All-purpose cleaner: Mix one cup vinegar, two teaspoons of borax, four cups hot water, five drops liquid dish soap, 10 drops tea tree oil, and 10 drops your favorite essential oil (optional).
Mix one part lemon juice, one part white vinegar and two parts water in a spray bottle. Replace the nozzle and give it a shake. Spray the solution on smooth surfaces you want to disinfect, such as in the kitchen or bathroom.
These two common household materials can serve as natural cleaners to remove grime and keep your surfaces clean. Because vinegar and baking soda are on opposite ends of the pH scale, they can be combined and used as effective cleaning solutions.
“Vinegar is a good cleaner because it's acidic, but when you add dishwashing liquid/dish soap to it (which is a base or neutral) - you neutralise the vinegar. You take away the very thing that makes it work well. “The dishwashing liquid works that well on its own. Adding the vinegar is a pointless step.”
People should put 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar in a gallon of water, mix, and pour it into a spray bottle. They can lighting spray the mist onto the dirty surface and wipe clean with a microfiber cloth or clean sponge.
Baking soda + vinegar
If you mix acidic vinegar with basic baking soda and stow them away in a closed container, the mixture can be quite explosive—literally. That's because vinegar causes baking soda to foam up and explode.
Here's how to make the cleanser:
Mix 1 2/3 cups baking soda and 1/2 cup liquid soap in a bowl. Dilute with1/2 cup water and add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Stir the mixture with a fork until any lumps dissolve. Pour the liquid into a spray bottle.
A chemical reaction between the vinegar and the baking soda produces bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. The dish detergent in the vinegar helps the bubbles last longer than they would with just vinegar and baking soda.
It's a brilliant product to have in the store cupboard and avoids using store-bought abrasive cleaners. A word of warning, though – undiluted vinegar can damage natural stone and wood, so always check – or dilute really well – before using vinegar for cleaning.
Use your white vinegar cleaning solution to break down soap scum, mold, and dirt in your bathtub. Spray it liberally around your bathtub and shower walls, let it sit for several minutes, and wipe it down with a sponge or soft cloth. For more cleaning power, add a tablespoon of dish soap to your vinegar solution.
Use a 1:1 ratio of diluted vinegar and water and store it in a spray bottle. Then you can spritz and disinfect your kitchen sink, counters, or any other spots that you'd normally use bleach but want to be food-safe. To counteract the vinegar smell, you can use soapy water to rinse the sink afterward.
If you're planning to use baking soda and vinegar together, Morris suggests using the mixture while it's still bubbling – and ideally, directly on the surface you're cleaning. For example, one useful method Morris suggests is to dump a bit of baking soda down a garbage disposal, followed by a couple glugs of vinegar.
TL;DR: Combine baking soda & white vinegar to create the perfect cleaning solution for tile grout. Scrub with a toothbrush and voila! For floor tiles, combine baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, apply paste, let sit, then scrub away and rinse off with warm water. Grout gets dirty and unsightly – quick!
As a cleaner, white distilled vinegar is a great choice. It contains 5 percent acetic acid, a compound that can dissolve dirt, debris, and grime.
It can neutralize the smell of vinegar.
Try mixing in lemon juice—it'll help tone down the smell a little bit and still give you all the cleaning power you need. Plus, that lemon-vinegar mixture can come in particularly handy for certain cleaning tasks, but we'll get to that in a sec.
Mixing bleach and vinegar creates potentially lethal chlorine gas. If you notice a pungent smell after mixing household cleaners, you should immediately leave the area and try to breathe in fresh air.
Pour 2 cups Dawn and 2 cups vinegar into a glass bowl. Stir; heat 4 minutes in the microwave; remove and stir again. Shake well to mix the solution. Use as needed on shower doors.
It's pretty simple — just like they do on food particles that are stuck to your dishes in the sink, the combination of hot water and dish soap help to dissolve and break up whatever it may be that is lodged in the toilet, causing a clog. This handy tip is great should you find yourself in a pinch.
The acetic acid of the vinegar reacts with the salt, or sodium chloride, to produce sodium acetate and hydrogen chloride.
Do You Have to Rinse after Cleaning with Vinegar? Rinsing is not necessary! If you're simply using a vinegar and water solution to wipe and disinfect, you won't need to rinse. However, if there's also plenty of dirt and grime you're wiping away, you may also want to rinse with some extra water.
Mix ½ cup of vinegar with one gallon of hot water to create your mopping solution. Wring out your mop thoroughly so that it is only damp and doesn't saturate wood floors with moisture to avoid damage.