Saturday, June 23, 2012

Oh, for the love of...vinegar?

Lately I have been OBSESSED with using vinegar for so many things.

First, it started with cleaning the dishwasher. It seemed to help make it run better, dry faster and even degrease it some. (You know, the filter in the bottom gets "gunky" it helps clean it).

Then I read it works great in the laundry. First thing I did was use it to clean my washer. Our fabric softener thing in the middle was kinda gunky as well. I poured some in the softener hole and ran an empty load. It was still kinda gross, so I figured out how to tear it apart,  scrub it and put it back together. Now every load I wash, I pour a bunch in the fabric softener holder. I don't actually measure, I just pour until its full, and sometimes, I even pour until it's overflowing. Doesn't hurt anything, in fact, it's pretty good for the laundry! I know some people wonder, does it stink afterwards? Because face it, vinegar doesn't smell the best. Well, when you first open the washer, there's a very good chance you will smell it. HOWEVER, by the time the laundry is dry, either in the dryer OR hung to dry, there is no trace of vinegar smell. I will say the first couple times I used it on my towels, they seemed more scratchy than normal. I did some research (ok fine, I just googled it) and apparently that is very very normal. It's because it's breaking down the softener residue that's been left over from the other softeners and dryer sheets. A couple runs thru and they stopped, or you can keep using the dryer sheets with it. (I use them for the static stuff more than anything).

I recently have determined what a wonderful stain remover it is! Of course you would believe me better if I had before and after pictures, but I don't have any so you'll have to wait until next time I get a good stain. HOWEVER. For father's day, J got a light gray shirt with Darth Vader on it. Then for dinner we had ribs. and Emerson had red jello cake. Emerson's Jello cake ended up all over J's gray shirt. I thought for sure it was ruined after one wear, and I think that J believed it as well. But I made him take it off as soon as we got in the house. I took it upstairs to the laundry area (Seriously, I hope to never have to have my laundry anywhere but on the same floor as the bedrooms again...sorry, side tracked...) and poured a tiny bit of laundry detergent on it and scrubbed. All that it was doing was making a bigger mess so I kinda panicked.  I then put a towel under the shirt and poured some vinegar on as a last ditch effort and tossed it in the washer with some towels. Because honestly, if that Jello is gonna end up all over everything, it better be my towels and not my clothes!!!  But...low and behold, I pulled it out of the washer and it's GONE! I even hung it up to dry because I was worried it would magically reappear, but it did not. I also got some mystery grease stain on my favorite t shirt (it's my 5k shirt the Court to Court...It's American Apparel, so super soft). It had most likely been washed and dried on there so I was bummed, but thought, well, you never know, it might get rid of it. I put a little laundry detergent on again, just in case, then poured vinegar over then washed it. Also hung to dry and sure enough, no more mystery stains! I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to try it out with two little boys, so I'll see if I can find some pictures for us.

It also works great as an air fresher, and I include it in all of my homemade cleaners, like the Shower Magic, Homemade 409 and the magical shower head cleaner. You can also use it to clean your garbage disposal (freeze it in ice cubes then chop them up) and all kinds of other things. Recently, I even used it on the kitchen floor, by the door was pretty dingy, so thought I'd try it. Sprayed it on straight from the bottle and let it sit and it is VISIBLY cleaner with only a small amount of scrubbing. Overall, it's my new miracle product. The best part is, it's super cheap, and no harsh chemicals, so I feel safe using it around the pets and children.

What do you use vinegar for?

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