Five Uses for Vinegar
Let’s start with your coffeemaker. Have you ever cleaned your coffeemaker?
Most people do not realize that coffeemakers need to be cleaned regularly. In fact, if you’ve never cleaned your coffeemaker, what I am about to tell you is going to make your next cup of coffee a passport to a whole new world of flavor. The inner workings of our coffeemakers have a tendency to accumulate the many minerals that find their way into our tap water. These minerals then build up within the heating apparatus and make a distinct impression on the flavor of our coffee. By cleaning the heating apparatus, you allow your coffeemaker to work more efficiently while providing you with the truest flavor your coffee is capable of providing. To clean your automatic drip coffeemaker, simply remove any filters in the filter cup, and fill your water reservoir with a mixture of one-half water and one-half vinegar to capacity. Place the pot in its brewing position and turn it on. Run it through the entire brew cycle, then dump the vinegar/water mixture and then run your coffeemaker through two more brew cycles with fresh, clean water. (If your coffeemaker has been with you for a while, you may want to repeat this process.)
Are you tired of buying special cleaners for those hard water stains on your kitchen sink or bathroom fixtures? Look no further than that bottle of vinegar. Simply pour vinegar on a clean cloth and place that vinegar-soaked cloth on the stain. Let it sit for a bit and your stain will be gone.
Have you ever wondered about that soap buildup on your dishes? Are those great pub glasses you bought looking a bit foggy these days? Perhaps it is time to clean your dishwasher. One might think that by its very nature, a dishwasher would be self-cleaning, but that isn’t exactly true. Just like your coffeemaker, your dishwasher suffers from a bit of buildup as well. To keep it and your dishes their cleanest, just run one cup of vinegar (just pour it into the dishwasher) through an entire wash cycle once a month. You should then notice the fog lifting off those great glasses of yours.
Do you love your wooden cutting board but wonder about those juices from fish and meats that just don’t seem to want to be washed away? Let some white vinegar save the day! Not only will vinegar clean that wooden cutting board, but it will disinfect it as well. Simply pour some white vinegar on a sponge, cloth or directly on the cutting board and then wipe it clean. As always with wooden cutting boards, be sure to allow it time to dry completely before putting it away in a cubby or sliding it back into that counter niche.
Lastly, and this is a big one, the most used and least washed kitchen appliance around – the microwave oven. Go ahead and take a look at the inside of your microwave. Few people notice it because they use their microwave ovens as a quick convenience. Of course, that is what microwave ovens were created for, but we really need to remember to clean them. The sad fact is that too many people have stalactites building up in their microwaves and just don’t realize it because they don’t have the time to look! Do yourself a favor and while you’re cleaning the coffeepot and dishwasher, soaking the hard water stains, and letting your clean, disinfected cutting board air dry, do one last thing for your kitchen: put one quarter cup of vinegar and one cup of water in a clean, microwave-safe bowl and boil it inside your microwave. Once it has started to boil, the inside of that microwave oven should wipe clean in a snap with just a paper towel.
Now pull that old bottle of white vinegar out of the back of your kitchen cupboard and spend 10 minutes making your kitchen the cleanest it has ever been!
