Vinegar Cleaning Tasks: 10 Ways to Clean with this Cheap, Readily-Available Ingredient
Vinegar is magic for cleaning both your home and your body! Cleaning with vinegar is cheap, easy, and very safe, and we there are so many cleaning tasks that can be accomplished with this helpful, humble ingredient.
Whether used alone or in combination with our natural cleaning ingredients, vinegar cleaning can happen throughout the home and help reduce your exposure to common household chemicals.
We’ve covered this topic extensively here, and encourage you to read more about how common household cleaners are not only too strong for household use, they actually put you at risk for a host of skin, eye and lung irritations. Chemicals used in cleaning products have also been linked to hormone imbalance, immune system impacts, asthma, and potential reduced fertility. In addition, the overuse of disinfectant chemicals also contributes to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, more commonly known as ‘superbugs.’
Read more about the 35 household cleaners to avoid!
And a final note: we always recommend organic vinegar because regular white vinegar is often made from GM (genetically modified) corn. Whole Foods seems to have the best priced organic white vinegar in the 365 store brand.
And if you’re worried about the effectiveness, don’t be: vinegar has germ-busting power that can help you kill the few germs that do live in the home.
Here’s 10 household cleaning tasks for vinegar that will save you money and reduce your chemical exposure! Let’s get cleaning!
1. Power up your laundry: Use about a 1/2 cup of white vinegar per load of laundry to freshen your musty or sweaty smelling clothes. It also works as a fabric softener, so you can ditch the dryer sheets too! For extra stinky stuff, soak with a mixture of 3 parts water and 1 part vinegar before washing.
2. Ditch the glass cleaner: White vinegar and newspaper are the perfect, natural way to get streak free shine in mirrors and glass. And the newspaper can still be recycled afterwards! Vinegar + water can also be used as an all-purpose cleaner.
3. Keep the toilet clean! The Queen of Green from David Suzuki’s website has a great tip for cleaning the toilet with vinegar too: to deodorize the toilet, pour 125 millilitres of white vinegar into the bowl. Let sit 15 minutes and then flush.
4. Get rid of hard water stains too! Queen of Green also says that you can remove hard-water deposits on the tub and glass shower doors. Simply warm 250 millilitres of white vinegar in a pot. Then, spray warm vinegar onto surface, let sit 15 minutes and wipe clean.
5. Homemade drain cleaner! No joke, this is our most popular post on our site. Making natural drain cleaner with just vinegar and baking soda is going to blow your mind.
6. Use it in your HAIR! Feelgood Style explains: “Keep some apple cider vinegar in your shower. Give your hair a spritz and rinse if your dry scalp is getting out of control or if you feel like you need a little more oomph. Apple cider vinegar cleans up nasty residue and closes your hair cuticles. When your cuticles are closed, your hair lies flat and it looks shiny and delicious.
7. Perk up your carpets and rugs: Reader’s Digest explains that vinegar can be used to make old carpets look better! You can also sprinkle baking soda onto carpets and rugs before vacuuming to remove funky smells and dampness.
8. Clean your body too! Feelgood Style shows us that we can use baking soda to clean our faces too! To make a gentle Face Scrub, mix 3 parts baking soda, 1 part water, and 1 part quick oats and gently massage onto your face. Rinse away with warm water to reveal glowing skin.”
9. Make and all-purpose spray for kitchen and bath: Mix vinegar and water in equal parts, along with essential oils of your choice. Keep in a spray bottle and use for all spills and simple clean up tasks.
10. Make an air-freshener + all-purpose cleaner: Learn how to infuse your cleaning vinegar so you get all the cleaning power of vinegar without the smell.
And here are seven things to not clean with vinegar, including marble, wood, and more.
Check out our guide to homemade cleaning products to get started with natural cleaning in your home today!
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