The Cleaning Power of Vinegar

For many years, I kept a few small bottles of vinegar in my kitchen cabinet. I had the balsamic, apple cider, rice wine, and regular varieties. My collection only existed as a result of my experimentations with various recipes for salad dressings or sauces that required a particular type of vinegar as an ingredient. For the most part, the bottles collected dust and remained mostly unused.

Fast forward a bit, and I now have larger bottles of various vinegars in my cabinet (I've become much better in the kitchen...) as well as gallon jugs of regular vinegar in my basement, bathrooms and pantry. Why so much vinegar, you may ask? Well, I have found so many wonderful uses for it in recent months that I now store it everywhere to keep it handy. As a mother to two young children, I've put a lot of effort into ridding my home of toxic chemicals, especially those used for cleaning. Much to my surprise, vinegar has been a great replacement for many harsh cleaning products that I used to use. Even better, it saves me money. Vinegar is much cheaper than most of the things I have replaced with it. Also, for the environmentally conscious (as we should all be), vinegar is a "green" product. It is non-toxic and friendly to the earth. So what are these great uses for vinegar, you wonder? Read on, and I'll share some of my favorites with you.

Vinegar removes soap scum. This is probably my favorite application for vinegar, mainly because I've struggled to find a good soap scum remover for many years. I've tried so many cleaning products in my tub, and I've never really been pleased with the results. When someone suggested vinegar to me, I tried it right way. I filled my tub with enough water to cover the ring of soap scum around the bottom edge, and added about a half cup of vinegar. I let it soak for a while, and then returned with a sponge. The soap scum actually came off with ease. I was an immediate fan!