Vinegar Friday

TGIVF!

It's been quite a week on the blog. Apparently more people are interested in greening their periods than I anticipated! Welcome to all of you who are new to the community! This is Vinegar Friday, a weekly GG feature extolling the many virtues of vinegar.

Quite honestly, after 11 months of writing about vinegar, I am running out of "themes." But I thought I would at least give you a few related tips about cleaning furniture.



Vinyl

Using a soft cloth, apply a mixture of 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar, 1/2 cup water and 2 teaspoons of liquid soap. "Rinse" with another cloth dampened with plain water and buff with a soft dry cloth.

Leather

Combine 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar, 1 tablespoon rubbing alcohol, 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon liquid soap. Apply to the leather with a cloth and then brush the leather gently with a soft brush. (This works well on leather shoes and boots, as well).

You can also make a leather polish by adding 1/3 cup vinegar and 1/3 cup water to 2/3 cup linseed oil.

Wood furniture

Before dusting your wood furniture, dampen your dust cloth with salad dressing...well, not really, but pretty much so, since you are mixing together vinegar and olive oil (50/50 blend). Of course, you don't want to saturate the cloth. Just lightly dampen it to attract the dust.

If you are looking to polish your furniture, rather than simply dusting it, add 3 parts vinegar to 1 part lemon oil (or for a heavier polish -- 1 part vinegar to 3 parts lemon oil). According to Emily Thacker's The Vinegar Book that I mentioned last week, the reason this works so well is because the vinegar will dissolve and draw out the dirt while the oil enriches the wood. Won't it be nice to have your furniture smelling good naturally?

Yet another recipe for furniture polish requires that you reach into your liquor cabinet (which, understandably, not everyone has). Here you combine 1/4 cup linseed oil with 1/8 cup of vinegar and 1/8 cup of whiskey. And let's face it, if you start chugging down the whiskey (which I am in no way recommending!), you won't even care if the furniture is polished or not!

Scratches on your furniture will disappear if you carefully apply a 50/50 blend of vinegar with iodine. Stick to white vinegar if you are applying it to light-colored wood and use apple cider vinegar for deeper colors. Using a thin, craft paintbrush will work best.

Blinds and shutters

I love shutters. I have them in my living room topped with lace valances. What I don't love is cleaning them. However, vinegar and an old pair of cloth gloves make the job a whole lot easier. And in a couple of years, I am quite sure I will be able to convince my (now 2-year-old) granddaughter that the chore is actually a lot of fun!

Using a 50/50 solution of distilled white vinegar and water, dip your gloved fingers into the liquid and then slide them between the slats. What could be easier? ...  Yeah, I know ... not having blinds or shutters in the first place!

Well, that's it for another Vinegar Friday. If this was your first visit, I hope you will go back through previous weeks and reap what you can from the vinegar tips I have provided. And keep checking back ... sometime in 2011, Vinegar Fridays will be available for purchase in a handy, organized book.

Keeping it green with vinegar,

Hana