Some Forgotten Uses of Common Products

Aside from making a volcano in the younger grades of school vinegar and baking soda have other uses. They have been used for years together and separately as a cleaners and deodorizers. Pay attention and you will see that advertising today is trying to bring back some of the everyday uses. New products with colorful packages are nothing more than these old basics.

Baking soda &/or vinegar can be used to clean many surfaces. If it is made of glass or stainless steel it can be cleaned with either. Even stubborn stains can be tackled with these common chemicals. Jars, glasses, thermoses, coffee pots, cooking pans and baby bottles can be cleaned and deodorized with them. Appliances and counter tops can also benefit. Dishwashers, stoves and refrigerators can be cleaner and smell nicer with the help of vinegar &/or baking soda.

Stains on formica, plastic or marble can be taken care of with a paste of baking soda and it can be used to remove melted plastic bread wrapper from a toaster.
Baking soda can also be used for forgotten purposes like smothering fires without hurting the surfaces it comes in contact with (including cloth). Added to the laundry, baking soda fights grease and oil stains on clothes and smell in diapers. As a poultice it can reduce the pain of burns and the itch of bug bites. It can even be used as a toothpaste or a mouthwash.

Another often forgotten but still effective substance is vinegar. It can have many uses as a grease cutter and streak reducer. Use it to clean windows without leaving streaks or eliminate mildew, dust and odors on surfaces by wiping them with a vinegar-soaked cloth. Clean food containers with a vinegar-dampened cloth to keep them smelling fresh and clean fireplace bricks with undiluted vinegar. Adding vinegar to your catsup and other condiments can make them last longer. And even though it may seem odd, pouring boiling vinegar down drains unclogs and cleans them. A mixture of apple cider vinegar and honey has been used as a cure-all to many things including obesity, hay fever, asthma, rashes, food poisoning, heartburn, sore throat, dandruff, brittle nails and bad breath. Even the more common place uses for vinegar have been neglected. Adding a few drops of vinegar to water prevents discoloration of peeled potatoes and you get fluffier rice by adding 1 tsp. of vinegar to the cooking water.

Our grandparents may have been misguided in some of the notions about why vinegar and baking soda worked but not the knowledge that they did work. In some cases we would be doing ourselves a good turn by using some of the older chemistry today.