Caroline Biggs Caroline Biggs Caroline is a journalist living in New York City. If she’s not writing about interiors, art, and lifestyles of celebrities, she’s purchasing cupcakes, wearing sneakers, or hanging out with the bunnies she adopted Daisy and Daffodil.
Talk to any cleaning professional to say the same thing. Keep vinegar available for your home’s needs. In addition, vinegar is an effective method of cleaning almost every surface of your home and your home, but a gallon of it can last for months and costs just 3 dollars. “I love using vinegar for house cleaning,” says Kadi Dulude from Wizard of Homes. “I know it takes time to get used to the smell, but it’s affordable, healthy, and effective.”
To keep your home clean and fresh at a budget-friendly price, We asked Dulude to share some of his intelligent white vinegar solutions for cleaning. From surface cleaners to drain deodorizers, these are seven ways to utilize vinegar to replace other cleaners and save cash.
Get shiny, clean surfaces
A small amount of vinegar goes well when wiping off the surfaces of your home. Dulude suggests you can make your countertops, like some tabletops–sparkly clean by spraying them with vinegar.
“I pour it directly in my spray bottle and use it to clean all surfaces of my home, floor to ceiling,” Dulude states. “I don’t dilute it, but you can go with 50/50 water-vinegar mix if the smell is too strong.” Certain surfaces should not be cleaned using vinegar. Granite is a natural stone. The acidity of vinegar can erode granite’s sealant.
Get rid of the coffee machine
It’s true; Dulude suggests using vinegar to remove the gunk and buildup of your coffee maker’s automatic system. “Pour vinegar directly into your coffee machine and run it once,” Dulude states. “Follow up by running nothing but water through it a few times until it runs clean and the vinegar smell is gone.”
Cleanse your windows
According to Dulude the Dulude, nothing gets the grime and dirt off windows as quickly as good old-fashioned vinegar. “Pure vinegar (no essential oils) is hands-down the best window cleaner,” she states. Add a portion of hot water to help keep that vinegar odor at the bare minimum.
Eliminate bad smells
Dulude claims that nothing as efficiently as vinegar can take foul odors out of things inside your home. It only requires a bit of effort. “Vinegar can even remove the odor from a smoker’s home,” Dulude says. “Wash every surface possible in your house using pure vinegar, and spray it onto carpets and couches, too. Keep empty bowls of vinegar on the floor (to assist in taking in additional bad odors). It may be a strong odor of vinegar initially. However, once that smell is gone, it will carry all bad smells.”
Get your dishes extra clean
If your dishwashing soap isn’t keeping the dishes clean you like, Dulude says to include vinegar in the mix as an aid to rinse. “To get sparkling dishes, use dish soap as normal and add about two cups of vinegar to the bottom of your dishwasher,” she advises.
Clean and deodorize drains
Why spend money on expensive cleaning products for drains when vinegar will do the trick at a fraction of the cost? “Pour baking soda into a drain and then add a cup of vinegar until it bubbles up,” Dulude adds. The physical reaction may suffice to sludge off the gunk, which is deep-down stuck. Then, follow up with a splash by flushing the drain using the hottest water you can find. “If that’s not enough, you can stick a bent-up wire hanger into the drain to pull up whatever is still clogging things up,” she adds.
Your home should smell great
If you cannot stand the vinegar odor, Dulude has just the remedy. “Sometimes I add a few drops of essential oil, just to change things up a bit,” she adds. “Or after we’ve purchased oranges, we place all the peels into the jar in a large container, add vinegar to it, let the mix rest for a week, and then use the bright yellow mix of vinegar and orange to scrub our homes. It will make everything smell like oranges while we clean.”