Friday, October 14, 2011

5 Uses for Vinegar

8:00 AM | Posted by The Mommies Network | | Edit Post

Do you want to know how to use up that white vinegar you bought to color eggs with this year?  Here are some ways to use it around the house as a cleaner, disinfectant, odor remover, blemish treatment, stain remover, and fabric softener.  There are many other ways you can use vinegar as well but these are a few ways that Traci (izzysmom7) and her family use vinegar around their house.

1.  As a cleaner/disinfectant: Do you want to freshen up the water lines in your coffee maker?  Run a cup of vinegar and two cups of water through the maker.  If the maker hasn't been used in awhile run a few cups of vinegar through, discard, and then run a few cups of water through.  Make a solution of vinegar and water and use it to clean your counter tops, floors, or any surfaces you need to disinfect.  My family and I use full strength vinegar to remove hard water and lime stains in the showers/bathrooms. 

2.  Odor Remover:  Ever come across an odor in a room of your house and not been able to remove it with the typical household odor sprays?  Place some apple cider vinegar in a bowl in the room and in a few days the room will be fresh and clean smelling again.  My daughter and husband often have allergic reactions to candles and sprays, this has been a great alternative for them.  If you want something to use the apple cider vinegar for when you are not removing odors, ask me to share my pulled pork BBQ recipe with you.

3.  Blemish Treatment:  Do you have a teenager or do you yourself suffer from acne?  Nothing is worse than waking up in the morning before you start your day to find a blemish staring back at you in the mirror.  When I was in college a friend told me to try placing some vinegar in a bowl, then use a cotton swab to add it to the blemishes.  I let it sit for thirty minutes and then rinsed with lukewarm water.  No blemish treatment will instantly remove our unwanted blemishes, but this method is a green way to help treat them.  I suffer from dry skin so I recommend applying a good moisturizer after the vinegar treatment if you do as well.

4. Stain Remover:  How many of your little ones love to stain their clothes with some of those impossible stains?  My child prides herself in finding those impossible stains.  While I do have stain removers in my house, one day I had more stains than remover.  I went to the web to see if there was something I had around the house to help with a pizza sauce stain.  I found  out that vinegar and baking soda would do the trick.  It will smell strong as the baking soda and vinegar bubbles and fizzes but it will remove your stain.  Wash your clothes after each treatment the same way you would if you used a store bought cleaner.  Extra Tip:  If it is a stubborn stain that the above treatment will not remove, place your stained garment(s) out in the sun.  The great outdoors will not only give your clothes a fresh smell but the sun will act as a bleach, helping to remove your stains.

5.  Fabric Softener:  Use 1 to 2 ounces of vinegar in the rinse cycle while doing laundry.  It will help remove the soap residue and soften your clothes.  You could also place the vinegar in a softener ball as well.  Extra Tip: Do you use dryer fabric softener sheets and wonder how to remove the residue they create over time on your dryer lint trap?  All you need is some vinegar (more or less depending on the last time you cleaned the trap), water, a scrubbing pad and some elbow grease (may need to scrub harder if you haven't cleaned the trap in a bit).  You will the know the trap is clean once the water no longer clings to the top of the trap and flows through it.   

Submitted by Traci from NorthMetroDCMommies.  Originally posted to the NorthMetroDC Blog.

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