Cleaning with Vinegar
I get asked a lot how I get it all done. One of my secret weapons when I lived in California was that I could afford a cleaning lady. Shaun and I kept the house neat and cleaned the kitchen, but, twice a month we had people in that cleaned our floors, toilets, mirrors, dusted, etc. It was so nice to come home on the “cleaning lady” days to a sparkling, fresh smelling home.
With our new lifestyle, a cleaning lady is decidedly NOT in the budget. After five years of not cleaning toilets, it was a rude awakening to have to clean them. ICK.
Since I had to start cleaning again, I had to get new cleaning supplies. Guess what I’m using for almost everything? (Well, if you read the title, then you already know).
That’s right, vinegar!
My friend, Stephanie, mentioned it on Facebook and I decided to give it a try. I got 2 spray bottles (one for upstairs and one for down) and I filled them with a solution of equal parts vinegar and water. I’ve been using the solution in the kitchen, in the bathroom-everywhere!
For a deeper clean, I’m planning on mixing baking soda and vinegar. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will be. I just ran out of my old toilet bowl cleaner, so the next time I clean the toilet, I’ll be breaking out the baking soda.
So far, I am REALLY happy with the vinegar solution-it’s cheap too!!!
What do you use to clean with, that you can’t live without?
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: cleaning, cleaning lady, cleaning with vinegar, vinegar 22 comments »
I really like Clorox’s Anywhere Hard Surface Cleaner. 🙂
So glad you are enjoying your new life!
a bonus to using vinegar is that when Lucy decides to “help” you clean, you can hand her a bottle and a rag and not worry about where she sprays it!
I am totally obsessed with this peppermint cleaner. It’s all natural too and makes the house smell SO good. It actually makes me WANT to clean, which doesn’t happen very often 😉
http://www.modernmermaids.com/category/Everyday_Sea_Spray_br_All_Purpose_Glass_Cleaner_/c58
I have never seen that but want to try it!
ha ha. i thought you’d like it!! smells funky once in a while, but i’m hooked!
I love cleaning with vinegar. I’ve been using it for a few years now after I kept getting stuffed up while cleaning and couldn’t stand to touch anything I’d cleaned due to all the fumes (not very productive!). I found there are quite a few websites that have recipes for homemade cleaning solutions. So far I’ve kept it fairly simple, but I just bought a little thing of tea tree oil from whole foods that I’m going to try. In the kitchen I sometimes use this lavender spray a friend of mine sent from Seattle. It’s awesome and can also be used to clean fruit, so I figure if I accidentally get it on something it’s ok!
http://www.pelindabalavender.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=801
I’ve never heard of vinegar being an allergy-crazy!
vinegar is terrific. also, i like using castile soap to clean as well – for a little bubbly action!
I use castile soap on ME in the shower, I’ll have to bust it out next time I clean.
i also use baking soda & vinegar to clean both the toilets and the kitchen sink. It bubbles up really cool like a shaken up can of soda. 😉 I use vinegar in the laundry as fabric softener also. Haven’t bought liquid softener or dryer sheets in a couple years, our laundry is softer than ever because all that heavy ‘goop’ is washed out now! vinegar on the floor when you mop is awesome too!
Also, I make my own windex – 1 cup rubbing alcohol, 1 cup water and 1 tbsp ammonia!
I’ve been using the vinegar like windex and it seems to work. If I start getting streaks, I’ll your recipe. Ammonia scares me though-don’t know why!
Certainly not green, but the toilet is happier for the disposable Clorox toilet bowl cleaners. Plus my new steam mop for the floors. And some good ‘ole elbow grease. But if I’m being really honest, I would rather have a cleaning lady.
*sigh* me too. Are you loving the steam mop? I am, though it leaves my upstairs floors streaky and that makes me mad 🙁
How do I get my picture to show up over there???
You need to get an account with wordpress and then set up your profile 🙂
I have a wordpress login, does that mean I need to comment over here with it?
Aha, now i get it! thanks!
For particularly heinous organic messes (e.g. the time when my kitchen garbage bag leaked – eiw), I use hydrogen peroxide. It’s a mild oxygen bleach (as opposed to chlorine bleach, like Clorox), kind of like OxyClean (which contains hydrogen peroxide). I also use it on clothing. It’s super cheap, at about a dollar a liter.
I use that for cleaning up road rash, I should totally use it for other things too!
I couldn’t live without Method cleaner, my Dyson and Haan steam mop!
I’ll have to try vinegar!
I pretty much rely on Clorax’s line of Green Works stuff for most things. I did vinegar mop my floor once, and it seemed to do a fairly good job.
[…] guess there’s a series happening at the blog. I much prefer my Cleaning with Vinegar post to this one but last week I had to clean with […]