Cleaning With Vinegar: The Dos and Don’ts

Cleaning With Vinegar: The Dos and Don’ts

We all know how chemically loaded our store-bought cleaners can be. This is why most of us resort to homemade DIY cleaning solutions to clean our homes. There are so much fewer toxins involved and you need not worry about the pungent fumes coming out of cleaning agents that make you dizzy and pukish. When it comes to homemade cleaners, one of the prime ingredients is always Vinegar. No home cleaning agent checklist would be complete without adding vinegar in it. It is not only effective but also very much cheap. The versatile nature of vinegar makes it eligible to be used on a large number of surfaces. But this doesn’t mean that you can never go wrong with vinegar. There are definitely some things which you need to know before going all the way with vinegar for cleaning your house. Let us look into some of the basic dos and don’ts when it comes to cleaning with vinegar:

The Don’ts

Let us begin with the things that you shouldn’t do with vinegar. Even though vinegar is kind of an all-rounder when it comes to household cleaning, there are some things you do have to keep in mind:

1. Egg spills can get pretty messy

When it comes to cleaning egg spills, maybe stay away from vinegar. As we know, vinegar is pretty acidic in nature. When it reacts with the protein present in the egg, it causes the latter to coagulate, making an even bigger mess. You can use a regular dishcloth dipped in a liquid dishwasher to collect the egg spills instead.

2. Hardwood floors and vinegar don’t go well together

Even though there is a mixed opinion on this, it is better not to use vinegar on the hardwood floors, just to be safe. If your hardwood floors are not sealed, using vinegar, which is acidic in nature, can lead to decreasing the shine of the floors eventually. Also, using vinegar as it is without diluting it in water, can cause serious damage to the hardwood floors.

3. Do not mix vinegar with bleach

Vinegar and bleach are a dangerous combination. Even though both of them make excellent cleaning agents on their own, mixing them leads to the release of chlorine vapors, which is less than ideal for inhalation. The chlorine gas produced, is said to be lethal, so make it a point to never try this combination for any purpose, whatsoever.

4. Your natural stones might not be a fan of vinegar

Natural stones such as granite, soapstone, and marble, must not be cleaned with vinegar. Because of its acidic nature, vinegar causes pitting and etching on the natural stones, which causes them to lose their natural shine over time. You can use a liquid dish detergent to clean them instead.

5. Stone floor tiles are better off without vinegar

Just like the natural stones of your countertops, the stone floor tiles of your bathrooms also can get damaged when cleaned with vinegar. The acidic nature of vinegar doesn’t suit the stone floor tiles, especially the ones seen in your bathrooms. Soap and water can become your best friend when it comes to cleaning your stone floor tiles.

The Dos

Now that we have gotten the dangerous aspects of vinegar out of our way, it is time for us to have a look at what are the things that you can do with vinegar. The list can be endless because there are lots and lots of household uses for vinegar. Let us look at the quirkiest of them:

1. Great for your pets

Vinegar is excellent when it comes to keeping your pets clean. If you see your pets scratching their ears often, try using this hack with vinegar. Take vinegar and water in the ratio of 1:4 respectively. Mix the solution and dip a towel in this. Using this towel, you can wipe the ears of your pets thoroughly to get rid of the itch.

2. Your very own Gardner

If your garden is filling up with weeds, you can get rid of them easily with vinegar. But keep in mind that vinegar doesn’t know the difference between a weed and your favorite exotic plant. Make sure to spray vinegar only over the weeds and not over any of your plants.

3. Flowers can stay fresh for long

If your flowers get wilted away very soon, try doing this hack the next time you get some fresh flowers. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of white vinegar into the water in the vase and maybe top it off with some sugar. This mixture is sure to help your flowers live longer.

4. Hard water stains are not so hard to remove

Lastly, if your bathroom sinks and taps have limescale deposits in them because of hard water, try cleaning the surface with vinegar. This ought to remove the grime and make the surface shiny again. But maybe get your bathrooms professionally cleaned by hiring house cleaners so that a deep cleaning can be done.