More Cleaning Tips with Vinegar

After posting about the success I had with cleaning my boiled dry pot with vinegar, I got some great emails from some of you with other tips on how to clean with vinegar.

I usually use green commercial products or baking soda, but now you all have me reaching for the vinegar first! Thanks for all the tips!

I wanted to share some of the great ones that I received and show how well they’ve been working around the house.

NOTE: Never use vinegar on marble, as it can ruin the surface! (Same goes for lemon juice or other acids.)

Lime & Mineral Deposits around Sink Fixtures

Do you ever get mineral deposits around the edges of your faucets, that don’t seem to come off, no matter how hard you scrub?

I’ve had this problem in our bathroom, where water often gets on the counter and sits, giving it a chance to leave mineral deposits. Yuck. (Please disregard the yellow patches on the wall. Our landlords left adhesive on the walls when they installed the bathroom. Geniuses.)

By using vinegar, I was able to make it go from gross to sparkling!

I soaked paper towels in vinegar and then wrapped them around the base of the faucet. After a few hours I checked on them and saw that it had softened up all the mineral deposits. They wiped away easily with a cloth! Harder deposits I could easily scrape off with a credit card or other plastic edge.

I couldn’t believe what a difference it made!

I always keep our bathroom counter clean, but now it actually LOOKS clean too. Removing the mineral deposits made a big difference in the whole appearance.

Polishing Up Chrome Fixtures

I moistened the corner of a cloth rag and used it to polish up all the chrome on the faucet. Then I used another corner of the rag to buff the streak marks and make it shine. It looked brand new!

It also worked great for the water marks on the kitchen faucet.

This is easily something you could do quickly before company came over and it really does make a difference in those two rooms.

Removing Mineral Deposits on a Showerhead

The most dramatic change I noticed was when I used vinegar to clean our shower head. The thing was all clogged up from minerals in the water and it just looked awful. I used to try and clean it with an old toothbrush and some cleaner, but it never got more than a little of the surface dirt off.

Some vinegar…and voila!

To clean the faucet, I filled a small sandwich bag halfway with vinegar and pulled it over the shower head, covering it completely. Then I tied a rubber band around the top to keep it in place. I left it on the showerhead overnight

The next morning, I removed the bag, gave the whole showerhead a quick rub with an old rag and it looked great!

This didn’t just make this look nicer though, it also increased the water stream.

Other Uses for Vinegar (From VinegarTips.com)

• Clean the shelves and walls of the refrigerator with a half-and-half solution of water and white distilled vinegar.
• To clean a grease splattered oven door window, saturate it with full-strength white distilled vinegar. Keep the door open for 10 to 15 minutes before wiping with a sponge.
• Remove soap buildup and odors from the dishwasher by pouring a cup of white distilled vinegar inside the empty machine and running it through a whole cycle. Do monthly.
• Remove ugly film in narrow-necked glass jars, flower vases, and bottles by letting undiluted white distilled vinegar sit in them for a few hours. Add a little rice or sand and shake vigorously to loosen stubborn stains. Repeat if necessary.
• Easily clean your mini blinds by wearing pair of white cotton gloves.  Dip gloved fingers into a solution of equal parts white vinegar and warm tap water, and run your fingers across both sides of each blind.
• Clean the wheel of a can opener using white distilled vinegar and an old toothbrush.
• Wipe grease off exhaust fan grids, the inside of your oven, or anywhere grease gathers with a sponge soaked in white distilled vinegar.
• To remove grime, mildew, and scum from the tub, tile, shower curtain or door, wipe with undiluted white distilled vinegar. Rinse with water.
• Spray shower doors with full-strength white distilled vinegar after you’ve squeegeed the glass, or before you step in and turn on the water. It will help release the hard water deposits so they don’t remain on the glass. 
• Mix up an inexpensive tile cleaner by adding 1/2 cup baking soda, 1 cup white distilled vinegar, and 1 cup ammonia to a gallon of warm water.
• Clean scissors that have become sticky (after cutting tape, for instance) with a cloth dipped in undiluted white distilled vinegar.

Any more tips of things that have worked for you?