Does cleaning your kitchen with apple cider vinegar sound a little crazy? Well, crazy or not, this common cooking ingredient can also keep your kitchen sparkling clean.
Apple cider vinegar is a natural deodorizer, so it can help to eliminate those unpleasant kitchen odors. It’s a natural disinfectant, so it will kill bacteria and stop mold from growing. Due to its acidic properties, apple cider vinegar cuts through grease, making it great for use in the kitchen. And, finally, apple cider vinegar is non-toxic, meaning it won’t be harmful to your family or pets.
Using apple cider vinegar to clean your kitchen is also affordable, because you can use it to just about anything. So instead of buying lots of different, and expensive, cleaners to perform specific tasks, all you need is one large, relatively cheap bottle of apple cider vinegar.
Here are three ways you can use apple cider vinegar to keep your kitchen clean and smelling fresh.
Cleaning Hardwood Floors
Hardwood floors can be a study in contradictions. On the one hands, wood floors are durable, and can stand up to a lot of wear and tear. On the other hand, it’s all too easy to use the wrong thing to clean your hardwood floors and leave them warped, stained, dull, or faded.
Luckily, apple cider vinegar is a great hardwood floor cleaner. It’s powerful enough to clean and disinfect, but gentle enough not to cause damage. In fact, apple cider vinegar is safe to use on both unfinished and finished wood flooring.
To make this simple floor cleaner, combine 1 gallon of warm water with ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar. If you have a large area to clean, you can double the recipe by combining half a cup of apple cider vinegar and 2 gallons of water.
Here are two tips to keep in mind when mopping your floors with this cleaner. First, after dipping the mop into the mixture, try to ring out as much of the excess as possible. Secondly, mop following the natural grain of the wood. You also want to make the kitchen off limits until the floor has dried completely. Otherwise, you’ll be able to follow the footprints of anyone who walked through the room.
After mopping with the cleaner, you might want to go over the floor again with a dry mop to remove any excess water.
Cleaning Sink Drains
Have you ever been walking through your kitchen and noticed a faint, unpleasant odor in the air? Following your nose, you probably found that the odor was coming from the sink.
Fortunately, apple cider vinegar’s natural deodorizing properties can get rid of the bad smell. This method, which combines apple cider vinegar with salt and baking soda, will also help to unclog partially clogged drains.
In a bowl, combine half a cup of baking soda with half a cup of salt. Pour this mixture down the drain.
Next, pour half a cup of apple cider vinegar down the drain.
If possible, let this mixture sit for at least 2 hours. It’s probably best to do this when your home alone. This way you won’t have to worry about someone forgetting and turning on the water. To make sure you don’t forget, you can turn a bowl upside down and place it over the drain.
After two hours, blast some hot water down the drain. You’ll find that the unpleasant odor is gone. And water will probably go down the drain faster too.
Cleaning Out the Microwave
Cleaning out a microwave isn’t a lot of fun. But the food and grease splatters that can build up in a microwave don’t just look bad. They’re also unsanitary. So you should clean the microwave regularly. And apple cider vinegar can make this chore a lot easier.
To give the microwave a thorough cleaning, start with a microwave-safe container. Add half a cup of water and half a cup of apple cider vinegar to the bowl and set it inside your microwave. With the microwave set on high, run it for about 2 minutes.
Standing back from the microwave, open the door and let the steam escape. The bowl will probably be extremely hot, so very carefully remove it from the microwave.
The steam from the apple vinegar mixture will have softened the dry, caked on food. Now all you have to do is use a damp sponge or kitchen rag to clean the interior of the microwave.
To keep the microwave in good shape between “extreme cleanings,” create a mixture that’s 1 part water and 1 part apple cider vinegar. Add this mixture to a spray bottle, and you’ll have a homemade, all-purpose cleaner that you can use to clean all of your kitchen appliances, including the microwave.
Apple cider vinegar is a natural cleaner that’s safe, effective and affordable. And the more ways you use it to keep your kitchen clean, the more money you’ll save.
