Vinegar

I made the mistake of purchasing the kind of kitchen sponges which say that they have been treated with something to prevent them from getting bacteria ridden — I just grabbed what they had on the shelf at Aldi.  These sponges manage to go bad more quickly and smell more unpleasantly than any other.  Today when I pulled the second out of the bag it immediately  made my kitchen smell like rotting man made sponge, not exactly smell of baking goods, stewing soups, or the lemony clean scent one wishes to achieve in the kitchen.  I washed and washed it with dishsoap but to no avail: it just smelled like rinsed rotting man-made sponge.  I was unsure about washing dishes with it — I remember Rose’s post about drying sponges in the sun, but there was no sun and no time to dry the darn thing.  So I remembered my own comment on Anne’s post about toilet cleaners and recalled  to mind that I had read something about vinegar killing 99 percent of bacteria on contact.  I doused the sponge with red wine vinegar, and then played with it in a little tupperware of water. It was a great blue whale in a small amusement park setting.  My heart was wrung with pity.

When I was all done playing Sea World I rinsed the sponge out again with fresh water and voila!  Clean smelling sponge.  Non scented.  I set it free in the ocean of the kitchen sink.

The point of this post is to direct you to this article on household vinegar as a cleaner.

Incidentally you can also give a little vinegar and water for sore throats and things, and now I understand why.

Home Made Laundry Soap

Since Elizabeth is posting about cleaning supplies, I thought it appropriate to pass along this website that Mary recommended to me.

http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm

This link will show you how to make a simple laundry soap with just three ingredients. It is pretty simple and doesn’t require much time. I made a batch of the soap about a month ago, and I am just now starting to run out. Once you purchase the three ingredients, you will be able to make several batches before going back to the store. I think Mary said that they lasted her about a year. All of the necessary cleaners in the recipe only total about $7-$8. It is a very frugal way to get your cloths clean.

The three ingredients are soap of some kind(Ivory),borax(for whitening), and washing soda(deodorizer). As I said, we have been using the homemade soap for a month now and I have been quite pleased with it. I have to add a little extra borax and washing soda to Joshua’s diapers, but let’s face it the baby uses them for his commode!!:-)

The ingredients are also quite mild. They don’t seem to irritate anyone’s skin, which is a plus with us since we have eczema in our family.