Cleaning with Vinegar

No more commercial cleaners for me!  In fact, I needed a spray bottle to put my 50/50 mix of vinegar and water.  So I searched through my cleaning products and found one that was full of some other type of cleaner.  I smelled it and decided that this bottle would become the new home for my vinegar mixture.  I poured the other stuff down the drain and nearly gagged as it went, thinking I should have worn a mask!  The smell was so strong, surely that can't be healthy; especially with an asthmatic in the house.

I originally wanted the vinegar mixture to get rid of ants.  Yes, ants!  It kills them and removes their scent trail so that others can't find their way.  Who knew?  After I sprayed the ants and the area where I suspected their entry, I noticed a few stains on my carpet.  I used to be devoted to Spot Shot for those "tough" stains.  Let's be honest.  I really don't know how tough they really  were because I never tried to clean them with anything else.  Well, today, I used the vinegar mixture and voila!  Clean carpet once again!

Vinegar is safe to use on wood floors too.  Just be sure to use white vinegar and I like to keep mine mixed 50/50 with water.  Some use straight vinegar, but the scent is too strong for me and the mixture does the job just as well.

Realizing that vinegar is an age-old, all-purpose cleaner, I'm happy to have come to my senses to realize that commercial cleaners are harmful to pets and humans and release toxins into the atmosphere.  Of course, many of them say they are "safe" but I've learned that their definition of safe differs from mine.  You see, organizations are allowed to say that something is safe as long as the percentage of toxins is low enough to meat their standards.

To sum it all up, I'm thrilled with my vinegar spray bottle and plan to use it for many purposes, including cleaning my floors, countertops, sinks.... even for killing ants!