Non-chemical cleaners are all the rage right now. And for good reason- you get a chemical-free clean, products that won’t set off your allergies, and most of the green cleaning products are cheap and multipurpose. What’s not to love! One of the most popular ingredients is vinegar. I know we’ve talked about it before, but vinegar is always something we have on our carts: it’s versatile, cheap, and can clean everything! Well, almost everything. Here is what you can’t use vinegar on (because we wouldn’t want anything to get ruined):
1. Countertops Made With Granite, Marble, or Soapstone
It’s no surprise that vinegar is highly acidic. This means that it does not play well with natural stones. It will kill their shine and possibly cause pitting (small cracks, indents, or fissures on the stone’s surface).
2. Any Egg Messes
This one is surprising - you would think that vinegar would clean up a raw egg spill pretty quickly. However, vinegar will react with the proteins in the egg and make them coagulate. This will make a glue type substance that will be even more difficult to clean up. So unless you like cleaning up stubborn messes, avoid egg spills with vinegar cleaners.
3. Clothes Iron
The highly acidic nature of vinegar can wreak major havoc on the inner workings of your iron. Make sure to never use vinegar to clean your iron, unless you want an excuse to buy a new one!
4.Solid Wood Furniture
If you’re cleaning with pure, undiluted vinegar, you can seriously damage the finish. The acid will eat away at it and even leave behind watermarks. However, you can make furniture polish by using half olive oil and half white vinegar. This should be used on stained and oiled wood finishes safely.
5. Be Careful With These Surfaces
A great rule of thumb when cleaning with vinegar is that if the surface is porous, it’s likely to get damaged from the acid. However, if you heavily dilute the vinegar with water, you may be able to get away with it. Use your best judgment and test a small area first when you clean grout, hardwood floors, or stone floors.
Vinegar is one powerhouse of a cleaning resource. Despite not being able to use it for everything, we love to use it for the other 99% of things it can clean! What do you like to use vinegar to clean? Let us know in the comments below!
XOXO,
Your Squeaky Green Team
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