A 1001 Vinegar Uses

When a client observes my crew and me performing our post-construction clean-up, I am often asked about the best way to clean a variety of things. Since most of our work involves the reconstruction of hardwood floors, the number one inquiry is "How should I clean my wood floors?"

Depending on whom you ask, you are bound to receive an assortment of answers. However, after trial and error (with an emphasis on the error part!) I have discovered that the best and most natural way to make your floors look terrific is a solution of vinegar and water applied slightly damp with a flat mop. The results are always stunningly beautiful. It works just a well for laminate flooring.

Interestingly enough, vinegar is useful for many other things that are unrelated to cleaning. I've been testing various vinegar remedies and they really do work! For instance, when autumn comes around, families of spiders and scorpions decide to move into my humble abode with the intent to either take over the human race or to drive me insane. The latter usually happens but this year vinegar is saving my sanity! I keep a spray bottle of 2 parts vinegar and 1 part water in close proximity. So, when those evil scorpions appear seemingly out of nowhere, I spray them with the solution. They will scurry away quickly at first but will stop suddenly as if stunned. You can either wait until their eventual death or, if you're like me and are deathly afraid of them springing back to life and hunting you down to seek revenge, you can expedite the process by smashing them while they're confused. The method is much safer than spraying insecticides inside your home and achieves the same result. I've posted a picture of one out of the three scorpions that visited me on Wednesday evening. It was a baby but Big Mama was trying to hide in my sink! Vinegar to the rescue!

Those are two practical uses for vinegar that are tried and true. Stay tuned for my next entry to find out what else it can do!

Chloe L. Hudson - Senior Contents Technician