Over the next few weeks I will be sharing some simple cleaning tips and products here at Mexican Wildflower. I will give you an opportunity to discover what I like to use to clean my house; from simple household cleaners, to brightening laundry, to removing stains from your carpet and sum from your shower. Most of the things that I use to clean with you probably have at home so there’s no need to go shopping for any special hard to find products.
This week I want to focus on white vinegar.
White vinegar is an inexpensive product that you can use to clean just about anything. If you missed it you will want to check out my post over at Frugal Granola where I talk about my Simple Homemade 3-in-1 Household Cleaner, that features white vinegar.
White vinegar is amazing! It is dirt cheap, I can buy a gallon for about $2.00 at my local market. It is nontoxic and disinfectant, making it a safe cleaner for your family and the environment. It’s nice not to have to worry about the harmful chemicals. White vinegar kills 99% of the bacteria, 80% of viruses (germs) and 82 % of mold.
What’s not to like? You can make inexpensive child/environmental friendly, guilty purpose cleaners based off of one product. No need to have a cupboard crammed with many different cleaners.
How do I use white vinegar to clean? Here are just a few ideas on how to use white vinegar in your every day cleaning.
Laundry
Add 1/4 to 1/2 of a cup of white vinegar to your final rinse. It brightens colors, prevents lint, from clinging to cloths, devolves detergent scum and acts as a fabric softener. If you have a tough stain from things like tomato sauce or deodorant, spray on white vinegar before putting in the wash.
Simple 3-in-1 Household Cleaner
This is my favorite cleaner that I was telling you about. I use it as a multipurpose cleaner in my kitchen and bathroom. I also use it to wash window and mirrors. It is great as a air freshener and deodorizer as well. Be sure to go to Frugal Granola to check it out.
Fly Trap
Is your kitchen riddles with pesky fruit flies? Mine is, here’s any easy solution. Pour 1/2 a cup of white vinegar in a glass jar. Make a funnel out of paper and place inside the jar with the wide end of the cone sticky out the top. Tape the paper to the sides. The flies can’t get up the funnel and die from the fumes. When the vinegar is low or full of flies remove the cone, rinse out the jar and start over again.
The Garden
Pour full strength on weeds to kill those nasty things. Be sure not to kill any of your favorite plants along the way.
Cut Flowers
Mix 2 tsp vinegar with 1 tsp sugar and add to your cut flowers each time you change the water.
These are only a few simple ways to use white vinegar. I’d love to hear some of your uses for it!
This post is part of Barn Hop, Teach Me Tuesday, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways,
I’m pretty sure vinegar is a wonder ingredient when it comes to cleaning!! Great ideas listed above. I also use it to clean fruits and veggies when I come home from the market. I fill up the sink with water, dump some vinegar in it and let my veggies soak for a couple minutes before scrubbing. Easy peasy!
Great tips.
Thanks for all the great tips!!!!
do you loose tools outside and they get rusty… I have saved hammers and wire cutters that were completely rusted. Just put in a jar with full strength vinegar for a few days and watch the rust fall off…
I didn’t know that you can use white vinegar to kill weeds. That’s a great tip 🙂 Have a great weekend. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 😉
I use it to dissolve hard water stains and other issues with hard water. I lay a paper towel on the area (say in/around my sink) and soak it with vinegar, let sit several hours & voila! Off the scum comes. Sometimes it takes more than one treatment. Also, my kitchen sink sprayer (or faucets) get clogged, so I stick the sprayer in a cup of vinegar, let it sit a long time & it’s like having a new sprayer – I didn’t realize how BAD it had gotten!
We had to stop using white vinegar in this house. All US vinegars are produced using corn and my kiddos are allergic to corn. It took us a while to figure it out but once we did what a difference it made.
interesting… thanks for sharing