Vinegar, The Uber Cleaner

This is from a newsletter I used to get called Ideal Bite. I quit getting it because most of it was geared for California, but I kept this one for posting:

Wanna conquer high cleaning-product costs?

The Bite
Drop the bed-sheet toga, and pick up a bottle of white vinegar. Uber-disinfecting and cheap as Hades, DIY vinegar cleaners really do the trick, so you can move onto conquering bigger things, such as, say, the Roman Empire.

The Benefits
• Costs less than a handmade olive-leaf crown. We found a 32-ounce bottle of white vinegar at the supermarket for just over a buck; the same size bottle of all-purpose cleaner was four times that (and you'll dilute the vinegar for most purposes).
• Treating kids like emperors. Conventional cleaning products are responsible for about 10% of toxic-exposure calls to poison control.
• Not stabbing our rivers in the back. High concentrations of detergents were found in 69% of waterways in a 2002 nationwide study.
• Smelling better than an ancient Roman. The vinegar smell disappears when it dries; it even acts as a mild deodorizer.

Personally Speaking
A little straight vinegar, sprayed directly on weeds, gets rid of 'em.

Wanna Try?
• Make sure to use white distilled vinegar - balsamic and red wine varieties will stain.
• All-purpose countertop and mildew cleaner: Mix vinegar and water 1:1 in a spray bottle.
• Fabric softener: Add 1/2 cup to the rinse cycle.
• Toilet bowl cleaner: Use pure vinegar to get rid of rings.
• Window cleaner: Mix vinegar and water 1:4 in a spray bottle.
• Weed killer: Use higher concentrations of vinegar (most household vinegar is 5%, so go for 10% or higher, available at hardware stores). (I also heard vinegar for canning vegetables works for this.)