I was watching Rehab Addict on HGTV several weeks ago and saw the host cleaning hundred-year-old tile with good ol' baking soda and vinegar, and thought, "Oh yeah, baking soda and vinegar. Forgot about that." Inspired by the show (and sudden memories of elementary school science fair projects) I filled an old empty spray bottle with white vinegar (easily found at grocery stores) and now often use it to spray down whatever I'm sanitizing or cleaning. If I need a little extra kick in my scrubbing, I just sprinkle on some baking soda. It's become my go-to cleaning solution, and I recently used it to clean up my kitchen.
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This tea kettle gets left on the stove (otherwise I won't remember to use it), and consequently gets covered in splatters from whatever I'm cooking. A spritz of vinegar, sprinkle of baking soda, and gentle rub down with a soft reusable sponge made very quick work of this formerly messy kettle. I think it took about 5 minutes total to clean at least a year's worth of cooking splatters off this thing (no judgement). Now it's so shiny I can see myself in it!
My electric stove burner drip pans were covered in little grease splatters, but after using my baking soda and vinegar solution and wiping them down with a paper towel, they look new again! It took minimal effort and just a little over 2 minutes per drip pan. (The "before" picture doesn't really do justice to how dirty these really were.)
Now, I will admit, the biggest drip pan didn't come out as clean as I would have liked, but to be fair it's the one that gets used the most and I'm not very good about cleaning up spills immediately. In fact, I think more times than not I've left the spill alone and just cooked right over it for a few days before bothering to clean this bad boy. Don't be like me. Do yourself a favor and clean up your spills as soon as the burner cools down, to avoid a nasty cooked-on mess like mine (and having to send your drip pan to a landfill sooner rather than later).
I've used baking soda and vinegar to clean lots of other things, like a wooden cutting board; a butcher block top on a handed-down Craigslist kitchen cart; and virtually every surface, inside and out, of my toaster oven. That last one kinda backfired, though, because I accidentally took off some of the painted numbers on the temperature dial. Oops. Silver lining: that incident inspired me to use the same solution to take sticky labels off glass jars so I can repurpose the jars for fun projects. And that's when I discovered this solution also makes an excellent nail polish remover. Who knew?
Suffice it to say, this is my favorite "heavy duty" cleaning solution (much to my vinegar-hating husband's chagrin). Now some of you who, like my husband, despise the smell of vinegar are probably thinking this sounds like a terrible way to clean because your house might end up smelling like pickles. Well, to you I say: you're probably right. I don't smell it so much, 1) because I'm in it, so I don't notice as the smell gets more intense, and 2) because I don't mind the smell of vinegar at all, so even if I catch a whiff it's not off putting. For me, this is a more appealing option than harsh chemicals. If you're looking for a gentler yet effective way to clean up stubborn messes, and you don't mind the smell of vinegar, give this a try. It may become your new favorite cleaning method!
Do you use baking soda and/or vinegar to clean your home? What do you use it for most? What other homemade cleaning solutions do you use?
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