You’d be surprised how many household products you have lying around that can be used for more than their intended purpose. Vinegar, for instance, is an excellent cleaning agent.
You can save lots of money at the grocery store by buying cheaper alternatives, and keep chemical toxins away from you and your family when you use common household products as cleaning agents and for your wellbeing. Let’s have a look at the uses of some more common items.
1. White Vinegar
Mentioned in the introduction, white vinegar is a great all-purpose cleaning agent. It polishes silver like nothing else, even special silver polish. Considering the difference in price of these two, this means serious savings if you have a lot of silver in the house.
What makes it great for polishing silver makes it great for cleaning windows, too. Just put some in the water you’re rinsing the windows with and they’ll be clear like they were done by a professional. It’s also great to scrub pans with, especially after you’ve cooked something particularly smelly, like garlic, or burnt food onto the pan. White vinegar also unclogs drains like nothing else when you combine it with the next item.
WARNING: If you are using vinegar to clean, do not mix it with bleach as this can be very dangerous! This can release a toxic gas that can kill you. It’s true that they can be combined to produce a super effective cleaning agent, but unless you have a degree in chemistry and go to work in a place that requires you to wear white lab coats, do not try it at home, because you may die.
2. Baking Soda
Baking soda makes short work of foul-smelling or clogged drains and can kill small infestations of insects that may be living in your pipes. It is a corrosive, so be careful if you have sensitive skin. This quality also makes it perfect for heavy scrubbing work, like when cleaning toilets, bathtubs, ovens and grills.
Considering that baking soda is very, very cheap and the specialized cleaning agents for all of the above are not, your wallet is going to be a lot happier when you make the switch to soda. Some say that baking soda is also good for treating heartburn, but be cautious in the amount you ingest if you want to use it that way. As a corrosive, it can hurt your stomach lining, increasing your discomfort.
3. Lemon Juice
Another great all-purpose liquid, lemon juice can be used for about anything you can think of. It can make porcelain, like your toilet bowl or bathroom sink, shine like the sun. It does the same for glass, so adding some lemon juice to your water when washing the windows won’t hurt.
The upside to lemon juice over vinegar in these cases is that the smell is a little more pleasant and lingers less. Another great strength of lemon juice is its disinfectant properties. Use to disinfect your cutting board after cooking or your pans after not having used them for a while. Smearing some on your skin will do wonders for your pores, making it an excellent method to combat sunspots and reduce wrinkles.
Lemon juice also has some bona fide medicinal uses. Drink a glass for some detoxification of the body (great for hangovers, if you can handle the sour taste after a night on the town) and to aid digestion. If you have the flu, put some lemon juice in cup of honey tea to boost your immune system and soothe your sore throat.
Be nice to your wallet and to the environment and switch to these handy tricks today!
