Versatile Cleaning Chemical You Already Have in Your Cupboard

We all want a clean house but don't want to break the bank each month just to go through the same effort and cost in the next month. Fortunately the answer to a lot of this cleaning nightmare can be handled by one product you probably already have in your cupboard... Vinegar. Vinegar is not only for fish and chips but can help with a number of household cleaning tasks. The steps below show the many ways in which I use vinegar in my house and I'm sure there are many more uses that I'm yet to learn.

In my house I have the terrible task of taking out the trash, it really isn't a pleasant task. We try to recycle as much as possible including food waste but unfortunately some items make it into the bin with some kind of juice. This leads to the dreaded bin juice which generally smells unpleasant. I use a mixture of equal parts of vinegar and water in a spray bottle. This cleans any muck that might remain and gets rid of any smell.

We use the dishwasher regularly in our house. We also live in an area with hard water and truth be told we probably put some dishes in the dishwasher that are dirtier than they should be. All of this works together to build up minerals and bacteria in your dishwasher. This build up can lead to an unpleasant smell and lower the efficiency of your dishwasher. Putting a cup of vinegar on the bottom or floor of your dishwasher and running it without any dishes should help to remove this build up.

The microwave is usually a culprit for being a mess. Uncovered food and mostly inconsistent heat leads to sauces exploding leaving what resembles an edible (if you're brave enough) Jackson Pollock painting. Place a bowl with equal parts water and vinegar and run the microwave for about 5 minutes. This will loosen any food stuck to the microwave and make cleaning it out so much easier.

Much like the microwave the stove can become quite a saucy, greasy mess after frying something up. Here is where you can use the spray bottle with equal parts vinegar and water again.

I love to braise food in the casserole pot but the mess that it leaves behind can be quite difficult to clean. The same goes for baking trays with baked on food. I like to use 1 part vinegar and 1 part baking soda with hot water. This will have a chemical reaction and bubble up. Leave this to soak for a short while and it will make cleaning so much easier.