Tag Archives: vinegar

Let white vinegar and baking soda’s explosive relationship do the work for you.

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The first time I experienced one of the amazing qualities of vinegar was in elementary school. I was building a volcano for a school project.  My mom helped me build a volcano out of paper mache, we painted it, and then we had to create an eruption. That’s where our friends vinegar and baking soda come in – we colored the vinegar with red food coloring and then put about a cup of baking soda inside the volcano, and the magic happened when we poured the vinegar over it. You could hear the bubbling within the volcano and then it started to slowly come up inside the cone and spill over the sides. It was a good thing we placed the volcano in a baking dish as the “lava” oozed all over the place.

What actually happens when the vinegar and baking soda mixed? A very simplistic answer is that the hydrogen ions from the vinegar and the bicarbonate ions from the baking soda combined, they create carbon dioxide gas and water. So, the bubbling and oozing that we saw was really the CO2 gas being released, a very exciting chemical event nonetheless.

As my desire to reduce chemicals in my life and decrease the amount I spent on cleaning supplies grew, my fascination with vinegar and baking soda also grew.  Even today, I am learning new ways to use them– over 35 years since my love affair began.

Did you know that as long as you have white vinegar and baking soda you can tackle almost all of your cleaning challenges?

Vinegar is an acid that neutralizes alkaline substances such as scales from hard water. It is also a disinfectant and antifungal.

Baking Soda is slightly alkaline, so it neutralizes acid-based odors in water and it absorbs odors in air. It is also a gentle nonabrasive cleaner.

The two of them together make an explosive relationship.

One of my favorite ways to clean is to not really scrub, so I let the vinegar and baking soda do all the hard work – but patience it a must – it does not always work instantly.

All you need is a spray bottle of 1:1 white vinegar and water and baking soda.

Greasy grimy ovens and stovetops

  • Sprinkle some baking soda on those encrusted baked-on spots in the oven and spray 1:1 vinegar solution on the baking soda. Give it 20 minutes to do its job and scrub it with a mild abrasive pad to loosen stubborn spills, spray some more vinegar solution , so you have created a paste and let it sit over night. Scrub (I don’t mean elbow grease scrubbing, just rub it in) the next day, if it still hasn’t all come up, add more baking soda and spray vinegar solution. Let it sit over night again. I’m sure you are going to think, wow, this is not working or taking too long – patience. Hopefully, your oven is not as dirty as mine, but when I do get around to it, I don’t like to scrub, so I let the solution do the job. And it has never failed me.

    VERY dirty stove burner covers

    Letting vinegar and baking soda work their magic

Yippee! Clean burner covers!

Bathroom soap scum

  •  Do the same as above but it should come up after the first application and waiting 20 minutes. It helps whiten up orange iron stains as well.
Unclogging drains
  • Put a cup of baking soda down the drain, add a cup of vinegar, give it 5 minutes and then pour boiling water down the drain. This process unclogs and deodorizes.  The combination of baking soda and vinegar breaks down fatty acids into soap and glycerin, allowing the clog to wash down the drain.

Please share what you have used white vinegar and baking soda for and I will continue to share with you.

Dylan got skunked

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The other night, I took Dylan out before we all went to bed. I should have known something was up when he didn’t run to his “spot” but started to go under our back deck. I tried to get him out but before I knew it, he was running after a skunk who escaped by running out the other side of the deck. No matter how loud and crazy I screamed – Dylan pursued until he stopped – perhaps a second after he was sprayed.

Fortunately, I recalled a conversation with a friend whose dog was also skunked. Apparently, tomato juice is no longer the magic bullet for skunk spray removal. I couldn’t recall what it was, so we Googled it. The new trick is hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and liquid detergent mixed together, which you need to quickly apply and rub while it is still fizzing, then rinse and repeat as necessary. It’s a good idea to rub mineral oil over the dogs eyes to protect them while doing the procedure. And don’t forget to wear rubber gloves. 

Well, we had enough hydrogen peroxide to do this once. It helped a lot, but it did not get the job done. I thought that vinegar would react very much like hydrogen peroxide, so we Googled it, and it was also recommended. Thank goodness we have an ample supply of vinegar and baking soda in this house. We needed to repeat this several times to feel somewhat secure that most of the smell was gone. But truth be told, it was too difficult to tell. By that time, our nostrils were so filled with skunk smell, and it also wafted into the house, it was everywhere.

Apparently, we have a skunk living under our porch. This was not the first time we had smelled skunk around the house, just the first time we ever met one. Luckily, a friend told me a way she relocated skunks living under her porch – mothballs. They hate the smell (reminds me of a very silly joke from college) as most living creatures do. However, they are very toxic to living creatures, so you don’t want it in your soil either. The trick is to put them in a pie tin, fold it over and use duct tape or a rubber band to closed it. The duct tape will prevent critters from getting the mothballs and from the rain getting in, which may melt them, thus resulting them getting into your soil. At least that is the hope. So, I did that, along with giving Dylan a couple more baths. Unfortunately, when he is wet, he still has a little skunk odor which I guess is normal and is suppose to dissipate in a few weeks, some say months. We are keeping our fingers crossed. I’ll keep you posted.

 

Hey, give me a break – it was college!