my life-long affair with vinegar

**The following article was written by guest contributor, Ellen Gardner.**

I also add vinegar to my salad dressing to cut the fat in half. So, no one who knows me well was surprised to hear that I have started using vinegar in more ways than just through digestion. Clearly, vinegar and I were destined to be in a relationship for life, but I didn’t realize just how resourceful this lovely liquid is until I needed it for an altogether different use: cleaning.

The stinky stuff is great, but I was pretty much forced into this quest. My son started getting sick, really sick, and we learned through tests that his immune system wasn’t working right. It was in overdrive. As moms, we want to control our kid’s health – we want them happy and healthy, of course. But my ability to control the situation was limited. My son was struggling so Mamma put on her fighting gloves ready to do all that was within her power to help him. When I learned that my clean house could have been contributing to his state of un-well being, I was shocked. I had heard of “green cleaners” but I always brushed that aside as extreme thinking and a ploy to strike fear in moms in order to sell product. However, when I started studying the chemicals that I was using to spray all over the house, clean eating utensils/dishes, dump all over my kids clothes, wipe my furniture and spread all over the floors that his little bare feet were running on – I realized: this is something I CAN control.

So how do I clean, de-stink, soften, de-streak and disinfect my home? I use my love: vinegar.

I had dreams of my house being a big steaming pot where ignorantly I stirred in dangerous chemicals with a huge spoon, while my kids and husband swam around. I may not be able to clean the world’s air and water pollution with the snap of my fingers, but I can remove toxins from my own darn home. Done. So I literally threw away all of the chemicals from my home, including bleach. Gone. So how do I clean, de-stink, soften, de-streak and disinfect my home? I use my love: vinegar.

Vinegar is 5 percent acid, but it’s the safe kind of acid. It literally zaps bacteria. You won’t find that fact printed on a vinegar bottle at the grocery store, which is why as a culture we aren’t used to thinking of vinegar as more than something we eat. Instead, we are used to having a chemist concoct a potion for cleaning. Heinz just never intended to market it as an antibacterial…so weird to me. 

Here is a list of just some of the great ways good old-timey, completely natural vinegar can help you with cleaning your house AND lower that final figure on your grocery receipt. Gotta love that. (Also, check out http://www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.html)

- Put three cups of white vinegar in the toilet bowl, then flush in a half hour to clean.

- Deodorize kitchen drain by pouring a cup of distilled white vinegar down the drain once a week. Let stand 30 minutes, then flush with cold water.

- To remove refrigerator smells, place one cup apple cider vinegar in a glass in refrigerator.

- Make wool sweaters fluffier. Drop in a couple of capfuls of vinegar during the rinse cycle for an extra-soft feel or to replace your softener.

- To wash no-wax floors, add ½ cup of distilled white vinegar to a half-gallon of warm water.

- A mixture of 1 teaspoon of safe/non-toxic liquid detergent and 1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar in a pint of lukewarm water removes non-oily stains. Apply with soft brush or towel, rub gently. Rinse with towel moistened with clean water and blot dry. Repeat until stain is gone. Dry quickly, using a fan or hair dryer.

- To clean and disinfect wood cutting boards, wipe with full-strength distilled white vinegar.

- Wash painted walls, woodwork and Venetian blinds with a mixture of 1 cup ammonia, ½ cup white distilled or cider vinegar and ¼ cup baking soda in 1 gallon of warm water. Wipe this solution over walls or blinds with a sponge or cloth and rinse with clear water.

- Dust and remove water rings on wood by rubbing with a mixture of equal parts of distilled white vinegar and olive oil. Rub with the grain and polish for best results.

- Clean and deodorize the microwave by boiling a solution of ¼ cup of distilled white vinegar and 1 cup of water in the microwave.

- Get rid of fruit flies by placing on the counter a bowl filled with ½ quart water, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar and a couple of drops of dish soap.

- Remove bathtub film by wiping with distilled white vinegar and then with baking soda. Rinse clean with water.

- Remove corrosion from showerheads or faucets by soaking them in white distilled vinegar overnight. (Saturate terry cloth towel in vinegar and wrap around the showerhead or faucet.)

- Kill weeds between cracks in paving stones and sidewalks. Fill a spray bottle with straight vinegar and spray multiple times.

- Got mildew? Try using a combination of vinegar and baking soda to remove it. When it begins to bubble and fizz, scrub away the mildew.

So go and buy a few, high quality squirt bottles (small and large) and try it out. I can safely say: it can’t hurt.

Oh and by the way – if you HATE the smell of vinegar, I understand. As a rule, the scent of vinegar disappears after it dries so the smell goes away so your house doesn’t resemble a vinegar factory. But if you still refuse it because it irritates you while you are using it, I get it. So keep an eye out for the follow up article: Not-So-Stinky Natural Cleaners. I plan on using and researching a couple of natural cleaners that, like vinegar, are also disinfectants…but smell sweeter such as Tea Tree Oil and Lavender Oil.

Stay tuned. (I want to try them for myself before recommending.)