💡Quick Answer: How to Clean With Vinegar – Use distilled white vinegar (5% acidity) as your go-to, and reach for cleaning vinegar (around 30%, diluted) when you need extra strength. Vinegar shines as a deodorizer, an all-purpose DIY cleaner (1 cup vinegar, 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon Dawn), a towel-reset laundry booster, a microwave steam cleaner, and a descaler for shower heads and appliances. Just never use it on natural stone or wood, and never mix it with baking soda, which cancels both out.
Vinegar is one of my favorite cleaning products because it can be used in so many areas around the house. It’s cheap, effective, and surprisingly versatile. So let me show you the best ways to clean with vinegar, along with a few places you should never use it.
Tools You Will Want to Have
Use Vinegar as a Deodorizer
One use people don’t often think of is vinegar as a deodorizer. If you have a smelly couch cushion or pillow that you’ve already cleaned but that still has a lingering odor, grab some white vinegar, put it in a spray bottle, and spray down the entire cushion on both sides. Then place it in a garbage bag, put your vacuum hose on the opening, suck all the air out, and twist the bag tight to seal it. This forces the vinegar into the cushion so it can reach and attack whatever is causing the odor.
You might wonder how something as smelly as vinegar can get rid of other smells. Because vinegar is acidic, it goes in and neutralizes and breaks down the bacteria and residue causing the funky odor. It’s not masking the smell or adding another one, it’s completely removing it, so once everything dries you’re left with no odor at all, which is honestly the best smell you can have. Just give it time to work: an hour or two for mild odors, and longer for anything really stinky.
Make an All-Purpose DIY Cleaner
If I’m being honest, this is probably the way I use vinegar the most, because it works great. To make it, grab a spray bottle and add one cup of white vinegar, one cup of water, and about a teaspoon of dish soap. I like to use basic blue Dawn since it does a better job. Shake it up and you’re ready to clean.
This works amazing on glass shower doors, where hard water builds up and sticks to the surface in a way basic cleaners often can’t remove. The acidity of the vinegar dissolves the hard water so you can easily wipe it away. It’s also great for cleaning any shower or tub, because the added dish soap works as a degreaser and surfactant, breaking down body oils, grime, and soap scum. You get a one-two punch: vinegar on the hard water, dish soap on the grime.
Another great use for this mix is your washing machine. On a top loader, it cuts through the buildup around the agitator and detergent drawer. And on a front load machine, it’s my go-to for the rubber gasket, which is notoriously hard to clean and often harbors mold and mildew that cause a lingering odor. The vinegar cleans the gasket and neutralizes those smells so they don’t transfer to your clothes. It’s such a versatile mix that plenty of people keep a bottle under the sink so it’s always ready when a mess happens.
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Where You Should Never Use Vinegar
Since vinegar is so acidic, there are a couple of surfaces I’d never suggest using it on. The first is natural stone like marble and granite. You can get away with it once in a while, but repeated use will eat away at the stone and cause permanent damage, so you’re better off avoiding it entirely.
The second is any type of wood, especially unsealed wood, since the acidity will damage it much like it does natural stone. In most cases, when I’m cleaning those two types of surfaces, I skip the vinegar and just use dish soap, which is nice and gentle and safe.
Which Type of Vinegar Should You Use?
This is a question I get all the time. You might see apple cider vinegar on the shelf, but don’t use it for cleaning, because it won’t do a great job. What I recommend is basic distilled white vinegar at 5% acidity, which is your most well-rounded option and works on just about everything.
The other option is cleaning vinegar, which is a higher acidity. Some are 30%, making them six times stronger than basic white vinegar, so you’ll need to dilute it. It’s nice to have something stronger on hand for really dirty jobs or when you want to clean faster, but personally I always keep a bottle of the basic 5% white distilled vinegar, because it does a great job and is usually all I need.
Reset Crunchy, Stinky Towels
If your bath towels aren’t as absorbent as they used to be, or they feel scratchy and crunchy or have a musty odor, vinegar is a total game-changer. To bring them back, start with a reset wash: toss the towels in the machine, add about a cup or two of white vinegar to the drum, and run a cycle.
Towels get crusty and smelly because people often use too much detergent, which sticks to the fibers, turns sticky, and grabs onto bacteria. The vinegar strips all that buildup away. Once the reset cycle is done, wash the towels a second time with detergent, but use only two tablespoons so the buildup doesn’t start all over again. I also keep a jug of vinegar in the laundry room for everyday loads, adding a little to the fabric softener compartment to soften clothes and keep them smelling fresh.
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Clean Your Microwave With Vinegar and Steam
Your microwave gets a ton of use, gets grimy, and can get stinky depending on what you heat up. To clean it, add a cup of water, a cup of white vinegar, and a few lemon slices to a microwave-safe bowl, then microwave it for 5 minutes. The steam, vinegar, and lemon work together to cut through and lift all the baked-on food.
Your bowl will be very hot, so let it cool a little, then wipe everything down with a damp microfiber towel, or a Scrub Daddy if it’s still dirty.
Rinse with the damp towel, then dry everything with a clean microfiber towel. The best part is how much scrubbing this saves you, since the steam does most of the work loosening the food.
Descale Shower Heads, Faucets, and Appliances
A classic vinegar use is cleaning your shower head and faucet, where hard water loves to build up. You can either unscrew them and let them soak in a bowl of white vinegar, or do the old trick of filling a small baggie with vinegar and tying it around the shower head to soak overnight. This keeps them working great and lasting longer.
Vinegar is also excellent for descaling kitchen appliances like a countertop ice maker, a coffee maker, or the water line in your fridge. Over time these get gross and build up hard water that affects the taste of your food and drinks. Descaling with vinegar not only makes things taste better, it helps your appliances run better and last longer too.
🌟Pro Tip: If you hate the smell of vinegar, and I get it, it’s an acquired scent, just peel a lemon and drop the peel into your vinegar. The longer the lemon sits in it, the less it smells like pickles and the more it smells lemony fresh. You can also buy scented vinegar in scents like lilac and lemon.
❌Never Mix Vinegar With Baking Soda
One popular tip is to mix vinegar with baking soda, and I can’t say this enough: please don’t. When you combine the two, you get a cool fizzing reaction, but once it’s done you’re left with mostly salt water, which isn’t going to clean much of anything. If you want to use both, always use them separately. Scrub with the baking soda first, rinse it all off, then come through with the vinegar afterward. That way you get the best of both worlds without neutralizing either one.
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