In a previous post I wrote about natural cleaners that can save you money. One of those inexpensive cleaners was vinegar. I’ve used vinegar everywhere from the kitchen to the bathroom and below I’ve shared a laundry list (literally) of different ways to use vinegar around your home. (Watch BB gush about vinegar on camera.)
I have tried most of these suggestions with positive results. Before trying them yourself, make sure to test the solutions in an inconspicuous place to avoid damage. To learn about secret uses for ammonia, salt, foil and baking soda, check out Bobbi’s post.
31 secret uses for vinegar
- Kill weeds in your garden by spraying full strength until they starve.
- Clean pots with white vinegar before re-potting to remove excess lime.
- Remove skunk odor from a dog by rubbing his fur with full strength vinegar. Don’t forget to rinse.
- Soothe a bee or jellyfish sting by dousing the area with vinegar.
- Relieve itching by using a cotton ball to dab mosquito and other bug bites.
- Use white vinegar to rinse your hair to remove residue and make it shiny.
- Make clothes smell fresh by adding vinegar to the rinse cycle instead of fabric softener.
- Immerse T-shirts in white vinegar to get rid of the yellow armpit stains.
- Clean your irons and steam irons with vinegar to avoid build up.
- To remove coffee and tea stains from china, clean with vinegar.
- Deodorize your kitchen drain and sink by pouring a cup of vinegar in.
- Cooking smelly food like fish? Vinegar neutralizes odors. Add a couple of tablespoons to a bowl and leave it on the kitchen counter.
- Clean the microwave by boiling a 1/4 cup of vinegar to loosen splattered food. Afterward use a cloth to wipe the microwave clean.
- Kill germs in the bathroom by wiping down fixtures with a rag damp with vinegar.
- Clean soap scum, mildew and grime from the bathtub, tile and curtains by wiping down with vinegar and rinsing with water.
- Clean your glasses by using a drop of vinegar and a lint-free cloth.
- Instead of using toner in your beauty routine, use vinegar to clean your face.
- Deodorize your smelly lunch box by wiping it clean with vinegar.
- Relieve a sore throat by gargling vinegar.
- Have itchy feet? Immerse your feet in vinegar to fight athlete’s foot.
- Toenails turning yellow? Fight nail fungus by saturating your nails with vinegar. Apparently, tea tree oil also helps.
- Eliminate animal urine stains and odor from carpet by wiping it clean with an old rag and vinegar.
- Unclog a shower head by immersing in vinegar.
- Remove decals, bumper stickers, or price tag by wiping down with vinegar. Alcohol also helps.
- Spray vinegar around doors and window frames, under appliances and along other known ant trails to repeal them.
- Add to water and food coloring to make dyed eggs even brighter.
- Rid your toilet bowl of rusty rings with a vinegar.
- Rub on windows with newspaper or cloth to get a clearer view.
- Kill mold with vinegar instead of bleach.
- Combine with lemons and baking soda for an all purpose cleaner.
- Mix with salt to form a paste. Apply to remove discoloration from copper-bottomed pots and pans. Let sit, then scrub with steel-wool.
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
I have tried removing the mold, mildew and soap scum in the tub with vinegar and it doesn’t do anything. Maybe it’ll work if you have acrylic or new tile but I found no effect on our older tile. Same with scrubbing with baking soda – it just left a difficult to rinse off white film.
Have you tried getting the cleaning vinegar. Not the table kind. Look in the cleaning aisles
I use vinegar on my 2 white maltese dogs – it helps kill fleas and makes their coats shiny white. Also, have used in light/white laundry – it helps get my socks white. Tons of uses for vinegar – it’s a great cleaner too.
I use Vinegar for multiple things, including drinking a tablespoon a day for good health!
I think is apple cider vinegar you may want to drink, not the white vinegar.
In northern climes where winter road salt sullies shoes, wiping with a rag dabbed in vinegar removes the salt and restores the shoes.
It will also keep your locks from freezing if I’m not mistaken
I have tried many of these. Vinegar is miraculous. I heard you can mix it with water and clean off grout haze from your tile. I especially like to use it to clean my stove with the baking soda and lemon solution.
my son was stung by more than 10 bees during the summer. i remembered reading somewhere that vinegar soothes the pain. it did, as soon as i dabbed vinegar on his bee stings, he stopped crying. i’ve also been using vinegar for 1st degree burns for years.
I use many of these suggestions; most with success. #23 about the shower head–don’t have to remove it, just put vinegar in small plastic bag and put around shower head with rubber band and let soak. I find misting the glass shower door with vinegar (sometimes takes several times) removed the film caused by hard water and soap. a 1 cup to gallon of water is a good rinse for my dog–helps with minor skin irritations and odors. Use for cleaning floors. And the list goes on. Vinegar is cheap, safe around family/pets, and generally effective.
Half vinegar and half water solution is great for descaling your coffee maker, too! Just run the solution through as you would coffee, then run a couple of rinses through. I try to do this monthly to keep my coffee maker “pouring out” the best tasting coffee.
I use white vinegar with a nylon scratcher to scour away lime build-up on my aquariums (about a 1/2 cup in a small bowl does the job). These aquariums are used as turtle tanks, so we don’t fill them entirely and, as the water evaporates, the pump splashes water inside the tank leaving lime spots on the walls. In addition to the water line, with our hard water, there is a lot of lime on the glass when I clean the tank. To avoid injury to our turtles, I remove the excess vinegar. I then wash the tank well with a mild dish-washing liquid and rinse the tank well and wipe it dry before refilling it. This keeps the tanks looking nice and our turtles happy.