I've recently become a vinegar-aholic. As in I clean with it almost exclusively because it is amazing and I haven't found anything that it isn't effective for! BUT, the smell after cleaning bothers my son and my husband. Honestly, I don't like it either, but I can tolerate it for the hour or so until it dissipates. I was thinking about adding some scent to the water/vinegar solution that might help with that. What would you put in there that would mask the smell of the vinegar and be safe to use on surfaces like wood floors and ceramic tile? I was thinking something like orange or lemon essential oil, but would that work and how much should I put in? Thanks for your input :)
I don't have a suggestion, but in Canada we put vinegar on french fries and eat salt and vinegar potato chips. When I clean with vinegar I get cravings for french fries and potato chips! I think if I used vinegar to clean on a regular basis I would get fat!
I put drops of lemon, ginger and lavender scented oils (not together!) in my bottles of diluted vinegar.
S.,
I know what you mean. Vinegar is so inexpensive so I like to use it, too. The smell is pretty overpowering though. What you can do is fill mason jars or a big tupperware container with orange, lemon and or grapefruit peels, then add the vinegar and let it steep for a week. Then strain out the peels and add the vinegar to a spray bottle. This gives the vinegar a much better citrus smell. You can still smell a bit of the vinegar but it is a lot better.
You could also do a search on Pinterest, I betcha there a a zillion vinegar cleaning tips on there.
Three cheers for us vinagar-aholics!
I clean everything with it too. I don't really notice the smell, but Mrs. On Purpose hates it.
Great question - anxious to see the answers! :)
I haven't tried it, but does apple vinegar smell any better to them?
I was going to make the same suggestion as Galwaygirl. I saw the infused vinegar recipe on Pinterest and love it. It just takes the edge off the vinegar.
I LOVE cleaning with vinegar, it's pretty much all I use. i don't mind the smell but my husband hates it. lol I've used both orange and lemon oils and it does help. i want to try lavender next. you can find the exact number of dros to use on pinterest or internet. I just kept adding til i was happy with the smell.
I just read a blog post about cleaning with vinegar. The lady used essential oils in it when she mopped her floors, to leave a fresh scent behind. She said she used a couple of drops, and I am assuming that was for a bucket. She did not mention what type of flooring she had. I would recommend googling your floor type with the essential oil that you choose just to be safe.
I usually clean my wood floors with vinegar and water and sometimes the smell gets to me as well. I bought a small bottle of pine essential oil at Whole Foods last week and mixed about 3 drops into my one gallon bucket of vinegar & water and then cleaned the floor. There was just a hint of pine smell in the air (which seemed natural since I was cleaning wood!) and it definitely helped reduce the vinegar smell. The little bottle was about $10 - a bit expensive, but I'm sure it will last for ages since I'll only use a few drops at a time.
It's just classical conditioning. After years of using toxic chemicals to clean people have been conditioned to think the smell of fake oranges, and fake mountain meadows = clean. Just keep using it and your body will start to associate the smell of vinegar with clean.
