My Friend, Vinegar
Vinegar is an indispensable key to a green home. I love vinegar. It is dirt cheap and has so many fantastic applications that I decided to dedicate an entire post to it. My friend, Kira, sent me this list of tips after she read my Tub for Two post where I mentioned that I used vinegar to disinfect a befouled bathtub.
What You Can Do With a Bottle of Vinegar
-Use vinegar in a spray bottle to kill weeds or grasses.
-Use a half cup of vinegar in laundry for fabric softener.
-Put vinegar in a zip-loc bag and slip over a shower head that is scaly from hard water and use a rubber band to secure bag to shower head. Leave on overnight. Agitate the bag slightly before removing and hard water deposits will come right off.
This list came off the vinegar box from Costco:
Vinegar Quick Tips
1. Glassware: ½ cup of distilled vinegar added to a gallon of rinse water will remove soap film from glassware and make it shine.
2. Toilet Bowl: Clean and deodorize your toilet bowl by pouring undiluted vinegar into it. Let it stand for about five minutes then flush. Stubborn stains may require scrubbing.
3. Bathtub: Wipe down bathtub with vinegar and soda to remove film buildup. Rinse clean with water.
4. Ants: Ant invasions can be deterred by washing countertops, cabinets, and floors with vinegar.
5. Grease: Filmy dirt and greasy residue can be removed from stove and refrigerator by wiping with vinegar.
6. Grass or Weeds: Kill unwanted grass on sidewalks and driveways by pouring on vinegar.
7. Chrome: To polish chrome and stainless steel, moisten a cloth with white vinegar and wipe clean.
8. Shower Curtain: Rub a cloth dampened with vinegar to remove soapy, steamed-in film and mildew from your plastic shower curtain. Then rinse clean.
9. Coffee Maker: To remove stale coffee residue, fill the reservoir with vinegar and run two cycles of water to rinse.
10. Irons: Remove burn stains from your electric iron by mixing one part salt with one part vinegar in a heated small aluminum pan. Use this mix to polish the iron as you would silver.
11. Vegetables: Liven up slightly wilted vegetables by soaking them in cold water and vinegar.
12. Flowers: Add two tbsp of vinegar plus three tbsp of sugar to a quart of warm water (100°F) to keep fresh cut flowers blooming longer.
13. Cabbage: Add vinegar to the cooking water of boiling cabbage to prevent the odor from permeating the house.
14. Meat: A marinade of ½ cup of your favorite vinegar and a cup of liquid bouillon makes an effective meat tenderizer.
15. Rice: A tsp of vinegar added to the water of boiling rice makes it white and fluffy.
16. Fish: Reduce fishy odors by rubbing fish down with white distilled vinegar before scaling it.
17. Cheese: Keep cheese moist and fresh by wrapping it in a cloth that has been dampened with vinegar and sealed in an air-tight wrap or container.
18. Eggs: To produce better-formed egg whites, add a tsp of vinegar to the water.
19. Onion odors: Quickly remove the odor of onions from your hands by rubbing them with distilled vinegar.
20. Pickling: Cider, Red Wine, Balsamic and other dark vinegars are very good for pickling, but may discolor lighter colored pickles such as pears, onions, or cauliflowers. In this case, distilled or white vinegar may be preferred.
9 Responses to “My Friend, Vinegar”
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Hey Jenni! I just tackeled my main floor bathroom! I decided to be ‘adventurous’ with my cleaning today and try out your vinegar tips. Aside from smelling like a pickle, it turned out great! Things are shining! Oh, btw, smelling like a pickle is WAY better than burning your nose, ruining your clothes, and smelling of bleach for days!
Excellent tips!
Now to try out the laundry!!
The vinegar smell will go away. Another option if you dislike the ‘pickle’ smell is to fill a spray bottle with equal amounts of water and vinegar and then add a couple drops of your favorite essential oil (make sure it is the pure stuff that isn’t just fragrance). A couple that work really well for all seasons are orange or lemon. I personally use cinnamon,clove or rosemary oils in the fall/winter. I like lavender or lemon in the spring/summer. Tea tree oil is also a great antiseptic and smells nice and fresh- especially in a bathroom.
I use cider vinegar in my laundry. It seems to help better with deodorizing, especially with kids that are still occasionally prone to have ‘accidents’.
Good luck and thanks for the comment!!
OMG Jenni! I have to tell you!! Today I was tackeling the kitchen… a monstrous task after an insanely busy couple of weeks… anyway, as I was cleaning my flat top stove, I realized I was out of ceramic cleaner, AND the Magic erasers had seen better days! So… I thought, wonder if vinegar would do it? Surprisingly, it wiped up better than with just the soapy dishrag… then, I had a brain wave… I LIGHTLY sprinkled the top with baking soda, and then sprayed a vinegar/water solution on top, let it fizz, then scrubbed (gently not to scratch the surface) will no more elbow grease than I use with the magic eraser, the burnt on black rings around my burners became their original color again! Good bye Mr Clean! Hello Baking soda and vinegar!
Hey! You did a great job with this blog.
Great! Thank you very much!
I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my site?
Of course, I will add backlink?
Regards, Timur I.
Absolutely! Thanks for reading!
Jenni
Useful information , great post . Thanks for sharing !!
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http://aravika.ru
Good work! Thank you very much!
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http://eurobuil.ru
[...] Track down the source of bad smells first and deal with them using green household cleaners such as vinegar. The pickley smell will evaporate and you will be left with a clean slate so to [...]