Vinegar is a pantry staple, but did you know that you can use it to help keep your home clean and fresh, too?
With the ability to clean certain items and areas of the home just as effectively as some of the top brand cleaning products, white vinegar is readily available, affordable and environmentally friendly, too. Here are 6 ways to use vinegar as a cleaning solution around your home:
- Removing mineral deposits
Leaving streaks and spots on your dishes, hard water stains and mineral deposits can be eliminated by simply adding white vinegar to your dishwasher cycle, which also helps to disinfect and deodorize the machine.
Pop a cup full of white vinegar on the highest rack of the dishwasher before running it on a very hot cycle (the hottest your machine has, ideally).
- Cleaning coffee makers
If you use your coffee maker every day, as so many households throughout the country do, it won’t take long for it to become stained and dirty, which could soon start to compromise your morning cup of Joe. To help keep your coffee maker as fresh as the coffee it makes, use vinegar every couple of months.
Make a solution of one part vinegar to two parts water and pour it into the reservoir before running it on a fully cycle. Once completed, run it twice through again with water to eliminate the taste of vinegar. Always make sure you switch the machine off and allow it to cool down for 15 minutes in between each cycle.
- Removing wallpaper
Nobody wants to spend hours scraping away at wallpaper when trying to give their walls a new lease of life, but with the help of vinegar, you can make the task that bit easier.
With a mixture of vinegar and water in equal parts, soak the wall in the solution with the help of a spray bottle or sponge, and leave it to absorb the mixture for a few minutes; don’t forget to open a window to release some of the vinegary vapours. Then, when you grab your tools and start scraping, you should find the paper lifts off with much more ease.
- Cleaning paintbrushes
Paintbrushes are impossible to use when they’re encrusted with paint from previous projects, but fortunately, with a big bottle of vinegar, you can get them back to their former condition and ready for your next spot of painting.
Begin by filling a saucepan with enough of the vinegar to fully cover the paintbrushes bristles (don’t use your best pan), and leave them to soak for up to an hour. Then, turn the heat on under the pan and boil the vinegar before taking it off the stove. Leave the brushes soaking in the hot vinegar for around half an hour, and then take them out and wash them off in cool water. Once dry, your dirty, stiff brushes, should be soft and clean again.
- Removing decals and labels
These can be a real pain to get rid of completely, and can really spoil the look of an item. With vinegar, however, you can easily remove sticky labels and decals from most glass and plastic surfaces.
With a sponge dipped in undiluted vinegar, dab it onto the plastic or glass and leave it to work its magic for a few minutes, before simply scraping the sticker or decal off (taking care not to scratch the surface while doing so). Should any gummy residue remain, simply rub it over again with a little more vinegar.
- Dissolving rust
If you’ve got rusty tools and other items lying around, you might think you need to toss them in the trash and buy new ones, but not so.
By simply soaking your rusty tools, nuts and bolts in vinegar for a few days and rinsing them off with water, you can restore them to their former glory.
Vinegar truly is a wonder product when it comes to cleaning, but if you don’t have the time or inclination to carry out any of these tips, why not hire a cleaning service and ask them to add it to their cleaning schedule?
