Monday, November 19, 2012

Vinegar

Okay, the other day I wrote an embarrassing comment on this post at IHeartOrganizing.  I talked about how dearly I love cleaning with vinegar.  And now I've decided to continue the weirdness and just keep talking about vinegar today.  Trust me, it's truly life changing stuff.  I'm in a serious, committed relationship with the stuff.

So, what do I do with vinegar?  I'm so glad you asked.  Everything.  But here's a more specific list.  No, I don't use vinegar for nearly everything that's possible, but I definitely use it for a lot of things.
  • Fish.  Yes.  Fish.  Oh my goodness.  Vinegar makes fish amazing.  When we fry fish, I soak it in vinegar first.  Just plain old white vinegar.  And then there's malt vinegar.  That's for pouring on fried fish at fried fish places like Dowd's Catfish House or even Long John Silver's.  Don't put tarter sauce on it, that's for the fries silly.  Trust me.  
  • Cleaning the microwave.  My microwave is often embarrassingly dirty.  We suck at remembering to cover food before we heat it up, thus making a messy microwave.  So periodically I pour some vinegar (still plain old white) in a cereal bowl and microwave it for about 5 minutes.  Pull the bowl out and wipe down your microwave.  I'm serious.  Just wipe all the gunk out.  There will be no scrubbing.  It's amazing.
  • Cleaning the stove.  The other day I found an idea on Pinterest to mix white vinegar and dawn to clean the shower.  I did that and I loved it.  I usually clean my stove by sprinkling on baking soda and then spraying vinegar, letting it sit for a few minutes then wiping it up.  It gets everything off but it's kind of a pain.  So I tried my shower cleaning concoction.  Oh my goodness, it was even better.  Once again, no scrubbing!  Just a good wipe.  And not nearly as messy as the baking soda.
  • Cleaning the kitchen counters. Well, any counters actually.  I either use straight vinegar or a 50/50 (approximately, c'mon people, I don't measure the stuff) of water and vinegar.  Just give it a good spray and wipe it down.  I love it.  I do occasionally still use like Clorox wipes but I really prefer vinegar.
  • Mopping the floors.  I dump some vinegar in my mop bucket, top it off with hot water and then go to town.  We have old linoleum floors in our kitchen that are in pretty bad shape.  Cleaning with vinegar makes them look cleaner than anything else I have tried.  
  • Cleaning toilets.  I just pour some vinegar in the toilet like you would bleach or toilet cleaner.  Just let it set a few minutes and give it a good scrub with the toilet brush.  
  • Pet accidents.  I learned this from my best friend's mom years ago.  Thankfully our dog is over this for the most part.  But for puppy accidents, I just sprayed a good healthy amount of vinegar and blotted.  Magic.
  • Cleaning the shower.  I already mentioned I use vinegar and Dawn.  It has seriously changed my life.  I hate cleaning the shower.  But this really makes it not too bad.  I spray down the shower, let it set for a few minutes then I scrub.  I have one of those Mr. Clean scrubby things that has a long handle.  I bought it at Dollar General.  It's pretty much amazing.
So yeah, I use vinegar for pretty much everything.  And if you're curious, my house does not smell like a pickle factory.  Sure I light a candle or turn on my Scentsy usually after I've vinegar'd it up.  But no one has ever come over and said, "Holy cow Mary, vinegar much?"

But seriously, I don't think I've bought any actual real cleaning supplies in probably a year.  Maybe even longer if I were more honest.  That way I know exactly what is in my cleaner.  I know there aren't any funky chemicals.  I also know I'm not going to be creating any terrible chemical reactions.  It's just me and my vinegar.  You do still want to use it in a well ventilated area.  My bathrooms are pretty small and I can't go too crazy with the vinegar or it kind of makes my nose burn.  Just a tip.

Anybody else clean with vinegar like a crazy person?  Or have any great homemade cleaners you use?

I'll be back later today with my post for

so I'll be linking up over at Two-Twenty-One when I get my act together.  I meant to have my post all ready and scheduled to post this morning and then I forgot.  That whole Sunday football and losing majorly threw me off.  Anyway. 

2 comments:

  1. I've heard such great things about cleaning with vinegar! I really need to give it a try!

    ReplyDelete