Last Updated on November 28, 2023 by Corynn
I always had a love for cleaning and organizing. Although after moving into my first apartment I have found so many ways on how to you can clean with vinegar.
So I have created a long list of vinegar cleaning ideas that you can use right in your home!
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How Effective is Vinegar as a Cleaning Product?
A lot of cleaning supplies on the market tend to not be good for our overall health.
If you’re like me who suffers from asthma, you have to be careful on what cleaning products you can use.
They are also studies being shown that some cleaning supplies may cause infertility. In addition, it cause harm to your body during pregnancy, and for small children.
Vinegar is a great and greener way of cleaning your home.
Before we get into our list, one thing we need to know is that a lot of the ideas that are listed below, you must dilute the vinegar with water. So you’ll need to mix 1 cup of water to 1 cup of vinegar.
Some ideas will require you to use only vinegar.
Another thing is please only use WHITE DISTILLED vinegar whenever you are cleaning!
Want to skip to the information you need? You can use the table of contents to skip sections down below!
Vinegar Cleaning Ideas For The Kitchen
1. Counter Tops
If you have been cutting raw meat on the counter or find your counters super messy, you can use vinegar to clean your counters.
NOTE: If you have stone counter tops I HIGHLY suggest you do not use vinegar on them! (We’ll explain why further down the post).
2. Kitchen Appliances
I use vinegar to clean the exterior of my toaster, keruig and even my instant pot.
I highly recommend that you do not place vinegar anywhere near the rubber cords, as this can make the cord tarnish.
3. Microwave
This is something I do every week. We tend to use our microwave a lot so it does get really dirty. I use my vinegar/water solution to clean the inside of the microwave with a spray bottle.
Another way you can use vinegar to clean your microwave is by using a microwave safe container, fill it with part vinegar and part water.
Then put the microwave on for 1 minute. After the minute is up all the grime should be easy to clean off!
4. Vegetables and Fruits
Coming from the grocery store, a lot of our fruits and vegetables still have dirt, bacteria, and pesticides on them. (Even the ones that say prewashed).
No matter what you want to wash your produce once you come home. I usually wash my vegetables in a vinegar, water bath. Then let them soak for a few minutes.
I don’t allow them to stay in the water too long just so they don’t gather the vinegar taste. While they are in the vinegar/water wash I would either scrub them or lightly massage the dirt off.
5. Stove Top
I tend to be very messy when I cook on the stove. Sometimes water spills over, tomato sauce is everywhere, and little areas of spilled salt.
After the cooking is done I usually go in with soap and water, then finish it off with vinegar. Just to give it that shiny look.
6. Kitchen Sink
Ever wanted a nice, shiny sink? Use Vinegar! This vinegar cleaning idea is by far my favourite.
At the end of each day when it’s time for bed I make sure I scrub and clean out the sink.
Once that is done, I spray down the sink with vinegar to give it that brand new shiny look. By far one of my favourite things to do before I go to bed.
7. Kettle
Inside your kettle, do you notice a white film at the bottom? That’s limescale build up.
Usually if you use tap water, the calcium begins to build up at the bottom and can begin to get into your water if the cleaning maintenance is not done frequently.
Want to know how to clean your kettle with vinegar? Just fill your kettle with less than half a cup of vinegar and the rest with water.
Allow it to boil and then dump the solution in the sink.
You will need to rinse out your kettle a few times before it begins to look brand new.
8. Keurigs
Stated in the manual, you’re suppose to use filtered water. Although some people tend to use tap water.
With that your keurig can begin to build up limescale and can get into your coffee and teas.
Want to know how you can use vinegar to clean your keurig? Fill the reservoir half way with vinegar and then the rest with water.
Allow the Keurig to run through until the reservoir becomes empty. Once the reservoir is empty, fill it back up with water (filtered water) and repeat the process again.
You may want to run it through a few times, just to make sure the vinegar taste doesn’t end up in your coffee one morning.
9. Fridges & Freezers
Want to clean the inside of your fridge but don’t want to use harsh cleaning products?
If you’re looking for something to help with a quick wipe down, use vinegar.
Vinegar is absolutely safe to use as a multi-purpose cleaner and will not put any potential harm to your food in the fridge/freezer.
Want to learn more about fridge organization? Read my blog post here and find out 9 ways you can organize your fridge today!
10. Plastic Cutting Boards
After cutting up fresh meat you’re probably worried about cross contamination and the spread of bacteria in your kitchen.
Instead of using harsh chemicals on your cutting boards and wondering if dish soap is enough. Use Vinegar!
Vinegar is a gentle way to help sanitize your boards after preparing fresh meat.
11. Tile Floors
If your kitchen has tile floors then yes you can add use vinegar to clean your floors. Remember it is only for TILE floors and not wood flooring.
Remember to dilute the vinegar!
Vinegar Cleaning Ideas For The Bathroom
1. Shower Head
Find that your shower heads or even any of your facuts around the house are changing colour? It’s calcium build up from the tap water, and it’s super easy to remove!
What you will need is; of course vinegar, rubber bands, and a ziploc bag (big enough to wrap about your shower head).
Fill the ziploc bag with some vinegar and then place the ziploc bag over your shower head.
Once the ziploc bag is over the shower head, wrap the elastic bag around the shower head and ziploc bag. Kind of like tying a ponytail. Down below is a photo of what it should look like after.
Once your done wait a couple of hours and you’ll begin to see some of the calcium build up inside the ziploc bag.
NOTE: Some shower heads can be removed and you can do this process by putting your shower head in a large plastic bowl.
Some shower heads (like me) are not able to be removed so the plastic. You will be continuing with the plastic bag method.
2. Fixing Your Drain
Between my husband and I we have very thick hair and shed A LOT of hair. Lately I notice our shower drain tends to drain the water a lot slower than usual.
If you cleaned out your drain (Anyone thought of that episode from Modern Family?) and still notice your drain is not working properly then try this.
Pour 3/4 cups of baking soda down the drain, then pour 1 cup of vinegar and wait about an hour.
Once the hour is up, pour boiling hot water down the drain. This usually does the trick for me.
3. Sinks, Toilets, and Bathtubs
Recently I been having a hard time breathing in some cleaning products that are on the market (Asthma life), and I wanted to find other ways on how I can clean my bathroom without affecting my overall health.
after researching on Google, I found mixing vinegar, dish soap, and water together really does the trick on cleaning my bathroom.
I notice my sink and toilets look much cleaner after cleaning with that solution.
To create this solution I highly suggest purchasing empty spray bottles so that your solution has a place to store in after.
4. Children’s Bath Toys
Children love using toys in the bathtub. What we also need to realize is that children’s bath toys can become a number one place where mold and bacteria called grow quickly.
Two things that you can do as a parent is; squeeze out any excess water from bath todays each session.
Another thing you can do is clean them with vinegar.
Like I said, vinegar is such a gentle alternative cleaning product than the ones on the market today.
Fill a bucket with 50 percent of vinegar and 50 percent of warm water. Allow the toys to soak for up to an hour.
Once the hour is up clean/squeeze all the water from the toys and allow them to air dry.
5. Shower Tiles
Yes not only can you clean your bathtub with vinegar but you can also clean your shower tiles with vinegar.
How I clean my shower tiles with vinegar, is two ways.
- With the dish soap, vinegar, and water solution.
- Water and vinegar solution
Ever since I been adding vinegar into my shower cleaning routine I notice that my shower tiles comes out cleaner and doesn’t have any left over water marks.
Other Vinegar Cleaning Ideas You Can Use!
1. Windows
Fun fact, you can use vinegar as a window cleaner. With your trusty vinegar/water solution you’ll be having nice looking windows in no time.
2. Deodorize a Room
Living in an apartment, the smell of your meals can travel to every corner of your apartment. From the kitchen all the way to the bedroom.
I tried using a diffuser but it only reaches some parts of the apartment.
If you find that the food you just made is giving off a strong smell you should try this!
Fill a cup or a bowl with 50 percent vinegar and 50 percent water, then squeeze in some fresh lemon juice.
This solution will help to deodorize the smell in the room and remove the smell of dinner in the living, bathroom, or even the bedroom.
NOTE: You must make a deodorizer for each room for it to work.
3. Clean Dirt Off Your Shoes
Whenever I bought shoes I would always buy a package of shoe cleaner wipes.
After a while I realize that the shoe cleaner wipes smelled a lot like vinegar.
So one day I put it to the test. I mix the typical water and vinegar solution in a bowl. Used a old towel and began wiping the soles of my shoes.
I was shocked. My shoes were just as clean as if I were to use shoe cleaner wipes.
I stopped buying shoe cleaning wipes and instead switch to using vinegar.
4. Killing Weeds
Notice you have a weeds problem in your garden? I have seen my mom, and my grandmother do this in their backyards all the time.
They would get a spray bottle of ONLY vinegar and begin to spray vinegar all over the weeds in our backyards.
5. Getting Rid Of Fruit Flies
In order for this to happen you need a different type of vinegar. It’s called apple cider vinegar.
If you find that fruit flies are literally everywhere in your kitchen, try pouring a small glass of apple cider vinegar (I usually use plastic cups to throw away after).
Cover it with a plastic cap then poke holes for the flies to get into. Usually they can fly in but have a really hard time getting out due to the apple cider vinegar.
Another things I use is a wine bottle, pour a little bit of the apple cider vinegar inside. Oddly enough, they have a hard time flying out of a wine bottle, who knew!
What You Should NOT Clean With Vinegar?
Now that we talked about all the things you can use to clean with vinegar. Here is a list of places that you should NOT clean with vinegar.
Dishwasher
Now I have seen so many people on Tiktok place a cup of water inside their dishwasher to get rid of the smell.
Although after doing some research, it can cause more harm than good by doing that.
adding vinegar to your dishwasher can harm the rubber filter that sits at the bottom of your dishwasher.
Before trying this I highly suggest you check your manual prior to doing this!
Stone Counter
I did mention this in the very beginning of this blog post but please do not put any vinegar on stone countertops!
Putting vinegar on your stone counters can make your stone countertops very dull after a while.
This also includes marble finishes.
Hardwood Flooring
Getting hardwood flooring done can be very expensive, and we really don’t want anything to ruin them.
I would stay clear from using vinegar on any hardwood flooring. Vinegar is a type of acid and can affect your floorings finishing.
Just like the stone countertops. You will lose that shininess and your floors will begin to look dull.
Any Wood Furniture
Using vinegar as a cleaning solution on any wood furniture will increase the likely chance of scratches, dullness, and a cloudy appearance.
It’s best to use products that are for wooden furniture.
Overall…
Vinegar is a great substitute to a lot of cleaning products on the market. If you find that you want to use greener cleaning products in your home, then this is your sign to do so.
I hope you found all of these vinegar cleaning ideas helpful! Happy Cleaning!
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