When Dave and/or I go grocery shopping, vinegar is one of the staples that is always on the list. And we always buy more than one bottle. We always keep one big jug under the sink, another big jug in the laundry room, and a little jug in the pantry. That’s right, just a little jug in the pantry for cooking – I actually don’t use it a lot in recipes. So, what do we use all that vinegar for around the house, you ask?

In our house, vinegar is a valuable household cleaning product. As research for this article, I texted a few friends and asked if they use vinegar at all in their house. Out of the 10 friends I texted, only one used it at all. That surprised me, because we really can’t live without it. When we’re out of vinegar, someone’s gotta make an emergency run to the grocery store. It really is used every day.

Disclaimer: Although vinegar is considered a mild bleach with some disinfecting properties, it is not as effective as bleach and other products like Clorox and Lysol. And there is no scientific evidence or studies that show that vinegar kills a virus like COVID-19 – that is not the intention of this post whatsoever.

Here are the 8 things I use vinegar for on a regular basis in my own household.

In my washing machine

I have a front loader, and while I was excited when I first got one three houses ago, I’ve since decided, I hate it. I realized that my old top loader with the agitator in the middle got my clothes much cleaner. But until this thing breaks down, I’m stuck with it. So, I depend on vinegar to get my clothes cleaner and smelling nicer. I use Tide Pods in my machine, so I just add the vinegar in the compartment where I would normally add the liquid detergent. You can also add it where you would add the fabric softener, if you don’t use that. Not only will your clothes come out cleaner, they will smell like hydrangeas. Really. Hydrangeas. Try it. I love hydrangeas and the smell is etched in my brain, so I would know.

My neighbor Erin said she washes her sons hockey gear in vinegar. I think that is an EXCELLENT idea. I know how stinky hockey equipment can get. The smell of Dave’s goalie stuff used to be LETHEL. Anything that can make hockey gear smell even a little bit better gets the thumbs up in my books.

In my dishwasher

Next time you run your dishwasher, take a small cup (like a child’s plastic cup) and fill it with vinegar, and stand it upright on the top rack somewhere, anywhere, with your other dirty dishes. Run your load normally. Your glassware and dishes will come out sparkling clean, but you will notice it more with your glassware. We keep one of the kids’ old cups in the dishwasher for this singular purpose. It just sits in the top rack and gets filled up with vinegar again and again every time we do a load. Another tip: run your tap so that the water is hot, hot, hot just before you start your dishwasher.

To get rid of scum and hard water buildup on shower heads and tap heads

This was never a problem for me in Toronto, where we have soft water. Calgary has very hard water. If you notice your shower heads, kitchen faucet or bathroom sinks spraying oddly, in weird directions or maybe not out of all the holes, have a look and you’ll probably see hard water buildup on the head. It’s gross. On your bathroom sink faucet, you’ll probably also see toothpaste residue. Yep, when you’re brushing your teeth half asleep, you’ve probably touched your toothbrush to the faucet and never noticed. Gross, gross. The first time I took a look, I threw up a little in my mouth. If your faucet head has a pulldown, pull it down and put it in a little container filled with vinegar, and let it sit for a bit. If it’s your shower or your bathroom sink and it doesn’t pull down, fill a baggie (big enough to fit the head) with vinegar and tie it securely around your shower or bathroom sink head, with a twist-tie or elastic or something, and let the head soak in the vinegar. Forget about it for a while. When you come back to it, your faucet will spray as good as new and all the build up will be gone. I remember my father-in-law throwing out shower heads every once in a while, because the water started spraying crooked. If I only I knew this trick, then! Could have saved him a few bucks.

To clean your shower

Got soap scum and hard water stains on your shower glass or dark tile? As with previous point, this was never a problem for me in Ontario. But I digress. Measure one cup of vinegar in a glass measuring cup and heat up one minute in a microwave. Use a funnel to pour into a spray bottle. Then use measuring cup to measure one cup of Dawn You MUST use Dawn, it’s the best. Some people say blue Dawn, but I don’t think color matters. Why would it matter?! I don’t get this. Aren’t the forumulas all the same? I should check. But I digress again, lol. Pour soap into spray bottle. Shake bottle lightly to mix. Oh, but put the cap on first, haha. Spray all over the shower and glass. Let sit for 60 seconds. Yep, that’s all. With a scrubbie, scrub all over. Be careful you don’t slip. There is soap on the shower floor, after all. Hose off. PREPARE TO BE AMAZED.

To remove stains in carpet

As mentioned above, vinegar is a mild bleach. Next time you spill something on the carpet, try using a little vinegar and a clean cloth to get out the stain. That is, if you don’t have Folex on hand. I will always recommend Folex for stain removal, first and foremost. But vinegar works too, in a pinch.

To kill weeds

It makes your garden smell like a Fish and Chips joint, which is never a bad thing, but it works for minor weeds. I say minor, because if you have weeds taller than you kids and stronger than your uncles breath and your aunties hugs at family weddings, you’re gonna need more than just vinegar. No, I’m not advocating the use of dangerous chemicals that are dangerous to animals and children, so stop judging. But you might need professional help. However, if all you have is a few delicate pieces of clover coming up in between your paving stones, or some unwanted pieces of grass behind your fence, get that spray bottle you used to clean your shower above, rinse all the soap out of it, put some pure vinegar in it, and spray those flimsy little weeds away. They’ll need some direct sun to actually die, but they will in a few days. So don’t do this when there’s rain in the forecast, because the rain will wash all the vinegar away before the sun has time to do any of it’s magic.

To neutralize bad household smells

Remember my smelly garburator from my neighbor article? Well it turned out it needed more than a few lemons to kill the smell. I’m not sure what the previous owners left in there. And one time, I disposed of some bad garlic. BIG MISTAKE! When I don’t have lemons on hand, I use vinegar. I pour some (maybe about a cup, I don’t really measure) down the drain and let it sit for a while, and then flush it out with hot water. Some say to use cold water, but I don’t know, I just naturally associate hot water with cleaning, don’t you? You can also do this if you don’t have a garburator. Just let the vinegar to sit in your pipes to get rid of any smells.

It’s also very useful in the bathroom, especially when little boys are toilet training. I remember when I was training Max. I’d clean his bathroom every other day with vinegar, if ya now what I mean. 😉

To de-calcify the kettle and coffee maker

Every once in a while, I boil vinegar and water in the kettle to get rid of the hard water stains. It’s disgusting to look at. I gag thinking of drinking that. Just one quick boil and it’s all gone.  Also helps the coffee maker run better too, but it takes a while to get the vinegar taste out of the machine, which is a drag.

Google tells me that there are many other uses. You can use vinegar to:

• Remove fruit stains from hands
• Remove scorch marks from clothes
• Set colors when dying fabrics
• Remove deodorant stains from clothes – hm, I could use this one!
• Remove wine stains
• Soften a paintbrush
• Rinse your hair! I have to research this one

Do you use vinegar around your house? For what purpose? Any that I haven’t listed here? Share your wisdom! Or have I shared any that you plan to try? If one of them work for you, please come back and let me know!!!