White vinegar is a valuable ally for maintain the house from top to bottom. Absolutely essential on a daily basis, this natural product multi-usage with proven effectiveness is economical and ecological. It is used as is or combined with sodium bicarbonate if you need an effervescent product that hits hard. To always have on hand, white vinegar makes prowess and cheerfully replaces bleach. Here is something to get inspired to clean, descale, shine, sanitize for only a few tens of cents.
What is white vinegar?
White vinegar, also known as industrial vinegar, crystal vinegar et alcohol vinegar, is obtained from beet sugar (more rarely with corn sugar). This sugar transformed into alcohol is then modified industrially into acetic acid. This is called acetification. The degree of acidity is indicated in percentage. Thus, when you buy white vinegar at 8%, it is not a question of its alcoholic degree but of its degree of acetic acid.
It is certainly the cheapest maintenance product on the marketsince it is sold at around €0.60 per litre, and in terms of efficiency, it stands out as a benchmark.
White vinegar: a miracle product
A natural product with many advantages, white vinegar is:
- Cleaner,
- Anti limestone,
- Descaler,
- Disinfectant,
- Deodorant,
- softener,
- stain remover,
- Antifungal.
It is in addition:
- Nontoxic,
- Without harmful emanation,
- 100% biodegradable.
It can be used pure or diluted, cold or hot.
Precautions to take with white vinegar
Even though it is natural and non-polluting, 100% biodegradable and good for (almost) everything, white vinegar must be handled with care. We avoid projections in the eyes, if possible we wear gloves, and do not mix it with bleach as this causes a chemical reaction that produces toxic fumes from the bleach. On the other hand, it must be diluted before use on rubber-based seals because it can make them porous, which is absolutely undesirable.
In addition, we avoid crystal vinegar on:
- Natural stone such as slate, marble and others,
- Cement,
- Varnished furniture.
Before use, it is recommended to check whether the surface to be treated can withstand contact with acetic acid.
How to use white vinegar?
The ideal is to recover a plastic spray bottle in which crystal vinegar is poured either pure or after having diluted it. It is thus easier to dose. For daily maintenance, a simple little spray on the kitchen worktop, the mirror, the shower and the bathroom sink as well as on the toilets and hop, a little swipe of a cloth to wipe and the turn is done.
If it has the wind in its sails, it is because it provides many services, whether for routine maintenance of the house, or for more in-depth cleaning, or even severe stripping.
How to mask the smell of white vinegar?
Some people don’t like the relatively acidic and not particularly pleasant smell of crystal vinegar. Never mind, you can completely hide it by simply adding to the bottle or spray bottle containing this vinegar:
- Essential oil to choose according to your olfactory preferences,
- Freshly harvested lavender flowers,
- Lemon or orange zest,
- Cloves,
- rose petals,
- lily petals,
- Two or three cinnamon sticks.
Leave to infuse for a good eight days. After this period, the white vinegar is fragrant.
White vinegar: what do I do with it?
Everything, really everything! Here are some ideas for using crystal vinegar (non-exhaustive list).
Maintain the laundry
- Disinfects laundry
- Remove stains,
- Replaces or complements chemical softeners,
- Makes laundry softer
- Revives the colors,
- Soothes white fabrics,
- Intensifies the blackness of clothes,
- Prevents laundry from bleeding,
- Avoid pilling,
- Eliminates traces of perspiration which tend to yellow white clothes (under the sleeves, on the collar) and harden the fibres.
The white vinegar can be poured directly into the drum, or mixed with the usual detergent in the detergent drawer. It can also be added to fabric softener. To remove very encrusted or old stains, it is quite possible to pre-soak the linen in white vinegar or to spray the stains directly then wash the linen as usual.
Clean appliances
About once a month, white vinegar can be used to completely clean the making things (drum, product compartment) and the pipes. The crystal vinegar deodorizes the machine, descales, disinfects, eliminates all traces of mould.
A few drops of white vinegar in the dishwasher enough to make glasses, cutlery, plates shine, to descale the machine and to maintain the pipes.
It is also the essential product for cleaning all Appliances, accessories included, and give them a little new look, especially when they are white because over time, they tend to yellow. Crystal vinegar is perfectly suited for cleaning the meat grinder because it kills bacteria.
Unclog drains with white vinegar
Stop ultra toxic products for unclog the pipes ! Crystal vinegar does this very well without the risk of further polluting the planet. It respects the environment but also the pipes and eliminates all the residues which, when they amalgamate, end up preventing the proper flow of waste water whether in the toilets, in the shower, the bathtub, the sink or the sink. This is an excellent solution to stop bad odors coming up the pipes.
Shine with white vinegar
Crystal vinegar makes sparkle countless materials without scratching them. A few drops on a soft, lint-free cloth are enough to restore, for example, shine au :
- Glazing,
- Mirror,
- Glass,
- PVC,
- Vinyl,
- linoleum,
- Floor tile,
- kitchen worktop,
- Formica, etc.
You can enhance the appearance of synthetic floor and wall coverings such as vinyl and PVC, among others, with a homemade product, prepared as follows:
- 2 cups of white vinegar,
- 2 capfuls of linseed oil
- 20 liters of hot water.
Just wash the coating with this simple preparation and let it dry. Guaranteed result!
Crystal vinegar to sanitize everything in the house
While descaling the faucets in the bathroom and in the kitchen, crystal vinegar sanitizes the house from top to bottom. For rubber (seals, elastics of clothes), it is preferable to dilute it beforehand in clear water. Wherever it is used, it overcomes microbes of all kinds. We therefore do not hesitate to use it to disinfect:
- The toilet bowl,
- door handles,
- computer keyboard,
- The mouse,
- remote controls,
- The phone,
- The fridge,
- cutting boards,
- The microwave oven,
- children’s toys,
- garden tools,
- BBQ utensils,
- cat litter,
- pet basket,
- The cage for mice, rabbits or birds…
Effervescent shock product based on white vinegar
In certain specific cases, alcohol vinegar can even be used to make an effervescent preparation for emerge in emergency toilets, drains and others at the rate of 175 ml of alcohol vinegar and 50 g of sodium bicarbonate. 100 cl of boiling water is first poured into the clogged pipe and then the homemade mixture is placed there, which begins to foam. Leave to act then rinse with very hot water.
This sodium bicarbonate / white vinegar combination also cleans the burnt bottom of pans, the soleplate of the steam iron on which the transfers have stuck a little, the barbecue grill, saves the life of the washing machine stuffed with limestone and radically eliminates the smell of urine in urinals.