The Many Uses of White Vinegar

photo courtesy of Heinz

I mentioned in my post a while back about the many uses of Dawn dish soap that I have just a few main ingredients that I use to clean almost everything in my house.  White vinegar is one of the others.  I absolutely LOVE this stuff.  I go through at least one of the big jugs a month.  Here are some of the things I personally use it on and some more that I've found via Pinterest that I haven't tried, but would love to hear about if you have :D

• Rinse aid in the dishwasher - You can either pour it into the rinse aid section of your dishwasher or just dump some on the bottom with each wash - I do the latter.

• Fabric softener - According to my cleaning guru Jillee over at One Good Thing, the acetic acid in vinegar breaks up mineral deposits and dissolves buildup - which makes your clothes nice and soft.  Use it just like you would your normal fabric softener.  I don't actually ever use fabric softener, so this is not something I regularly use, but my MIL swears by it in her front loader.

• Jillee also suggests using it to clean your top-loading washer.

• I use it as a berry and grape cleaner.  Those things have so many little nooks and crannies for dirt and nastiness to get into :/  I pour the fruit into a bowl, pour warm water from the faucet onto it, then dump some vinegar in and mix it all up with my hand.  Then I let it sit for about 10 minutes, rinse in cool, clean water and let dry either on a paper towel or in the strainer before putting them in the fridge.  That keeps them from getting all soggy.  

• Science experiments with the kiddos - I mix some food coloring into some vinegar, then pour it into a cup that has a little baking soda on the bottom.  Makes for some fun little volcanos :D

• Microwave cleaner - pour some vinegar into a microwave safe dish and microwave for about 3 minutes.  It will start to boil a bit and the steam loosens up all the gunk - I did this today and it worked SUPER well.  Just be careful - something happened with my micro and when I tried to put it back in for a second round, the vinegar basically exploded and blew the door open as well as popped the circuit breaker.  Not quite sure what caused that, but it was fine before and after.  Anyone who knows what happened there, hit me up and let me know ;P

• Shower cleaner - as I mentioned in the post about Dawn soap, I make this cleaning solution for my shower and LOVE it.  Just don't use too much or you'll be rinsing suds out of your sponge forever ;P

• And of COURSE for yummy foods, like salad dressings, pickles, ketchup, and poured all over corned beef and cabbage (oh my word, LOVE.  Every St. Patty's Day, this is what we eat.  It's also my son's birthday, so poor guy better learn to love it, too ;P)

Those are just the ones I use in my home.  Here are some that I haven't tried, but now I'm dying to ;)

• This Old House has a list of 10 things you can use vinegar for and all of them are things I never would have thought of.  From reviving old paint brushes to whitening your grout.  Super interesting!

• The Thrifty Home suggests using it to remove hard water stains on sinks - I TOTALLY need this in my house.  Our water is crazy hard!

• Everyday Simple says you can use it to remove water stains from concrete.  

• Martha Stewart suggests using it to kill weeds and to clear pipes (in conjunction with baking soda) - I'll have to tell the hubs about that.  

• Apparently, it can be used to ice proof your car windshields.  I could've used that about a month ago during Texas' icemageddon :/

• Wikihow says you can use it to get gum off of clothes.  Haven't needed that yet, but with 4 kids, I know that day is coming...

What other things do you use vinegar for?