Vinegar & Baking Soda

I use vinegar and baking soda for all of my cleaning products in the house. For the bathroom: vinegar cleans the sink, tub, toilet, etc. Baking soda in the toilet makes a good scrubber. In the kitchen: it's vinegar for all surfaces. The floors are mopped in a diluted vinegar solution. Windows and mirrors are polished with vinegar. Baking soda is good for absorbing odors and scrubbing up sticky stuff. I also use both in my laundry. For really stinky exercise clothes I do a prerinse with baking soda and a regular wash after that. For the cloth diapers and other clothes I don't want laundry detergent residue on I use vinegar in the rinse cycle in place of softener. Clothes don't smell at all of vinegar and strips out almost all laundry detergent smell.

Both are good for the environment compared to the heavy chemicals in regular cleaners. Both are also great for the wallet!

A couple things I've learned. Baking soda can leave a residue (like comet) so make sure you scrub it up completely though it won't hurt anything. Vinegar can eat away at concrete, marble, and some other surfaces so make sure it's diluted enough. For my floors which have concrete grout for the tiling I have to be careful, so I use maybe 1/2 cup for a gallon of water for the whole apartment.

Oh, and yes the vinegar smells for a while but it goes away quickly. I don't even notice anymore. Some people add essential oils to their solutions because the aroma remains but the vinegar smell does not. I skip the oils because A)I can't find them cheaply here and B)I'm too lazy.

I have 2 main solutions I've made. 1 part vinegar to 10 part water in a spray bottle which works for windex and shining. 1 part vinegar to 4 part water is a general bathroom/kitchen cleaner.


(As for the request about laminate floors, I have read that as long as the vinegar solution is diluted and you dry the floor as you go, it'll shine the floors but not soak in and ruin the adhesive. I'd use a regular wide pushing mop that was barely damp with the solution. Maybe presweep with a microfiber type swiffer first.)