Vinegar: A Non-Toxic Household Product

Vinegar has been one of the most useful all-round products in my home since I can remember. The biggest reason I continued to use vinegar when my children were growing up was the fact that I didn’t have to worry about them ingesting something that would hurt them.

My Grandmother A. came to live with my family when I was a young child. Before coming to live us, she had been a seamstress and took in laundry to support herself. She told stories of having to use a wringer washing machine to wash clothes with a galvanized tub for rinsing the clothes. She would put vinegar in her rinse water because it helped remove soap residue from the wash water.

Grandmother A. loved starched clothes so had another tub, placed beside her rinse tub that she put flaked starch in. The washed clothes would go through the washing machine ringer into the rinse water and back through the ringer to the starch water, then back through the ringer into a basket to be taken out into the yard to hang on a clothes line.

This story always fascinated me as it sounded like a lot of work. I was thankful for this information though when I had my first child and this was how I had to wash clothes. It was a lot of work, I really appreciated it when I could afford to go to the Laundromat.

Once the clothes were line-dried, Grandmother would iron shirts, pillowcases and sheets, handkerchiefs, dish towels and most anything else. I think underwear was the only thing she didn’t iron, all of her ironing was starched.

When ironing, she would fill a bottle that had a perforated top, with water and vinegar, sprinkling the clothes, rolling them up and putting them in a basket until she was ready to iron.

I was privy to this process as a child growing up. This activity usually took place on a Saturday morning with a little variation from what grandmother was used to. My parents had a washer and dryer when I was growing up. (Good thing as I’m the oldest of eight children). Grandmother would watch the washing machine until it went to the rinse cycle, then would add a cup of vinegar, so she still had her vinegar rinse. I still use vinegar in my washing machine, but I put it in the rinse dispenser, so I don’t have to stand and wait on the rinse cycle.

When living with us, Grandmother usually washed on Friday while we were at school and the basket of clothes would be ready to iron on Saturday morning. I remember my mother enjoying the starched uniforms she wore to work. Dad always complained the collars of his shirts were too stiff, but enjoyed having nicely ironed shirts to wear.

At least once a month we would have a window washing day. Grandmother A. would mix up a vinegar and water solution, putting it in a spray bottle, this was our window washing product. Using newspapers we would clean the windows with this solution. Grandmother believed it was best to wash windows after dark, you could catch any streaking. (Cleaning windows, by little inexperienced hands, streaking was quite common, but in my grandmother‘s opinion not acceptable).

I still use vinegar to clean my windows. I have discovered it to be a bug deterrent when used to clean window. Flying insects don't seem to like vinegar. We had a problem with ants when we moved into our house. Ants don't like vinegar either.

Laundry and cleaning windows were not the only household chores we used vinegar for. When washing dishes, (us kids were the dishwasher), Grandmother always put a cup of vinegar in the rinse water. By doing this, the dishes were not only rinsed well but since vinegar is also a good disinfectant, our dishes were sanitized. I use a cup of vinegar once a week in my dishwasher to remove soap buildup and freshen it.

I remember our counter tops were linoleum, so a vinegar solution was used to rinse them. It was important for our counter tops to be sanitized as they were used to roll out biscuits, pie dough, cookie dough and bread dough.

Vinegar was put into the mop water when mopping floors. This procedure sanitized the floors for the toddlers that would be crawling around, leaving a nice shine on them.

Today, vinegar can and is used by many people, as it was used in my grandmother’s day. I prefer using vinegar as a cleaning product because it is a safe product to use. If you have curious toddlers running around, there is no worry if they should get past the smell and drink some of it.

I have also used vinegar as a cold remedy with my children. I still recommend this recipe to family members and friends when they ask. Living forty miles away from a decent retail center as my children were growing up, it was necessary to utilize what I had in my cupboards, so this was the cough syrup of choice.

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