15 Alternative Uses of Vinegar

02 April 2012

15 Alternative Uses of Vinegar

There is a bottle of vinegar in every kitchen. Apart from using it for cooking, you can employ it in your daily cleaning routines and finally get rid of the expensive and toxic cleaning agents that are being sold on the market.

Photo by kh1234567890

The acidity of vinegar makes it the perfect cleaning and cosmetic agent and can even be used for treating hiccups, dandruff and warts. Given its versatility, vinegar can replace a number of household items.

Here is a list of great and unexpected uses of vinegar: 

1. Unclog drains. Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda followed by 2 cups of boiling vinegar. Follow that by hot water from your faucet for about 30 seconds.
2. Remove mold. Spray moldy areas with vinegar, let it sit for a few minutes, then wipe it off with a rag and rinse.
3. Let your windows shine. Mix one cup of water with 4 soup spoons of vinegar and spray on the window. Wipe with a newspaper - you will get immaculately clean windows!
4. Clean food-stained dishes. Soak them in a mixture of water and vinegar for half an hour. Rinse and wash with hot water and dish soap.
5. Eliminate odors and stains. Leave a bowl of vinegar in the area the smell is coming from, or clean the stained area with white vinegar. In a few hours the smell will be gone.
6. Disinfect your dishwasher. Run the dishwasher empty after pouring 1/2 of a cup of vinegar in the soap dispenser.
7. Remove a sticky label. We've all had trouble with stickers that leave half of their glue and paper on. Soak the sticker in vinegar for half a while and it should come off easily.
8. Clean brass and copper. Make a light paste of vinegar and table salt, which you can use to clean brass and copper with.
9. Clean up candle wax. If there is candle wax onto your wood table, use a blow dryer and vinegar to remove it. Heat up the wax with a blow dryer and use a paper towel to dab up as much of the hot wax as you can. Then, with a cloth soaked in equal parts water and vinegar, wipe up the remaining wax.
10. Remove wrinkles. Spray your wrinkled clothes with 1:3 ratio of vinegar to water and hang them to dry.
11. Clean your eye glasses. Vinegar can easily cut through oil-based stains. Place a drop of vinegar each to the lenses of your glasses. Wipe the stains away with an eyeglass cleaner.
12. Use it as conditioner. Dilute a soup spoon of vinegar in a glass of water and apply to your washed hair. It will make it soft and shiny.
13. Fight acne. Vinegar not only clears up a breakout, it can even reduce acne scarring. And it’s great for lightening age spots or other discoloration.
14. Treat sunburn. Rub a small amount of vinegar on the sunburnt areas. The redness will slightly fade, and so will the itching.
15. Ant repellent. Last spring we were attacked by ants, so we tried everything. A possible solution is putting vinegar on your walls and corridors. Ants, for some reason, do not like the scent of vinegar.

Do you know a particularly good use for vinegar that I haven't mentioned? Do tell us in the comments!

Sources: How to Reuse it Creatively, Lifehackery.