Uses for vinegar

A couple nights ago my daughter woke up in a pile of puke. Yuck. For many moms this would be the start of an incredibly YUCKY experience that will stain sheets or carpeting (smell and visual stain). After I quickly cleaned it up and put her back to bed, I laid in my own bed thinking about how I should share my cleaning experience as well as a few other great tips.

VINEGAR - God's gift to Mommy 
Below you will find a few uses of vinegar. I'd love to hear more...these are just the ways that I use it myself.
Unless otherwise specified, all of these uses are white vinegar. I keep a spray bottle of straight vinegar in my bathroom. I use it everywhere, but mostly in the bathroom, so it makes sense to keep it there.

1. Add vinegar to carpet cleaner to remove pet stains and smell, vomit stains and smell, Pee or Poop stains and smell.

2. Use vinegar as a fabric softener.

3. Add vinegar to laundry water - helps to remove soap/fabric softener build up on clothes, towels and cloth diapers. This is especially useful if you use a 'soap based' instead of 'detergent based' laundry soap.

4. Use straight vinegar to wash windows and mirrors

5. Use straight vinegar to wash the tub and shower. Removes soap scum in a snap.

6. Use vinegar to clean water stains from sinks/tub/faucets

7. Soak shower heads in vinegar to restore the life in them from water stain build up.

8. Disinfect counter tops/chairs, door handles with vinegar

9. Clean power equipment with wash cloth that has vinegar on it. It will remove dust, stains, splatter etc.

10. use vinegar how you would goo gone with sticky stuff like stickers, gum, etc

11. remove candle wax residue.

12. Clean leather furniture.

13. Clean bathroom counter-tops  toilet, floor, walls by toilet, shower/tub and cabinets with a spray bottle filled with vinegar. Kids can help do this too without you worrying about bleach stained clothes, chemicals or fumes.

14. I have read that you can use vinegar on windsheilds and car windows to keep frost from forming. Can't wait to try this one. Apparently one spray dose will last up to a few weeks?!

15. Scrub the fridge with vinegar

16. Scrub the microwave with vinegar

17. Put a few tablespoons of vinegar in a tea pot and boil for a few minutes to completely remove water stains and build up.

18. Pour 2 cups of vinegar in the water compartment of a coffee maker. Run. I like to run the vinegar through it 2 or 3 times, then I run water through it another 2 times to completly restore my coffee maker.

19. Add a few drops of vinegar to dishes rinse water to keep glasses spot free. also can be used in a dishwasher.

20. Add a few tablespoons of vinegar to dishsoap to make the grease cutting ability amazing!

21. Add a couple tablespoons of vinegar to soup bones or a poultry carcass next time you are making broth. It will help the calcium to liquify and will make your broth even more packed with goodness.

22. Heartburn - try taking 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. I know it sounds crazy - but it works!

23. remove ink stains by soaking the ink stained clothing in straight vinegar until it dries. Wash as normal.

24. remove blood stains from clothing the same way (although, the best way to remove blood stains is peroxide)

25. Keeping dogs off of carpet, spray vinegar on it. Even the dried smell should keep them off - just recently tried this...not sure if it's working yet. However, my carpet smells fresh!

26. use vinegar instead of pledge while dusting. Works great!

There are so many more uses for vinegar - but these ones give you a great idea on how to use it around the home. It really is my go-to cleaner and I keep many bottles available. Pick them up when they're on sale and you have a good thing.

How to clean dish covers

Caring for Dish Covers is easy peasy 

If you haven't yet, you are getting ready to sew a stash of adorable dish covers...and you're starting to wonder if it'll be worth it because you have to wash them...and how do you wash PUL anyway?

Routine

• Put a cover on a dish & it gets dirty
• Wipe it off with a wash cloth if you can and put it back in the drawer
   
• If you cannot wash it off, put it in the coordinating colors of your every day wash.
• Dry either on the clothesline or in the dryer...whichever is your everyday routine
• Use again and again and again

Pretty easy huh? Don't worry about the PUL. It's perfectly safe to wash and dry as many times as you possibly could.
I always try to wipe mine out. I use the covers every day and I hate running out.

How to clean Stovetop Grates for gas stoves

Okay....after soaking and scrubbing my stovetop grates, I have decided that there MUST be a better solution to cleaning them.
In the past, I have used baking soda and a sponge to scrub all of the 'nasty' off of the stovetop. It works great, but it is a pain.
I usually use a steel wool pad and put all of my strength into it, but I'm taking a different approach today.
Right now I have the grates soaking in a sink of hot water and oxyclean. I'm going to let them sit for at least an hour and see how the baked on grease and gunk comes off. I'll update the post and let you know how it worked.

I have read about using ammonia to clean grates as well.
If the oxyclean doesn't work I'll try this method.

Here's how to do it:

1. Put a grate in a gallon size freezer bag.
2. Put about 1/4 C of ammonia into the bag and seal.
3. In an hour, the fumes and ammonia liquid should have completely removed all of the 'stick' so that the gunk will wipe right off.
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After letting the grates sit in the oxyclean water for about an hour, I still needed to use the scrub pad, but EVERYTHING came off easier than without the oxyclean soak.

My conclusion:
Soak grates overnight in oxyclean water and wipe clean in the morning.