Those of you who are natural cleaning junkies, you can turn your head a moment while I make my confession to the world: I’ve never tried cleaning anything with vinegar before. Never ever. There’s a first time for everyone, correct? Please say you don’t hate me now. Because I’ve never used it before, I decided to go ahead and go with the new All Natural Heinz Cleaning Vinegar with Special Cleaning Strength. I know people have been using white distilled vinegar for cleaning for years and years, but I wanted to see what the buzz was about with this new version specially formulated for cleaning. I went to Walmart to pick some up.
At first I wondered why they were selling the cleaning vinegar next to the regular vinegar. A newbie like me would probably look for it in the cleaning supplies section. But I then realized that someone who regularly uses vinegar to clean would look for it in the vinegar section. Or if they weren’t looking for it already, would see it when they went for their normal vinegar and be intrigued enough to check it out. Maybe? Just my theory.
I snagged a few other cleaning supplies I needed and also some more items for winter care kits for kids in need here in Oklahoma City. You can see the whole experience in this Google+ photo album right here!
While the idea to actually use vinegar to clean with came about rather recently for me, a few weeks ago I came across the blog of a gal who teaches at our blended model school and she gave a variety of great ideas on what she does with vinegar and why. Two big surprises came out of that post: vinegar as hair conditioner and vinegar as fabric softener. I’m pretty sure I won’t be trying the first one, but I can totally see myself trying the second. My only question is does it make your clothes smell like vinegar? That’s the hurdle I’m having the hardest time jumping at this point in time.
I do love the non-toxic, healthy benefits of cleaning with vinegar, though, so I’m willing to learn more. It’s easy to find tips and tricks on the internet just by googling “cleaning with vinegar.” One of the very first sites that pops up in that search lists a ton of uses for vinegar. I’m definitely going to try the one in which they suggest running a cycle in an empty dishwasher with a cup of vinegar to clean and deodorize it. I’m DEFINITELY trying this one out as soon as I can!
This picture is doing a pretty good job of hiding what my two biggest issues are in the kitchen, but I’ll show a close-up soon (you can’t wait, can you?):
This kitchen floor is pretty much the bane of my existence. It looks awesome and all, particularly with the red walls, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep clean. If I wanted it to look clean all the time I would seriously have to mop it four times every day. I simply can’t do that, so most of the time it looks like I never mop, which is absolutely not the case. *pout* Because of this, I’m always on the hunt for economical, yet effective ways to keep this floor in shape! Our fridge is stainless steel and also difficult to keep in tip-top shape. Here are some photos:
Okay, NOW you can better see how gross the floor and fridge are. This. Is. My. Life.
I followed the directions on the bottle of cleaning vinegar – looks just like water in there! But it definitely smells like vinegar!
And, I don’t know if YOU can tell or not, but I can definitely tell a difference. Here’s an after shot of the floor and fridge after I went over both of them with the cleaning vinegar and water solution:
Nice! I’m pretty pleased with my first attempt at cleaning with vinegar. I’m really REALLY interested in seeing what this stuff can do in my dishwasher next. And maybe my washing machine too! The possibilities are endless here. Do you have any tried and true cleaning uses for vinegar? I’d love to hear your success stories and what you think I should definitely put on my list to try next!
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and HEINZ #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions expressed in this post really are my own honest thoughts. I keep a proper disclosure statement available here.
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So, about that stainless steel fridge…I rue the day I got mine. Too hard to keep clean! However, I use Pledge and a microfiber cloth to clean mine, and am always very happy with the results. (not that that has anything at all to do with vinegar).
Ooo, glad to hear what works for you on that too! Our house came with this fridge and…I’d trade it in a heartbeat if I could. Never. Again.
love that you learned the effectiveness of Heinz Cleaning Vinegar. I love cleaning with vinegar for health reasons…mostly my lungs love it!! Thanks for sharing this is such a great way!!!
I love cleaning with the new Heinz Cleaning Vinegar. The other regular cleaners were really getting to me. So glad you discovered it also. Love your post here, and that amazing floor of yours too!!
I promise my clothes do not smell like vinegar when I use it as a fabric softener! I make my own laundry detergent and the clothes simply come out smelling clean.
You really should give it a try. It saves money on liquid fabric softeners. Or if you are a dryer sheet kind of person, switching to using vinegar in your washer cuts down on the dryer sheet waste too!