizer:
1 part water
1 part white vinegar

That's right! Only 2 ingredients, how incredibly simple!

 Fill a spray bottle half way with white vinegar and top off with tap water. Use it to spray down upholstered furniture, rugs, curtains, mattresses, carpets, and more!

Benny, The stink maker.

Our dog, Benny is a 105 lb stink machine. He likes to sneak away and sleep on our microfiber sofa whenever no one is looking. Man, can he make a sofa smell awful. This solution is pretty vinegar strong because I have to battle Benny's stinky habits, but it does the trick.

I'm aware that a number of people find the odor of vinegar offensive, and might be leery of battling stench with more stench. I promise you the vinegar smell dissipates quickly and takes every other stinky odor I've found in our house with it. If the vinegar smell in this 50% solution is too much for you, feel free to water it down more. If you have a greater amount of stink to battle (I can't imagine what could stink worse than my sofa after Benny has defiled it) than you can make the solution stronger.

I like to follow up this deodorizing treatment with my homemade fabric freshener. It doesn't contain vinegar but you can find out how to make your own Febreze like freshener here  along with other recipes for my other homemade cleaners that don't contain vinegar.

Fabric Softener:
1/2 cup white vinegar

Once again, incredibly simply. All you have to do is add a 1/2 cup of vinegar during your washing machines rinse cycle. You will get the fabric softening, deodorizing, and disinfecting effects all packed into that 1/2 cup of only one inexpensive product. White vinegar.

Drain Clog Remover:
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup white vinegar

Keep the sink draining smoothly with only two ingredients, both safe for all the members of your family. This does take a little technique. Pour the baking soda into the drain. We have to do this slowly and have to work it  down into the drain with our fingers or an utensil. Then pour down the vinegar, you have to pour this in quickly, and immediately cover to contain the 'fizz' and keep it in the drain. Now, don't use the sink for at least 30 minutes. Boil a pot of water while you wait, after the sink has marinated for 30 minutes flush it out by pouring the pot of hot water in the sink. Be careful not to burn anyone! For seriously tough clogs you might have to repeat the treatment.

Clean the Dishwasher:
1/2 cup baking soda
1 cup white vinegar

Sprinkle the baking soda in the bottom of the dishwasher and run a hot cycle. After that cycle is complete place a bowl (or glass measuring cup) with 1 cup of white vinegar in it on the top rack of the dish washer and run a second cycle. Marvel at your fresh and sparkling clean dish washer!

Also see "Wash the washer" for how to use vinegar and Borax to wash your washing machine.

All purpose Cleaner:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs Dawn dish soap

Combine the vinegar and the Dawn in a spray bottle and dilute by filling the bottle the rest of the way up with water. I go a little lighter on the Dawn compared to how I've seen some other ladies use this combination. I feel like too much Dawn leaves a film on my counter tops, but if you like the power of Dawn feel free to use equal parts Dawn and white vinegar. This combination is reportedly fabulous in the bathroom and can apparently remove pretty tough rings in the tub. I haven't tried that yet, but I'm willing to neglect the bathtub to do a trial for our viewers. (Any excuse to get out of scrubbing the tub...) If you'd like to see before and after pictures let me know!

Here's a blog that has even more ways to use vinegar, some of which I intend to try in the future!
www.rantaboutthisandraveaboutthat.blogspot.com

If you have any unique methods or tips for cleaning the house please share them with us! As always, I'm happy to answer any questions.