I have never been a fan of vinegar. It stinks, tastes horrible to me (except in pickles), and I have always avoided the egg dye kits that ask for it. People say to run white vinegar and water through your coffee pot. EWWWW! I don't want to even think about vinegar even coming close to my precious coffee! I did not see the point of even having vinegar in my house at all.
A few years back, a friend of mine was looking for ways to cut costs around the house, because with 4 kids, she became a stay at home mom. She started posting on her Facebook about how she started making her own household cleaner using vinegar, water and a a small amount of essential oils. I thought she was nuts! And then I decided to start canning pickles from out of our garden...
I picked up a gallon of vinegar from a small local grocery store near me. It was about $2.19. Making about 20 quarts of pickles still left a whole lot in the jug. Nice price to last so long. I can do a lot of pickles with one little gallon! However, I kept seeing posts about the cleaning potential of vinegar, and yet,I still refused to try it.
Then one day I ran out of a my favorite spray cleaner. My nose pricked up at the thought of putting vinegar into my spray bottle to disinfect my kitchen counters... I had to do something, I had just butchered a chicken... But does vinegar disinfect? Yes it does, although not as well as bleach, but it does disinfect! So I thought, why not? If my house gets all vinegar smelly, I can just rewash with hot soapy water right? Guess what, it smelled, but not for long. My counters also seemed so much cleaner. I'm a believer now!
On the back of my gallon jug of white vinegar is a list of household uses. I will share these with you.
Always Save Brand Distilled White Vinegar
Household Uses For Vinegar
- Glassware: 1/2 cup of distilled vinegar added to a gallon of rinse water will remove soap film from glassware and make it shine.
- Toilet Bowl: Clean and deodorize your toilet bowl by pouring undiluted white vinegar into it. Let stand for about 5 minutes then flush. Stubborn stains may require scrubbing.
- Bathtub: Wipe down bathtub with vinegar and soda to remove film buildup. Rinse with clean water.
- Ants: Ant invasions can e deterred by washing counter tops, cabinets, and floors with distilled vinegar.
- Grease: Filmy dirt and greasy residue can be removed from stove and refrigerator by wiping with vinegar.
- Grass or Weeds: Kill unwanted grass on sidewalks and driveways by pouring on vinegar.
- Chrome: To polish chrome and stainless steel, moisten a cloth with white vinegar and wipe clean.
- Shower Curtain: Rub a cloth dampened with vinegar to remove soapy, steamed-in film an mildew from your plastic shower curtain. Then rinse clean.
- Coffee maker: To remove stale coffee residue, fill the reservoir with vinegar and run it though a brewing cycle. When the cycle is finished, run two cycles of water to rinse.
- 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.
Other Great Things About Vinegar
Last night we were washing dishes and my metal meatloaf pan refused to come clean, again, second night in a row. (Okay, I burned it just a little. Meatloaf was perfect, but what was stuck to the sides of the pan was rock hard.) I gave up scrubbing it for the second time, but instead of leaving it in soapy water, I added a splash of vinegar. This morning I woke up and the crusty stuff in the pan wiped off with a touch of my finger! Who knew! (Okay, probably everyone but my stubborn self!)
According to EAT BY THE DATE .COM, vinegar lasts indefinitely. Making this a great prepper item to buy and store. Depending on how it is stored, it may get some settlement at the bottom, or it may become cloudy in appearance. Eat by the date.com also explains this as well. Do your own research and see what you think!
For more ideas on how to use vinegar around the house, see these pages:
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