Cleaning with vinegar/ disinfecting?

[museumgal]

I'd like to get some recipes and tips to do this.

However my concern is disinfecting. I usually use those disinfecting sheets on kitchen surfaces, the sinks, and the toilet when I clean.

Does vinegar disinfect? Or does it just clean? Or am I overworrying about this, and I don't need to disinfect nearly as much as I am? I seem to remember my grandmother didn't disinfect anything but the kitchen sink every 2 weeks, and she used a bleach solution.

[Deleted]

We use the following for our all purpose general cleaning

1/2 cup vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
couple squirts of dish soap
a shot of orange degreaser

We keep it in a spray bottle and spray and go.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

While vinegar doesn't replace something like bleach or ammonia, it's a great all-purpose cleaner (and wonderful on windows and glass, especially!)

Vinegar is an acidic liquid, because it contains acetic acid. A 5% acetic acid solution, such as white vinegar, has a pH of 3.1, which is considered a moderately strong acid. That means one of the uses for vinegar that really works is that it is good for cleaning alkaline stains and grime. Examples of alkaline grime is hard water and mineral buildup, and also soaps and detergents. Vinegar is good at fighting soap scum because it is an acid attacking an alkalie. Another of the uses for vinegar is dissolving hard water stains and mineral deposits, which it is also good at, because it is an acid attacking an alkalie.

But ... it's not a disinfectant, per se. So if you're cleaning up where there are known germs (sick animal, sick child, etc.), or your concerned with salmonella, e. coli, etc.... use something stronger.

[Agatha]

About once a month I put vinegar in the rinse dispenser (?) of my dishwasher in lieu of the store-bought stuff. It works just fine. My glasses sparkle.

[marvholly]

I am a retired microbiologist. Vinegar is NOT a disinfectant. Neither is peroxide.

If you REALLY want/need to disinfect use a 1-3% solution of bleach. However. I think we are going WAAAY too far in using disinfectants (hand soap, hand alxohol gels & every other cleaner on the market). We need exposure to naturally ocurring environmental organisms to keep up our immunity.

[Agatha]

Mar 9, 2011 8:30:23 GMT -5 marvholly said:

I am a retired microbiologist. Vinegar is NOT a disinfectant. Neither is peroxide.

If you REALLY want/need to disinfect use a 1-3% solution of bleach. However. I think we are going WAAAY too far in using disinfectants (hand soap, hand alxohol gels & every other cleaner on the market). We need exposure to naturally ocurring environmental organisms to keep up our immunity.

I couldn't agree more! In order to create antibodies our bodies need something to build from. I tell my friends my home is clean but not sterile. ;D

[bobbysgirl]

Mar 9, 2011 8:30:23 GMT -5 marvholly said:

I am a retired microbiologist. Vinegar is NOT a disinfectant. Neither is peroxide.

If you REALLY want/need to disinfect use a 1-3% solution of bleach. However. I think we are going WAAAY too far in using disinfectants (hand soap, hand alcohol gels & every other cleaner on the market). We need exposure to naturally occurring environmental organisms to keep up our immunity.

Well said MARV. I agree with this advice. I use bleach to clean the counters and kitchen appliances because of food particles that may linger. Under most conditions I use vinegar, baking soda and or salt.

By the way vinegar safely kills weeds. But keep it from your plants, they'll die too. I use it in the area between the garage and the driveway and other places that weeds can pop up. I don't use it in the garden though.

A word of warning about combining vinegar and BS to clean a drain. use a formula. Too much of a good thing could blow out your drain pipes at the connectors.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Just be aware....bleach does not clean. All that it does is denature proteins, which makes them sticky. We have bleach in the lab, but use it sparingly since it's pretty rough on some of the equipment and causes a film to form on some things, so it gets rinsed off.

If you want to remove proteins (like food) from counters, use soap. Soap breaks fats and proteins down, which allows them to be removed from counters.

[isabella]

My cleaning lady has a cleaner she mixes up and vinegar is included in the recipe. She says it's the only cleaner she will use on windows and mirrors for a streak free clean. Cleaning lady as well uses hot water and vinegar on my hardwood floors when she mops. I have never heard her mention it as a disinfectant

[alabamagal]

As the microbiologist stated, we are WAY to concerned with disinfecting in our everyday lives. Why disinfect the toilet bowl? Are you drinking out of there? And once used, germs are back there. disinfect the floor? You're walking on it.

Cleaning is more important. Bleach, ammonia, vinegar all work great on various surfaces and are very inexpensive.

[oreo]

I tried to spray vinegar directly on my weeds and had no success (they look exactly the same as they did 3 days ago when I sprayed the vinegar). Is there something I'm supposed to mix in with it or is just plain vinegar supposed to work and I just have super strength weeds???

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2011 13:21:45 GMT -5 oreo said:

I tried to spray vinegar directly on my weeds and had no success (they look exactly the same as they did 3 days ago when I sprayed the vinegar). Is there something I'm supposed to mix in with it or is just plain vinegar supposed to work and I just have super strength weeds???

pour the vinegar on the plants so that it goes down into the roots.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I gave up being overly-worried about germs when we realized that every night my cat was drinking water out of my glass on my nightstand, and I've survived. (grin)

Note: I did switch to a bottled water approach, but who am I kidding?

[Frugal Nurse]

The thing about most commercial disinfectants is that they are carcinogens. I choose not to use those chemicals in my home, I'd rather risk having a few germs. And with most products, people simply spray and wipe, which doesn't allow the chemicals to sit long enough to properly kill the germs. The action of wiping does however remove most bacteria.

I'm with other in thinking that we need germs in order to produce antibodies. I don't get sick often, and when I do it is usually my sinuses from pollen, not germs.

Also, on bleaching the toilet- I do prefer to bleach my toilets once per week. I like to kill the bugs and start fresh. There are WAY too many very dangerous things that could grow from the fecal bacteria left in the room-temperature, moist environment of a toilet bowl.

[museumgal]

Okay so what I'm generally getting is that vinegar is a good replacement for ammonia as a grease-cutter and general cleaner/making things shine, but not a disinfectant.

What I'm curious to hear, esp. from the people with technical expertise in this area, is how much disinfecting do you need to do? I used to only use ammonia sprays until I learned ammonia doesn't disinfect, either. So I switched to disinfectant sheets. But to be fair, I don't remember getting sick when I was just using the ammonia sprays, either.

I do a complete house clean once a week. The toilet bowl cleaner has bleach in it, and I use disinfectant sheets on the kitchen counters, stoves, and kitchen sinks. I don't use any antibacterial handsoaps or dishsoaps, because I don't think being that sterile is good for your immune system.

So do I even need the disinfectant sheets on those surfaces?
The reason I ask is those things are expensive and I have to use a lot of them to actually get to the disinfectant level. It says on the jar to use enough to make the surface wet for 10 min, it takes at least 3 sheets to do this. I go through a lot.

Let's say I've just cut some raw chicken and some juice spills on the counter. Do I reach for dishsoap or for the antibacterial stuff?

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

how much disinfecting do you need to do? I used to only use ammonia sprays until I learned ammonia doesn't disinfect, either. So I switched to disinfectant sheets. But to be fair, I don't remember getting sick when I was just using the ammonia sprays, either.

Absolutely none. You have bought into the premise that your house needs to be sterile and quite frankly, it just isn't going to happen. I rarely use bleach in my kitchen (in fact, I only have it to get rid of mold that happened when I had a washer hose explode). Even my cutting board I clean with hot soapy water (even after cutting meat). My counters get wiped down with hot soapy water. I do use a toilet cleaner, but it's more to get rid of the lime deposits rather than to disinfect because the first time the toilet's used, it's going to have bacteria in it.

I'm also a microbiologist and know that we're always going to have to have a symbiotic relationship with microbes. You are not going to win this battle because anything YOU touch, you're going to contaminate it.

If you want to use bleach if you spill chicken juice and it makes you comfortable, then use it. I would not use disinfectant sheets though, they're too freaking expensive and you'd be better off just making up a 10% bleach solution and keeping it in a spray bottle. You can put a little detergent in it too.

[Deleted]

This is an excerpt from some article I found:

Imagine, NASA's findings of over 100,000 bacteria per gram of granite, plus
many, many bacteria spore. Here is the math, stone averages about 16
pounds per square foot (3 cm) x 453.6 grams per pound = 7257.6 grams per
square foot.

7257.6 x 100,000 bacteria per gram (NASA's figure)= 725,760,000 bacteria
per square foot of countertop. Average top is around 75 square foot, so
725,760,000 bacteria per square foot x 75 average square foot top =
54,432,000,000 bacteria per countertop.

Over 54 Billion bacteria, just in the cracks and crevices alone, not counting
what is on the surface. If a 5 log reduction could be done reliably, there would
still be over a half million bacteria left in the cracks and crevices after
disinfection. Twenty minutes after disinfection, the bacteria would have
doubled to one million, forty minutes, two million, an hour later four million, and
so on. In about four hours, the bacteria have multiplied to 2,229,534,720. In
seven hours, the bacteria will have multiplied to 150 billion bacteria.

[Tiny]

Let's say I've just cut some raw chicken and some juice spills on the counter. Do I reach for dishsoap or for the antibacterial stuff?

You reach for the dishsoap and dishcloth or the 'special mess' dishcloth and lots of rinse water. You rinse the dishcloth with lots of hot water and then let dry. You could put the dishcloth(s) thru the wash every week. If you use a sponge you could wet it, squeeze out extra water, and then put in the microwave for a minute every week (the steam will facilitate wiping down the inside of the microwave. DO NOT PUT A DRY DISH SPONGE IN THE MICROWAVE. Be careful the sponge will be HOT!!! Use common sense.

[oreo]

This may be a dumb question but can you put a sponge with a scrubby surface in the microwave? I'm not sure what that scrubby sponge is made of but for some reason I think it is some sort of plastic and don't know if that would get damaged/damage the microwave.

[Tiny]

I gave up being overly-worried about germs when we realized that every night my cat was drinking water out of my glass on my nightstand, and I've survived. (grin) Note: I did switch to a bottled water approach, but who am I kidding?

OMG! Molly... I don't normally keep a glass of water on the nightstand - but when I was sick for a few days (a long time ago) I was keeping a glass of ginger ale on the nightstand. On the third night I caught my cat happily lapping up the flat ginger ale.... I suspect he was helping himself every night. ;;sigh;;

Many years later when I was giving this same cat sub Q fluids and jabbed myself with a 'used needle' I only panic-ed mildly (I had asked the vet about this happening when I was taught how to do it....) - I was already 'infected' with cat spit... I'd survive the needle prick. And here I am all fine and dandy (except for the urge to wash my face after eating )
The things we suffer for our pets.

[Tiny]

Oreo, I'd just go ahead and give it a try with a WET sponge! I would do a test with an older sponge/scruffy that was soon for the trash just incase it didn't go well. I would also stand there by the microwave with my finger on the stop button and watch the process closely - if I saw bad things happening or smelled bad things happening I'd stop the microwave immediately. Odds are the sponge will be history but your microwave should survive. you could also google and try determine the Crowdsourced wisdom on nuking a scruffy sponge... I'm sure someone's blogged about it or put a video on youtube....

[woodwand]

Karma to marvholly! I had two friends when I lived in Mexico whom I dubbed the Queens of Bleach. They were sick much more than the rest of us who were more lax about dissinfecting everything. We are being fed so much BS by advertisers.

In my town's newspaper several years ago, there was a high school student who conducted an experiment. She went into all the fast food restaurants in town and got some of their ice in a cup. Then she went into the restroom, flushed a toilet once & then took a sample of the water in the bowl. The sample from the ice, in every case, contained more bacteria than the sample from the toilet.

[oreo]

After reading up on this (for some reason that hadn't occurred to me!) it looks like the prevailing opinion is that you should NOT put a scrubby sponge in the microwave but rather clean it in the dishwasher. I don't use my dishwasher so that isn't really an option for me but I read somewhere that you could leave it out in the sun to disinfect it so I might try that instead.

[Frugal Nurse]

You know what a very good, very "green" germ-killer is ? Steam. I have a steam mop that does a wonderful job cleaning and killing germs, and all I need is water! I've been thinking about getting on of those hand-held steamers to use on my countertops and door knobs and such. Wipe it down with a cleaner, then run the steamer over it. Heat is one of the best disinfectants out there.

[lajes]

Mar 9, 2011 13:21:45 GMT -5 oreo said:

I tried to spray vinegar directly on my weeds and had no success (they look exactly the same as they did 3 days ago when I sprayed the vinegar). Is there something I'm supposed to mix in with it or is just plain vinegar supposed to work and I just have super strength weeds???

Boiling salted water -- kills every weed. Take your tea pot, fill it 3/4 full with water and add two tablespoons salt -- bring it to a full rolling boil -- then pour it on weeds. Its like magic! Repeat as needed.

[oreo]

But what does the salt do to your soil? I could use it in my mulch areas though since I don't want to grow anything there anyway. I'll give it a try, thanks!

[lajes]

Hm. . . Hadn't thought about the soil. I only use this along my sidewalks and driveway -- I don't want anything to grow in those areas -- ever. I would use sparingly in flower beds and gardens!

[Gardening Grandma]

Mar 9, 2011 8:30:23 GMT -5 marvholly said:

I am a retired microbiologist. Vinegar is NOT a disinfectant. Neither is peroxide.

If you REALLY want/need to disinfect use a 1-3% solution of bleach. However. I think we are going WAAAY too far in using disinfectants (hand soap, hand alxohol gels & every other cleaner on the market). We need exposure to naturally ocurring environmental organisms to keep up our immunity.

Thank you for that. I have NEVER obsessed about disinfecting everything in sight. I wipe the kitchen counters with a damp, soapy sponge. Ditto the bathroom. I'll ocassionaly add a bit of bleach to the wash, but as far as disinfecting toilets - why would I do that? No one drinks out of them. The whole disinfecting thing (imo) is simply a marketing ploy to encourage people to spend needlessly.

[Deleted]

Peroxide Cures Cancer!



Stop the presses!



;D

[museumgal]

Thanks for all the advice, I guess disinfecting in regular cleaning is pretty futile. I'll keep the bleach around for the rare times I really need it, and the toilet bowl cleaner still does have it.

Does anyone have a vinegar solution that works on glass?