Vinegar for Cleaning?

[heydude]

Can a person just put vinegar in a spary bottle and use that for your cleaning needs?

What is the cheap way to clean?!

[Float On]

Yes.
http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/vinegar Here's some ideas.

I use vinegar alot and lately I've mixed in some blue Dawn and it did a fantastic job on the stained fiberglass shower floors.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

I have mopped with vinegar in water for many years. Works great. I also use it for other cleaning chores.

[treehugger]

Yes, definitely. No special recipe needed. One note though, that not everyone can stand the strong smell of vinegar (me, for one), but the smell does dissipate pretty quickly. I read somewhere to steep citrus peels in vinegar to cut the smell, but that only made a much worse third scent (not vinegar, not citrus), IMO.

Baking soda, salt, and lemon juice are other frugal cleaning tools, btw.

Kara

[Blackdog Lin]

Float On: (even though I'm razzing you lately about the Pinterest thing.....:) ) I do thank you very much for the link about the vinegar/blue Dawn cleaning mixture. I have the fiberglass tub/walls combo, and the bathtub ring always took many minutes of hard elbow grease to get gone using scouring powder. I think maybe that's why I've always let it go so long, 'cause it was so hard to clean.

I sprayed on the vinegar/Dawn stuff today, forgot about it for an hour or so, went back AND JUST WIPED THE RING OFF! Shiny and clean in one minute with no work at all. It was amazing - I'll never have to scrub my bathtub again.

But the recipe I used was half white vinegar (heated) and half Dawn, and it was way too soapy. Took several rinsings to get all the soap away. A very small complaint, considering how easy it was and how well it worked, but maybe it would work with less soap? What proportions are you using?

I also used it on the toilet - it took a little scrubbing with the toilet brush, but it worked great. I'll never have to buy toilet bowl cleaners again too.

[Float On]

Lin, I thought it was too strong too mixed 1/2 &1/2 so I did 3 part vinegar and 1 part dawn - worked great and I used it all over the bathrooms.

[awakenedsoul]

I use one part vinegar to three parts water in a spray bottle. We have hard water where I live, so I use bottled water. It works really well. I buy the vinegar in bulk at Costco.

[Rosemary]

I have two spray bottles of cleaners that I use around the house:
1. Dilute dish detergent spray. I use this on surfaces that can't use vinegar, such as tile.
2. 50% vinegar / 50% water. I use this on everything else. It is my standard kitchen cleaner - it stays on the kitchen sink. I also spray fresh produce with it before rinsing.

[rosarugosa]

Lin and Float On: I'll have to try the Dawn and Vinegar on my tub & tub surround. How essential is the heating? How about I'll keep away from Pinterest, but you guys pass along the best ideas? :)
Dawn and Hydrogen Peroxide, freshly mixed, 50/50 ratio is a great stain remover for clothing.
I like Dr Bronner's castille soap mixed in water as an all-purpose cleaner.
Straight rubbing alcohol is great on mirrors (I add some lavender oil for fun, but not necessary).
I also use vinegar straight up or diluted as an all-purpose cleaner.
Microfiber cleaning cloths give you a lot more bang for your buck in terms of elbow grease expenditure/cleaning power.

[Blackdog Lin]

Rosa: (1) oh, do. I still can't believe how easy/well it worked on my fiberglass tub (I keep the walls clean with Clean Shower); and (2) don't know how important is is to heat the vinegar, I just followed the directions to heat it. Beware, I nuked the white vinegar in my little plastic sprayer for 60 seconds and now have a square bottle rather than the round one I had originally - it was too long, and I'm lucky it didn't melt the sprayer and screw up the microwave. I will hereafter heat the vinegar in a glass bowl and transfer to the sprayer; and (3) follow Float On's recipe of 1/4 Dawn and 3/4 white vinegar. Mine was really too soapy; and (4) I received a generous gift certificate to our local hardware store for my retirement, have started a list to use it, and microfiber cloths are at the top of the list. Haven't ever had any before and looking forward to trying them out; and (5) STAY AWAY FROM PINTEREST. I justify it as learning time.....but my gosh! there's so much learning to be had there. So many nifty tips. A serious new time sink of mine.....(may I razz Float On just one more time for turning me on to it?) :)

[Mrs-M]

Not much left to add courtesy of everyone's superb entries! Thumbs-up to all!

[Float On]

Lin, Lin, Lin you silly thing. We'll have to connect on Pinterest now I suspose :)

[catherine]

Vinegar is my go-to all-purpose cleaner. I also dilute it, about 1 part vinegar, 3-4 parts water.

Float On... didn't you recently provide a recipe for less-vinegar-smelling cleaner? Like boiling lemon rinds in it or something? I actually was going to try to find that thread because I ran out of the essential oil I typically used to offset the vinegar smell (I don't mind it, but DH hates it and counterattacks with PineSol and Formula 409--yuck).

[Mrs-M]

http://emoticoner.com/files/emoticons/smileys/wagfinger1-smiley.gif?1292867695 Now, now, Catherine... don't be dissing Pine-Sol, around me!