And then I thought, what if our vacation ends up not being fun?  What if the boat pulls a Titanic, and we die, and then a blog post from me pops up?  How creepy would that be??

Unlikely, I know, but after thinking that, I thought it’d be better to just wait until I got back.

Just in case.

Well luckily we all made it home safely, so I can tell you all about the vinegar I had working for me while I was gone.   

I have been on ‘Team Vinegar’ for awhile now.  There are a number of factors that led to my choosing to use more natural products in our home, but I first started cleaning with vinegar when we lived in Hawaii.  I think something about living in a place where it is so easy to notice and focus on nature makes you more mindful of the world around you.

I love cleaning with vinegar.  Why?  A few simple reasons.

1.  You can eat vinegar.  So anything that ends up on the counter is 100% chemical free. Exhibit A:

Shortly after my husband came home today (which was shortly after I cleaned the kitchen), I found this. He didn’t know the counters had just been cleaned, and it didn’t matter.

2. It is super duper cheap.  You can’t beat the price, especially if you are comparing it to the more “eco-friendly” cleaners for purchase.

3. It is baby-safe. I was talking with a friend one day who was complaining about how she had to clean the bathroom while her son was napping. No way, napping is “ME” time, not cleaning time. He can run around the bathroom while I’m cleaning and I don’t have to worry about it being harmful to him.

Now, I’ve been using vinegar for long enough that the smell doesn’t bother me.  For general cleaning purposes (aka everything), I dilute it with water, using equal parts of each.  You can definitely smell it, but it dissipates so quickly as it dries that it doesn’t bother me.

But of course it would be better if it smelled good too!  Since Simon has a certain penchant for oranges, I made a point of supreming him some orange slices for the car ride.

Soon, I had a plate full of orange slices, orange juice, and orange peels.  Lots of orange peels.  So I decided I would tick one of my “to-try” ideas off my list, which is citrus vinegar.

This is three pint jars filled with the rinds of 2 oranges, and plain white vinegar.  It sat for two weeks, and I used it today in the same ratio as the plain vinegar to clean the house (kitchens, bathrooms, toilets, floors, etc).  Its nice! Not necessary on a regular basis, but this is a great use of leftover citrus peels if you’ve got them!

Have you ever tried cleaning with vinegar?  Have you made another variety of vinegar cleaner that I should try?

If you haven’t tried it, you should (I feel like ‘Sam I Am‘ saying that)!  Try it, try it, you will see!  It works just as good, if not better, than other cleaners I’ve tried, and even you aren’t a frugal shopper (I am definitely not), you can’t beat the cost.