You would think with my fancy chemistry degree, my love of natural cleaners and my knack for saving money that I would have discovered vinegar much earlier in life.  But embarrassingly enough, I’ve just gotten into cleaning with vinegar this year.  And the more I use it, the more I love it – and it seems I’m always discovering new uses for this hero product.  Here are my most recent favorites:

Clean, fresh drains every time. Our garbage disposal is our kitchen hero (tied with our dishwasher).  I make that disposal earn its keep regularly.  But I know that it can get gunky there too.  I’d recommend making vinegar ice cubes with lemon and grinding them up or (my simple way) pouring baking soda down the disposal, pouring vinegar down the disposal and letting it foam up, then running hot water and grinding everything away.  I do this every couple of months and our disposal never has a weird smell.

Better than fancy, expensive carpet cleaner.  My parents brought me their carpet shampooer recently and I used it to clean our white carpets.  The expensive carpet cleaner was fine, but it was gone in less than one room.  I didn’t want to go to the store and spend tons more money on cleaner, so I looked online and found that vinegar could be used instead.  For 1/10 of the cost, I was able to do the rest of the house.  The vinegar worked great and the savings was unbelievable. Consider me impressed.

The dishwasher rinse agent of your dreams. I’ve been making my own dish washing detergent for some time now and it’s great, but the mega boost is using vinegar in the dishwasher.  Two ideas – first, use vinegar as a rinse aid.  Just pour it in the rinse aid spout in your DW and let this hero product do the work.  Second, for really tough grime in the DW, put a cup of vinegar in an empty dishwasher and run a regular load.  Keeps the dishwasher clean and running smooth.

Get the funk out of your shower. My favorite vinegar discovery to date – fill a wand with vinegar and liquid dish soap and scrub your shower periodically while you’re in there.  To make this mix, I use about 2/3 vinegar and 1/2 liquid dish soap, like Dawn (I pick my favorite scent). Both items are mild enough that they shouldn’t irritate skin and this mix really gets the job done.  I’ve seen it take away funky smells, weird stains and it leaves everything smelling fresh and clean.

Save money on cleaners and start easy.  Buy a few key ingredients and begin to test what works best for you.  When you have the hero’s arsenal in your grasp; cleaning becomes much easier, better for the environment and better for you and your family.