Vinegar Kills Bateria, Mold and Germs

Vinegar is a mainstay of the old folk recipes for cleaning, and with good reason. The vim of the vinegar is that it kills bacteria, mold, and germs.

Heinz company spokesperson Michael Mullen references numerous studies to show that a straight 5 percent solution of vinegar?such as you can buy in the supermarket?kills 99 percent of bacteria, 82 percent of mold, and 80 percent of germs (viruses). He noted that Heinz can't claim on their packaging that vinegar is a disinfectant since the company has not registered it as a pesticide with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, it seems to be common knowledge in the industry that vinegar is powerfully antibacterial. Even the CBS news show 48 Hours had a special last December with Heloise reporting on tests from The Good Housekeeping Institute that showed this.

Just like antibiotics, common disinfectants found in sponges and household sprays may contribute to drug resistant bacteria, according to researchers of drug resistance at Tufts New England Medical Center. Furthermore, research at the Government Accounting Office shows that many commercial disinfectants are ineffective to begin with, just like antibiotics.

Keep a clean spray bottle filled with straight 5 percent vinegar in your kitchen near your cutting board, and in your bathroom, and use them for cleaning. I often spray the vinegar on our cutting board before going to bed at night, and don't even rinse, but let it set overnight. The smell of vinegar dissipates within a few hours. Straight vinegar is also great for cleaning the toilet rim. Just spray it on and wipe off.

Also:
If you spray hydrogen peroxide and vinegar (keep in separate spray bottles) the combination is 10 times more effective than vinegar alone.

Speaking of which...  I need to buy some more!

Does anyone know where you can get large things of peroxide?  All I've been able to find is the smaller bottles.  

I buy it at Costco, 2  1-quart bottles for less than $2.00.

and vinegar is so cheap! my favorite cleaning solution, especially for rat cages. I'm waiting for someone to figure out how to put together vinegar and those wipes that come in a bottle....

Li quid non-chlorine bleach is hydrogen peroxide - you can find it in gallon bottles in the laundry section. Read the label to make sure there's nothing else added, though.

You can make them yourself with a freezer baggie, a roll of paper towels and a bottle of vinegar.
I get a roll of papertowels and unroll (it is a pain but the end product is so easy to use) them.
Fold them into squares and put them in a bowel.
Then I pour the vinegar over the papertowels until they are wet but not dripping.
When that's done I put them in a freezer bag so that they stay wet and then when I need them pull one out.
Very easy and usually only takes me about 2 minutes to do.

At work we do the same thing with periwash and papertowels (my work is cheap) instead of using baby wipes for our residents.

Yup, I can vouch for that!  Peroxide kills the vinegar smell!