Good Old Vinegar

I use a lot of vinegar in my home. For cooking, I have a lot of kinds and like good 5% acetic acid by volume for making some of my homemade herbal vinegar blends. However, vinegar has so many other household uses besides culinary uses.

Vinegar is cheap and non-toxic. When using for household purposes, I buy the cheapest jug I can find. Generally that is about 99 cents for a 4L jug. Here's just some of the ways I use vinegar in my home:

1. fabric softener - 1/2 c per load
2. diswasher cleaner - 1 c once per month, using water miser cycle, no dry,
3. coffeemaker cleaner - run one cup full stength, run through once a month
4. tea kettle cleaner - 1/2 c once per month
5. cleaning sprayer attachments - remove the attachment, soak in full strength vinegar, rinse
6. cleaning rings - let rings soak about 10 min in full strength vinegar, rinse and wipe dry with soft cloth
7. air cleaner - pour about 1 c of full strength vinegar into a bowl, set in area of problem odours, leave about one hour or longer if desired, especially effective against cooking odours but works as a general air freshener too
8. cleaner - pour full strength into a spray bottle, great for windows, mirrors or cleaning chrome
9. mold/mildew control - I just spray on full strength, it does kill both
10. washing ceramic tile - the installer of our previous ceramic tile floor said to wash with water and vinegar only, I use the same tip for cleaning ceramic tile in the bathroom
11. cleaning microwave - place 1/2 c vinegar mixed with 1/2 c water into microwave, heat to boiling then let sit 10 minutes, wipe down microwave
12. drain cleaner - mix 1/2 c baking soda with 1/2 c vinegar, pour the baking soda down the drain first followed by the vinegar; another method is to pour 1/2 c vinegar followed by a quart of boiling water
13. hair rinse - vinegar will neutralize detergents leaving your hair soft and manageable with no build-up

I know I use it other ways as well but am coming up with writer's block at the moment.

Enjoy!
Garden Gnome
© 2007