Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Nan Knows Best

Our great-grandma is turning 90 next month and is a wealth of knowledge. I was talking to her about what kind of cleaners she used growing up. Talk about cheap!

VINEGAR
Disinfecting cleaner (non-toxic) ... dilute vinegar with water. Use to clean and disinfect bathrooms, counters, kids toys, door handles, etc. We also use a 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water solution with essential oil drops to wash the floors.
Bleach alternative ... pour in 1/2 cup to your load ... it works to eliminate static too.
Fruit flies... put out a small shallow dish of vinegar to get rid of them.
Tag / sticker removal... to get rid of the residue left from sticky stickers or tags just use vinegar.
Insect bites... dab on vinegar to take the 'itch' out!
To de-clog a drain... pour in 1 cup of baking soda... then 1 cup of hot vinegar (I don't always heat it first) and then let it sit for 5-15 minutes (sometime I wait 30 minutes). They pour a kettle full of boiling water down. VOILA!
Glasses that are 'cloudy'.... rinse in vinegar.
Coffee Maker or kettle... use vinegar to de-scale

BAKING SODA
Fridge... leave a box in your fridge and freezer to absort odour.
Shoes, sports equipment... fill an old rag or towel with soda and leave to sit (or live in a sports bag that is stinky!)
Fire extinguisher... have a box handy in the kitchen. If you ever have flames from an electrical fire the baking soda will put it out.
Veggie cleaner...sprinkle soda in water and soak and rinse your veggies to clean them.
Heart burn... if you have heart burn just drink water with 1/2 tsp in 1/2 cup of water.
Laundry... add 1/2 cup to your load to eliminate odours.
Dishwasher... run a load through with soda to clean out the inside of your d/w.
Shower curtains... if they're stinky soak them in a sink of baking soda and water.
Deoderant... my friend uses soda as a deoderant. She just rubs it onto her arm pits.

There are PLENTY more uses but there are a few(-: And these two are pretty inexpensive and versatile. Non-toxic too.

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