Lately, I have been discovering vinegar is good for almost everything around the house and even the yard. With limited money and a baby who licks things, I’m glad to have such a cheap, non-hazardous cleaning solution. (Oh, ho! Cleaning solution. Get it? Haha. OK, my baby brain makes me find even the simplest puns very funny. 70 days to go till we have another bawling bundle of blessing!)

For counters, floors, windows, tables, toilets, everything, I use a half water, half vinegar solution with a few drops of essential oils in it. And I’ve been having lots of fun experimenting with different essential oils. So far, I’ve tried tea tree, eucalyptus, orange, lavender, and cinnamon. I want to try peppermint next. So far I like the eucalyptus and lavendar the best. Cinnamon is OK.

When I mentioned to a friend that I didn’t know what to do with all the weeds that are multiplying at a dizzying rate all over the yard and I didn’t want to use harsh chemicals to kill them off if I’m going to have babies running and crawling around, she sent me this.

Kill weeds dead with a good shot of vinegar. For best results, don’t dilute with water and choose a time to spray weeds when there’s no sign of rain. Household vinegar is around 5% acetic acid concentration which will do the trick for baby weeds. If you can find a stronger vinegar (like pickling which is about 9%), that will give better results for more mature (and stubborn) weeds. (From TipNut.)

And this morning, when the fumes from the diaper load were a little much for my pregnant nose to handle, I went to one of my new favourite sites, Broomhuggers, where I found this treasure trove of vinegary wisdom. Then I got my trusty WalMart vinegar-cinnamon-water spray bottle and voila! … Bad smells were banished.

Go here to find out how to do the following using vinegar.

• Kill bacteria in meats.
• Dissolve warts.
• Grow beautiful azaleas.
• Kill unwanted grass.
• Deodorize the air.
• Relieve itching, a sore throat, a cold, or a cough.
• Relieve arthritis.
• Cure an upset stomach.
• Turn a chicken bone into rubber.
• Condition dry hair.
• Repel ants.
• Keep drains open.
• Remove decals or bumper stickers.
• Prevent lint from clinging to clothes.
• Prevent ice from forming on a car windshield overnight.
• Prolong the life of flowers in a vase.
• Prevent soapy film on glassware.
• Unclog a shower head.