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BANG FOR THE BITE
If 10,000 Biter households halve the amount of hazardous chems we use, we'll avert the weight of 33 Caesars in dangerous waste.
COCKTAIL FACT
The word vinegar comes from the Old French vin aigre, meaning "sour wine."
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home › tip library › Cleaning with Vinegar
Wanna conquer high cleaning-product costs?
The Bite
Drop the bed-sheet toga, and pick up a bottle of white vinegar. Uber-disinfecting and cheap as Hades, DIY vinegar cleaners really do the trick, so you can move onto conquering bigger things, such as, say, the Roman Empire.The Benefits
- Costs less than a handmade olive-leaf crown. We found a 32-ounce bottle of white vinegar at the supermarket for just over a buck; the same size bottle of all-purpose cleaner was four times that (and you'll dilute the vinegar for most purposes).
- Treating kids like emperors. Conventional cleaning products are responsible for about 10% of toxic-exposure calls to poison control.
- Not stabbing our rivers in the back. High concentrations of detergents were found in 69% of waterways in a 2002 nationwide study.
- Smelling better than an ancient Roman. The vinegar smell disappears when it dries; it even acts as a mild deodorizer.
Personally Speaking
Jen's got a family of more than 10 pets, so she'd never use synthetic pesticides in her backyard. A little straight vinegar, sprayed directly on weeds, gets rid of 'em.Wanna Try?
- Make sure to use white distilled vinegar - balsamic and red wine varieties will stain.
- All-purpose countertop and mildew cleaner: Mix vinegar and water 1:1 in a spray bottle.
- Fabric softener: Add 1/2 cup to the rinse cycle.
- Toilet bowl cleaner: Use pure vinegar to get rid of rings.
- Window cleaner: Mix vinegar and water 1:4 in a spray bottle.
- Weed killer: Use higher concentrations of vinegar (most household vinegar is 5%, so go for 10% or higher, available at hardware stores).
- Vinegar Tips - even more uses for vinegar.
Aug 28,2008
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Not Your Norma(l) Cleaner
Mismatched bowls, each filled with a Paas tablet of dye - that's what reminds me of vinegar. Besides that, I never cook with it, clean with it, or really ever think about it...until I read this tip.
I live with three other women in a five-bedroom flat and every day thank my lucky stars and stripes that I never have to clean the bathroom. We have a cleaning service and her name is Norma. Sweet, wonderful, thank-you-for-not-making-me-feel-guilty-for-having-a-cleaning-lady Norma. I do buy Seventh Generation products for her, but once in a while (see Mama Don't Preach) a bleach-y substance gets into her hands. So today I tried the ol' natural vinegar solution to wipe down our kitchen counter and - voila! - the room smells more like an Easter egg coloring fest than a just-rinsed public restroom toilet.
-Senior Editor Theresa...off to drop a bottle of vinegar into Norma's bucket...
Biter Comments...
My favorite contribution to the white vinegar solutions is to have you kids help you make volcanos- it is actually all natural "drain"- I don't know exact measurements but use baking soda and pour white vinegar on it. It bubbles like a volcano, cleans your drains, you can do as often as you want AND you don't have the horrible smell of draino.
Before I started spending the extra money for Seventh Generation or Method cleaners to appease my "maids"--grown daughters in need of extra money--I cleaned everything in the house with either vinegar or baking soda or both, sometimes with the addition of essential oils.
I'd like to try making up some of the counter and window cleaning solutions but have a question that hopefully someone can help with with - can I store any leftover solution I have under the sink in spray bottles, or do they need to be used immediately? Thanks and happy cleaning!
You can store. The building I work in has a whole shelf full of spray bottles sitting around.
Do know that the smell doesn't TOTALLY go away once dried. I've cleaned my shower this way and the next couple of showers stink like vinegar. I can deal, but I would rinse the guest shower REALLY well as I think it's a little offensive for guests.
Please beware: tile grout gets "eaten" by anything acidic. We found this out the hard way (please clean up right away if coffee or tea spills on your grout). So you actually want a neutral or slightly alkaline solution for cleaning anything with grout, particularly if you want your grout sealant to last longer. (Yes, the harsh grout cleaners you can buy are acidic, they clean by eating away at the grout.) I use Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds (has pine oil), just a 1/2 teaspoon in a spray bottle of water. I still use vinegar for the wood floors, laundry deodorizing, etc.
Does anyone happen to know if vinegar is EPA approved for cleaning schools? I don't know how I can even find this out...
Yeah, your right Katie, the smell doesn't totally go away once dried.
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Good tips about vinegar! But vinegar as an herbicide?!?! Hmmmm, I don't know about that, but I suppose it's worth a try. I always keep white vinegar in the house for cleaning purposes. My favorite chrome/glass cleaner is my own homemade concoction of 50% white vinegar and 50% rubbing alcohol mixed up in a spray bottle. (Forget Windex, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than buying the ready-made eco-friendly cleaners like the expensive Seventh Generation products. You greenies with the greenbacks, however, can feel free to go right ahead, though.)
I keep a decorative glass jar with big opening at the coner of my kitchen counter filled with 20% venigar & 80% water.
Before eating that delicious fresh looking apple, I throw into a jar.
What is the percentage of vinegar & water if used to clean wood floor? Also, will such mixture do any damage to wood floor/furniture? Finally, do I need to wipe down with water after using the mixture on a surface? Thank you in advance for helping me learn more about this natural way of cleaning.
Three years ago I swicthed all my cleaning products to EcoSense cleaning line. It's an all-natural line exclusively from Melaleuca. Every cleaner possible- windows, wood, bathrroms and even a Botanical Dis-infectant. We absolutley love it - every product works and is safe for my family, my doggies and the environment.
Melalady
melalady@optonline.net
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: W. David Stephenson | August 28, 2008 at 06:30 AM