Vinegar: The Miracle Ingredient in Homemade Cleaners

Millions of people are starting to realize the advantages of using homemade household cleaners. Unlike commercial household cleaners, homemade cleaners don't contain harsh and potentially dangerous chemicals. And homemade cleaners are less expensive than commercial brands. In fact, you probably have the ingredients for many effective homemade cleaners in your kitchen right now.

When I first started using homemade cleaners, I found that certain ingredients appeared over and over again in different cleaning recipes. And the ingredient that seemed to show up the most often was distilled white vinegar.

Distilled White Vinegar: A True All-Purpose Cleaner

Along with being a common ingredient in homemade cleaners, white vinegar can also be found in many commercial cleaners. And for good reason. White vinegar is truly an all-purpose homemade cleaner. It's also inexpensive. You can buy a large jug of white vinegar for very little money, and use it to make countless homemade cleaners. And you don't have to worry about your whole house smelling like vinegar. The vinegar scent fades as the vinegar dries.

Distilled white vinegar has an acidic quality that cuts right through dirt and grease. In the bathroom, white vinegar can clean soap scum, mildew, lime deposits, and hard water deposits. White vinegar is also a disinfectant, which makes it especially useful in homemade cleaners used in the kitchen. When used as a fabric softener, white vinegar removes the detergent residue that can irritate sensitive skin. White vinegar is also a clothes brightener, so it can be used in place of bleach.

Distilled white vinegar is a natural odor neutralizer. It doesn't just cover up odors like many commercial air fresheners do. Vinegar actually absorbs the odors, leaving the room smelling clean and fresh.

Along with the uses mentioned above, white vinegar can be used to clean glass and windows, paintbrushes, stone, brick, mineral deposits, and wax buildup. You can also use white vinegar to clean hardwood floors, polish certain metals, and unclog and deodorize slow or smelly drains.

Homemade Cleaners for Your Coffee Maker and Teapot

To clean your coffeemaker, all you have to do is fill it with vinegar instead of water, then run the coffeemaker the way you usually would. Then, rinse by running plain water through the brew cycle two or three times. This will clean the inner working of the coffeemaker that are difficult, if not impossible, to get to.

To clean your teapot, pour in about half a cup of vinegar, then fill the teapot with water. Let it stand overnight, then rinse thoroughly with water.

Homemade Cleaners for Your Floors

Vinegar can be used to clean linoleum, vinyl, no-wax, tile, stone, and brick floors.

Since vinegar can actually pull dirt from wood, vinegar is a great wood floor cleaner. Simply add about a cup of vinegar to a bucket of hot water, and mop as usual.

A Truly All-Purpose Homemade Cleaner

In a spray bottle, add one cup of vinegar and one cup of water. Mix well by giving the bottle a shake. You can use this all-purpose homemade cleaner to clean almost anything, including countertops, cutting boards, appliances, glass, mirrors, toilets and tubs. You can also use it as an air freshener. Simply spray it around the room to neutralize unpleasant odors.

White vinegar is truly a miracle ingredient. One anyone interested in making their own homemade cleaners simply can't do without.