The Fern Grove

The Magic of Vinegar!

If I had to pick one thing that I feel could be the revolutionary item of the green movement, it would have to be vinegar. Though acidic, vinegar is a natural product; the result of secondary fermentation of natural sugars and though it isn’t produced quite as simply today as it once was, it has been around for 10000 years!

Vinegar was the first and easiest step I took as I began my on going journey to live an eco-conscious life. As I finished off the bottle of Mr. Clean scrubbing my bathroom clean I didn’t put it back on the grocery list but instead replaced it with a spray bottle I filled with equal parts hot water and vinegar and few drops of dish detergent (I now use the Nature Clean brand of detergent made with tea tree oil). I had heard that vinegar was a great multipurpose cleaner from so many sources and I now join the team that advocates for the use of natural cleaners and boasts vinegars great and many cleaning abilities that make it so easy to switch from commercial chemicals to homemade more natural cleaners.

There are so many uses of Vinegar … too many to mention, but I will share a couple of my favourites and a book I discovered at a used book sale titled Vinegar: Over 400 Various, Versatile, and Very Good Uses You’ve Probably Never Though of by Vivki Lansky. This book classifies Vinegar uses under the chapters: Cooking, A Clean Kitchen, In the Bathroom, All Through the House, Laundry and Clothing, Beauty and Grooming, Good for You … Home Remedies, Handy Dandy Help, Kid Stuff, and Best for Pets. These categories definitely demonstrate Vinegars all round usefulness in everyday living. I love this book (at 50cents it was a bargain!). For the sake of this posts length I will start by posting my personal favourite uses of Vinegar, but stay tuned for more of my favourite suggestions from each of the above mentioned categories.

I’ve already mentioned vinegar in a spray cleaner, which I use on a daily basis as my all purpose cleaner. Taken from the above mentioned book I have also been using vinegar and water to keep my microwave clean.

Cleaning with Vinegar Tips:

1. To Clean a Microwave: Place a couple of tbls of vinegar in a microwave safe container filled with aprox 1/2 - 1 cup water. Microwave the water and vinegar mixture on high for three min. and then leave the door closed for at least 5min allowing the steam to form condensation in the microwave. When you get a moment, remove the dish with the vinegar mixture (so as not to waste is, I add it to my all purpose vinegar cleaner spray bottle) and wipe sown the microwave with ease. The vinegar and moisture loosens all the caked on food and the whole microwave wipes clean with ease!
2. For crisp clean laundry: add 1/4 cup laundry into the bleach dispenser of your washer (or add it by hand once the machine is full of water. Put through a regular laud of laundery using the detergent you normally do. The vinegar works to remove odors, keeps colours crisp and kills any mildew on laundry. It rinses away and leaves no vinegary smell (I promise). You’re laundry will be cleaner than ever before!