Why not spend Vinegar Friday in the kitchen?

TGIVF!!

Earlier this week, I grabbed my gallon jug of distilled white vinegar and went to work on a couple of things in my kitchen. 

First, I noticed my rinse dispenser was empty in my dishwasher, so I filled it with DWV. Then I poured a cup of vinegar in a bowl, added a few slices of lemon, and put it in the microwave. I turned it on high for 90 seconds and then let it sit for 5 minutes or so.

Image by Peter Griffin

While I was waiting to wipe down the inside of the microwave, I proceeded to do the task I had planned all along, before being sidetracked. I cleaned the coffee maker. You see, it dawned on me that morning that I hadn't cleaned the coffee maker in... well, I hate to admit it... in over a year! Seriously. The pot and the brewing basket had sat through many cycles of the dishwasher, but that was it. It was time to clean the inner workings. I poured vinegar in the coffee pot to the halfway mark and added tap water until it was full. Then I dumped it in the coffee maker. I heard you should use a filter when doing this, so I added a filter, plugged it in, and ran it through a cycle. When it was done, I took the hot water to the bathroom and poured it into the toilet bowl. Waste not, want not, right?

I ran two more cycles with clear tap water before declaring the coffee maker clean. Phew. And I filled the cats' bowl with the second pot of water (after all, the little vinegar residue will help keep fleas away). I used the third pot to wash some pans that were in the sink.

Cleaning out the microwave was a breeze after the steamy, lemony vinegar did its job. I just wiped it down with my Norwex Envirocloth. Again, not wanting to waste anything, I dumped the vinegar and lemons into the garbage disposal and freshened it and the air. Ahh, the invigorating scent of lemon.

Capping the bottle of vinegar, I set it by the basement steps to be carried back to the laundry room. After all, I had to do laundry later in the week, and I never do laundry without my DWV!

A couple of days after finally cleaning the coffee maker, it quit. Quit. Done. My husband says vinegar killed it. I think he's teasing. I mean, really. Vinegar wouldn't do that. Perhaps it just died from the shock of being clean. 

Keeping it green with vinegar,