Friday, September 28, 2007

Frugal Friday- Distilled White Vinegar

Distilled white vinegar is very inexpensive. I know there are lists online or in your mother-in-law's filing cabinet for the many uses of distilled white vinegar, but I wanted to sing a few praises myself in case you hadn't heard of them. Do not worry- the smell dissipates. In our home we do the following with it:

*We use it in our rinse cycle when we wash cloth diapers to balance the pH.

*Make vinegar ice cubes and put them down your garbage disposal to freshen. We also put citrus peels in the garbage disposal (instead of the garbage).

*Use distilled white vinegar to remove hard water stains on your shower head. Just remove the shower head and soak in a bowl of distilled white vinegar overnight. Or you could tie a bag of distilled white vinegar on over the shower head while still attached.

*Clean shower doors and walls.

*Use it to dye Easter eggs.

I'm sure there are more that I'm just not thinking of that we use it for. Go explore the many uses of distilled white vinegar and see what you can do in your home to be more frugal!

8 comments:

Kacie said...

About how much vinegar do you use per rinse cycle?

Thanks for the tips!

Anonymous said...

Great info about the gargbage disposal!

I keep a spray bottle of vinegar (1/2 water 1/2 vineagr) to clean the kitchen counter and tables off as long as they didn't get really germy from meat, etc...

Nikki said...

Kacie-
It's probably about 1/4 cup vinegar in the rinse cycle. I have a front-loader washer and I just put the vinegar in the cup for the fabric softener.

Haddorkus said...

In ND, I kept a water bottle with vinegar in it for the wood floors, it is one of the only ways to get a real wood floor to shine. Also, we are in slow-renovation mode in our house and I have been tearing down wallpaper I now use my vinegar water to remove the glue paper from the wall. Vinegar rules. I just had to buy a huge bottle from the commissary so I could finish all the wallpaper in the kitchen, horrible ugly paper.

Supercool Mom said...

I love vinegar! When i forget a load of laundry in the washer and it gets sour, I pour in a cup of vinegar and rewash it - saves the day every time! Also, I leave custard cups of it all over my house to absorb the nasty smoke smell that comes out of the walls when it gets humid (previous owners smoked, yuck.) It works great to freshen the house and doesn't smell like vinegar at all.

Anonymous said...

White vinegar is also a good alternative to kill wasps. Just put a heavy solution into a spray bottle cup for cup of water. It's not harmful to the enviornment.

Julie V. said...

I didn't know vinegar can kill wasps! I'm definitely going to try it.
I use vinegar and water solution to clean my windows - works better than Windex (no streaks). To clean the inside of your microwave easier, just put a bowl of vinegar and water in on high for a minute - then the icky stuff will wash away easy!

Lylah Ledner said...

I love the white vinegar idea. As a matter of fact, my hubby's doing a Costco run to replenish our supply. I love your ideas!

blessings.