Latest News

May 2010

30 Household Cleaning Tips from allyou.com
The Web site allyou.com offers its Web visitors 30 secret household cleaners, using things already in consumers’ cupboards, including vinegar.  The site says, "These easy household cleaners are tough on grime but easy on your wallet." 

To view the tips, use this link.  Pay particular attention to these tips that use vinegar:  wash the dishwasher, mist away and degrime shades.

Shine from Yahoo! Offers 25 Cleaning Tips Using Vinegar
Shine from Yahoo! offers it readers 25 cleaning tips using vinegar that range from cutting boards to grills.  To view all the tips, use this link.

Hints from Heloise - Cleaning Terra-Cotta Planters with Vinegar
The Sacramento Bee (California) shares with its readers a tip from Heloise on using vinegar to clean terra-cotta planters (i.e., eliminating the white film on the side of pots).  Heloise notes,

"The white film is actually hard-water deposits ... Using some dish soap and a hard-bristle plastic scrub brush, give the planter a thorough cleaning inside and out. Rinse to remove all soap residue. Now, using my favorite cleaner, vinegar, wipe the entire pot with full-strength regular or apple-cider vinegar until all the white mineral deposits have dissolved. Let the pot completely dry.

To keep the white stains at bay, brush an acrylic sealant onto the pot, inside and out."   

Using Vinegar to Control "Colonial tunicates" and "Zebra" Mussels
Oregon.com reports on an ancient, jelly-like organism along Oregon's coast that can smother shellfish beds and coat boat hulls, docks and water intakes.  According to the article, the organism, a "colonial tunicate" (Dedemnum vexillum) is native to Japan and is on the list of the 100 worst invasive species to keep out of Oregon.  Possible methods of eradicating the organism include "smothering" the colonies, physically removing them and vacuuming all traces, and applying a vinegar or bleach solution. To read the entire article, use this link.