If you’re looking for an alternative to the carcinogenic chemical cocktails contained in most cleaning products available on supermarket shelves, you seldom need to look any further than your bottle of white vinegar and your box of baking soda. Both are benign to the environment, are inexpensive, and won’t leave behind any chemical residue.
I keep a spray bottle of half white vinegar and half water available for quick cleanups of countertops, stovetop, bathroom fixtures, etc.
A cup of white vinegar in a mop bucket is all that’s needed to clean your floors and make your house smell sweet.
For scouring your kitchen sink, use a solution of baking soda and just enough straight white vinegar to make a paste. Need to clean your microwave? Put a bowl of 50/50 white vinegar and water into the microwave and heat it to a boil. This will loosen the grime and allow you to wipe it out easily with a scrubbie. For stubborn bits, put a bit of baking soda on the scrubbie, and it will more easily scrub off.
Don’t stop there! There is so much more you can do with these wonder ingredients.
You can often loosen a slow drain by pouring a half a cup of baking soda down it, then heating a cup of white vinegar to boiling and pouring it down the drain.
Did you burn something in the kitchen? Put an open bowl of white vinegar out on the stove for awhile and the burned odor will disappear.
Do you have calcium or lime buildup on your chrome sink fixtures or elsewhere? A solution of salt with just enough vinegar to make a paste will cut through that hard water buildup.
Spring cleaning time means cleaning the windows. White Vinegar is wonderful for removing grime from windows. Use crumpled newspaper to wipe.
Is your coffeemaker taking forever to make coffee in the morning? Put a half a pot of white vinegar through your coffeemaker with an empty filter and it will loosen the mineral deposits and get your coffeemaker functioning fast again. You can use the same idea in your dishwasher, by running it through a cycle with nothing in it but a cup of white vinegar, which will remove all the soap and hard water deposits.
White vinegar and baking soda will also get rid of pet odors, including cat urine. Use your 50/50 water/vinegar spray bottle to saturate any problem area well. Let it sit for awhile, then blot dry with paper towel or rag, and sprinkle baking soda on the area. Let dry for a day, and vacuum. White vinegar’s cousin, cider vinegar, works for cleaning those same odors out of laundry or bedding. Treat it like bleach, and put a cup into a full load.
Copper bottomed pots can be scrubbed with a paste made from salt and white vinegar. Rinse and polish dry with a soft cloth. Brass and pewter can also be cleaned this way.
Straight white vinegar sprayed around the outside of window and door edges will discourage ants from entering your home.
For grease removal use straight white vinegar on a scrubbie sponge. This works on grease traps, on stove hoods and inside oven door glass.
To clean hard water ring out of your toilet, pour a bucket of water into the bowl to empty it. Now fill with white vinegar, close the lid, and leave inside it overnight. Scrub with bowl brush in the morning.
Hairbrushes and combs can be cleaned by soaking in a solution of 50/50 water and white vinegar.
To remove old wallpaper spray saturate it with a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and BOILING water. This loosens the glue and allows it to be peeled off.
Making smarter choices about what we use to clean our homes will help save the rivers and streams, and leave less chemical residue in our homes.
If you’ve got a smoker in the house, white vinegar removes nicotine odors and stains. Putting an open bowl of white vinegar into a smoker’s car overnight will help remove the smoke smell from the inside of the vehicle.
