Cleaning my home - Vinegar

Cleaning my home has to be something that I loath.  I have to admit that it's partly to do with the fact that I find it so boring, but the main reason is because I hate the normal commercial products I normally use. 

Firstly, I really dislike the list products you find in these cleaners. They're not the kind of chemicals I want lingering around my home, with the irritation warnings and information about how they're dangerous for the environment (especially the aquatic world you'll soon be flushing them into).  I tend to find that I get headaches after using them and have weird sneezing fits, even though my heads no where near the surface I'm cleaning.  The smell is pretty unpleasant too, I like my home to smell a little more 'natural' and no amount of added florals take away that chemical smell.

There are already products out there that are advertise as being a more eco-friendly way of cleaning your home.  Ecover is definitely one company that I've used and loved for many years, and I have to admit that it makes my home smell great afterwards, but the products can be pricey and I'm looking into something that does the same job for less money......and this is where the vinegar comes in.

Using vinegar as a cleaner is hardly a new idea.  It's been used for years, there are a number of blogs and videos on how to use it, and a number of cleaning products actually have it as one of their ingrediences (especially the antibacterial ones).  It is made by the fermentation of the ethanol which comes from soured fruit juice, grain or wine by the acetic acid bacteria and in basically water and around 5% of acetic acid (hence the bacteria's name).  The acid in the vinegar is what makes it such a good cleaner and the list of what this one product can do is a pretty good one. It:

• dissolves mineral deposites (good for mirrors and glass)
• dissolves grease (good for unclogging drains and breaking down dirt)
• removes traces of soap
• removes mildew
• removes wax buildup
• removes residue glue
• removes stains
• removes rust
• polishes silver, copper and brass
• deodorizes
• cleans epoxy resin, even when hardened
• softens water.

And then there's its antibacterial properties.  As the countless adverts show, we're obsessed with killing bacteria in every area of the home at the moment.   Now I'm not a big fan of this, its unnecessary and actually counter productive to the point of ever-so-slightly dangerous, but obviously there are some places of the home we want to keep the bacteria to a minimum (kitchen surfaces, toilet seats, etc).  There have been a tonne of research which has shown that vinegar is good at killing microbials, but I'll go for the research brought out by the Good Housekeeping microbiologists which showed that a solution of just 5% vinegar in water killed 90% of moulds and 99.9% of bacteria.  So, by choosing a vinegar/water solution over conventional products does mean choosing a less 'safe' product.

The added bonus to using vinegar is that it isn't dangerous to humans and the other mammals we share our home with, and has a much lower environmental impact than other cleaning products.  Its also a product already found in most homes and, even though the smell is strong to begin with, leaves no odour once it has evapourated away.

As with everything else, I'm working my way through my cleaning products, but once they've gone I'll be going all vinegary.  To that point I have a book, Green Clean: Eco-friendly cleaning for the home.  Admittedly I've had this book for years but haven't really used, but that will all be changing.  I'll let you know how I get on :-).