10 awesome uses for vinegar in your kitchen
You'd be surprised at just how many uses there are for vinegar. Here are 10 uses for vinegar in your kitchen:
Ever since I started cloth diapering my little guy, I've been taking small steps to live a greener life. I'm not abandoning all of my previous habits, but I am trying to find small ways to bring less chemicals into our home. Lately, I've been doing a lot of cleaning with vinegar and it inspired me to tell everyone just how awesome it is! So without further ado, here is a list to help you go green! Ten awesome uses for vinegar in your kitchen:
- Clean your coffee pot (my favorite!). Fill your carafe with ½ vinegar and ½ water. Pour it into the water reservoir and let sit for one hour to thoroughly clean and remove hard water mineral deposits. Then turn the pot on and let the vinegar/water filter through. Discard the hot vinegar/water, then run 3 cycles of clean water to clear all traces of vinegar out of the machine. Your coffee will taste great!
- Clean your garbage disposal. I first learned this trick after pouring the hot vinegar/water mixture from number 1 (cleaning your coffee pot) down our disposal. It had a bit of a funky odor before, but after pouring vinegar down the drain it was fresh! You can do some heavy duty deodorizing by pouring in about ½ cup of baking soda and ½ cup hot white distilled vinegar into the disposal. Let this sit for 5-10 minutes then run some additional hot water down the disposal.
- Degrease your appliances and clean your surfaces. Fill a spray bottle with ½ part vinegar and ½ water and spritz away! The mixture will cut through grease and grime. (Do not use with marble or granite though - you'll want to use a gentle cleaner for those surfaces).
- Clean your refrigerator. The fridge is definitely a place that you'll want to cut out harsh chemicals since it's home to your food. Just pour some vinegar onto a cleansing rag and go to town!
- Clean your oven. Rather than use a heavy duty spray, just combine vinegar and baking soda and scrub away.
- Clean your dishwasher. You can remove soap build-up and funky odors from your dishwasher simply by pouring a cup of vinegar inside the bottom of an empty machine. Run it through a full cycle (no soap of course). This will be especially handy if you have hard water to remove mineral deposits.
- Remove coffee or tea stains. This has been really useful for me since my husband uses a to-go cup to bring coffee to work each morning. At the end of the day there's always a bit of coffee left over and the bottoms of these cups never really look clean (which is kinda gross). I've started mixing vinegar and salt to make a scrub and with a little elbow grease they've gone away. This scrub also works well if you have stinky food storage containers or lunch boxes.
- Banish mineral and lime deposits from your faucet. Fill a small plastic bag (a little Ziplock will do) with vinegar and tie it around the faucet head. Let it sit for a few hours and then wipe clean. You may need a little scrub brush if you've got particularly stubborn build-up. This will work on shower heads too.
- Mop your floor. Use ½ cup of vinegar for each gallon of water you use. I have a large 5 gallon bucket and a large amount of tile to mop, so I use 1 cup of vinegar and about 2 gallons of water. You can use this solution on wood floors, laminate, or tile. I've also read about people using a tiny amount of dishwashing liquid and/or alcohol on their solution too.
- Banish sugar ants! Spray undiluted vinegar by any doorways and windows where you believe the ants are coming in. Also make sure to hit around your appliances and underneath sinks.
Do you use vinegar in your cleaning routine?
Do you have any tips or tricks I should try?
Check out our other posts about cleaning:
How to Create the Ultimate Home Cleaning Kit
Melissa says
This is great, Ruth! I love using vinegar as a safe cleaning alternative in my home! Pinned 🙂
Samantha @ Runamuk Acres says
Thanks for this! I need to make myself some more cleaners and I have plenty of vinegar on-hand so this is definitely the way to go! Safe, effective, and inexpensive. 🙂
crystal davis says
I use vinegar in my fabric softener dispenser about once or twice a month on my cloth diapers to strip them.
Michelle Bardos says
Vinegar can be really hard on diapers and isn't recommended by a lot of companies. I do think its smart you put it in the bleach part though. Wonder if that could help clean your washing machine?
Michelle Bardos says
My favorite was ants! No matter what we do, every year we get ants like crazy. Will have to pin this post to come back! Thanks for sharing
Gina Demaree McKee says
I put orange peels in a quart mason jar, fill it with vinegar, and let it sit for several weeks on my counter. Then strain out the peels, cut half-and-half with water in a spray bottle. I use this mix to clean my whole house, and it smells very citrus-y instead of like vinegar. 🙂
Rebeca K says
Thanks for the tips, I will have to try it! 🙂
Anne Clarey says
Vinegar is THE BEST cleaning solution. Try it on mirrors/windows as well!!
thanks for the article!
Chelsea Cardwell-Walter says
This is wonderful! love the way it smells.. I know that is kind of weird but it also cleans so well! Thanks
Julie Wood says
I like to clean my coffee pot with vinegar because it really gets it clean. But I did not know about spraying vinegar to get rid of ants.I have to try this all natural way to get rid of them. There are so many great uses for vinegar, and I will have to try some of these other uses.
Holly says
I've used cider vinegar as toner and these look just wonderful! Moving to kitchen cleaning made easy
Tanya Holland says
This is great info. I use it for a couple of my cleaning but now I will use it for a lot more. We also use it at my job in our dining room for our coffee cups every night.
Rosie says
These are great tips. I had heard of using vinegar with newspaper to clean windows, but I don't like using newspaper. I want to try some of these, especially the coffee pot!
Ruth V. says
Thanks for stopping by! I hope they work well for you!
Randy Schueller says
I didn't see anyone mention using it as a clarifying rinse for hair. The pH is low enough to solubilize hard water residue which can make hair dull.
However, don't fall for all the myths out there which say that vinegar tightens the cuticle. That's simply not true because loose cuticles are due to the loss of the natural "glue" that holds your hair together.
Lisa Edwards says
My dog had an issue with yeast infections on the skin and the vet prescribed medication that cost nearly $200 a month. This was not an option so I did a little research and found that spraying a diluted solution of regular white on the dog's skin cured the infection and helped control the smell while adding a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar to my dog's food once a day help prevent the problem.
Elise says
Two handy uses for vinegar - #1: I use it full strength from a "toilet bowl cleaner" bottle and get under the rim in the toilet when I clean it. Give it a swish with the brush and let it sit until the toilet is flushed by someone else. #2 : to kill yeast in my dogs ears we mix it 50/50 with water and squirt in ear 2x/ day for two weeks. Fill up the dogs ear canal and massage it in. Soak it up with a paper towel. It works!!! 🙂