Vinegar is the best all around cleaner you can find; you can use it to clean furniture or fabrics with great results. It’s inexpensive and non-toxic, it works in the laundry, in the kitchen, even outside on weeds. There’s a reason our grandmothers used it; today it’s one of the best kept homemaking secrets.
A form of ascetic acid
Vinegar is a weak form of ascetic acid that’s formed from the fermentation of sugars and starches, and it’s a miracle cleaner. It’s been around for centuries and has endless uses. So don’t run to the store and buy those expensive cleaners when what you need is a bottle of vinegar. While you’re at it, get a couple of spray bottles, it’s a lot easier to use vinegar this way.
If you have a piece of furniture with any kind of sticky substance on it, just spray the sticky spot with vinegar, let it sit for about ten minutes and wipe away the stickiness. Vinegar won’t hurt your furniture-wood or fabric. It works well on carpet too, spray the spot with 1/2 cup of vinegar and 1/2 cup of water, let it sit for about two minutes and blot up the spot with a soft cloth.
If you have wood paneling in your home you can clean it with a mixture of 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup vinegar and 2cups warm water. Apply this with a soft cloth and buff till it shines.
Vinegar is great in the laundry
If you soak your clothes in vinegar for about ten minutes before washing, it keeps the colors from running. Adding 1/2 cup of vinegar to your rinse cycle will decrease the amount of lint on your clothes. Stains like ketchup and chocolate can be removed from clothes by gently rubbing them with vinegar and then washing them.
Brighter whites and colors can be yours if you add 1/2 cup of vinegar to your rinse cycle. One cup of vinegar makes cloth diapers smell better and feel softer. And if you want to remove soap scum from your washing machine so that it does a better job, run your machine through one cycle with very hot water and one cup of vinegar. Do this every couple of months to get the most out of your detergent.
If you have a smoker in your house
To remove the smell of smoke from their clothes, soak them in a tub of hot water with one cup of vinegar and hang them up to drip dry in the same room for at least a few hours. Also think about using vinegar to remove those unexpected crayon marks that show up on your walls, etc. Just dip a toothbrush in white vinegar and brush away.
Vinegar is a great way to go green
Vinegar is a powerful, non-toxic cleaner. When used on your furniture and other fabrics, it won’t cause your families allergies to flare up. With all these uses for the great sour-smelling stuff called vinegar, you really have no excuse for spending big bucks for those toxic cleaners you’ve been buying, now do you?
