Thursday, March 25, 2010

Vinegar for Cleaning – A Mild Obsession

The smell of vinegar wafts in my nostrils. This time it is not balsamic, not destined to adorn crinkly salad leaves or rich marinades. It is plain old spirit vinegar, not going anywhere near my food if I can help it, but my latest discovery on the cleaning front.

I’ve never been a neat freak. My Virgo star sign has never yet extended its renowned attention to detail to the housework. I have a high tolerance threshold for dust and clutter and, as long as the kitchen is wiped down regularly, I usually manage to turn a blind eye to the rest. So my latest obsession with environmentally sound (and cheap) cleaning alternatives has to be put down to a hormonal obsessive compulsive episode. Tomorrow it will probably be over and the house will settle back into its shabby chic dustiness with a sigh of relief.

But for now I have discovered the joys of surface cleaner in a squirty bottle. Half and half vinegar and water is all you need for instant, non-polluting, spray-on, wipe-off shiny brightness. It works on the counters, on the sink, on the fridge, on the cooker. I’ve wiped the light switches (I swear that never in my life before have I cleaned a light switch or even noticed their grubbiness… it must be the hormones). I even started wiping the plug sockets. I took apart the free-standing fan which has gathered a warm cloak of woolly dust over the last couple of years but now is pristine and sparkling. My husband was getting worried that if he sat still long enough he’d be on the receiving end of a squirt of vinegar water and a wipe with a damp cloth.

I Googled vinegar and found about a hundred uses for vinegar in cleaning, some alone and others combined with bicarbonate of soda. It’s a revelation! No more need for a cluster of specialist chemical cleaning fluids cluttering up the place. Just one big bottle of vinegar and a tub of bicarb…. but I might tire of the smell.

I can feel the obsession dwindling to liveable proportions as the hormones recede. I haven’t yet made it around the whole house and my computer still bears a gentle layer of dust. Probably a true neat freak visiting would still be horrified at the state of our house, in fact I know they would. Straw bales with clay plaster, a posse of sandy farm dogs, a clutch of cats with a liking for sleeping on the ironing board and three kids of a creative disposition, don’t make for labour saving neatness But I know those light switches are sparkling, so I can hold my head up high with the rest of the Virgo brigade.

Anyone got any frugal and environmentally brilliant cleaning tips, just in case this uncharacteristic obsession keeps on for a little while longer?!

8 comments:

  1. Good stuff that vinegar. We buy an organic vinegar cleaning product here in D-Land. It costs less than a euro for a whole bottle.

    As for frugal tips, I'd love to hear some but don't have many of my own. (Except that I am the world's greatest re-user of leftover rice. One day rice with veggies, next day stir-fry.)

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  2. Good stuff that vinegar. We buy an organic vinegar cleaning product here in D-Land. It costs less than a euro for a whole bottle.

    As for frugal tips, I'd love to hear some but don't have many of my own. (Except that I am the world's greatest re-user of leftover rice. One day rice with veggies, next day stir-fry.)

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  3. Thanks for the link love! I cannot overstate my love of the tee-shirt rag for cleaning. Take your husband's gross old tee-shirts and cut them to rag size. You will never need another paper towel! Another good tip is to have a dog - The Frugal Hound eats all fallen scraps, resulting in far less sweeping and vacuuming.

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  4. I second the hound. I have a little "vacuum cleaner" myself called Bruno, who's not very discriminate about what he eats from the floor.

    My biggest tip for cleaning is to let somebody see you do it. Nobody is going to come into your house and say "Wow! You cleaned the fan!", but do it while somebody's watching and it's an extra gazillion brownie points.

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  5. Apparently "whitening" toothpaste on a toothbrush is very good to take off that black mould on the rubber around one's fridge! And a bowl of bicarb in the fridge keeps smells away. Despite the "fish and chip" shop smell, vinegar is a winner cleaning solution!

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  6. Yes, white vinegar is the miracle liquid of the universe!

    My best and most ecological housecleaning tip is to inform visitors that dust is actually a protective layer that keeps the carcinogens in the atmosphere from eating away at the furniture.

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  7. i love vinegar for cleaning, if ever in need to spruce up your grout, use some lemon juice or vinegar with BAKING SODA... brilliant stuff, not to speak of the funny fizzing the children adore every time ;-)

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  8. Dr Seuss! The Far-Away Tree! What-A-Mess! Love the bookshelf...

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Thanks for your comments - I appreciate every one!