Vinegar for Cleaning: Recipe

Last week, we discussed using vinegar to clean your house.  It's been an interesting week since then with a lot of new information coming out about how to get rid of viable corona virus particles on inanimate surfaces.  We learned through press conferences that isopropyl alcohol and UV radiation are highly efficient at knocking out Covid-19.  

There are many OTC chemical cleaning products that are also efficient at disinfecting surfaces in your house.  Sadly, due to Covid-19, the incidence of poisonings from these products has significantly increased since January of this year according to the CDC.  In some cases, inhalation of chemicals like bleach has caused lung damage, in some, the chemicals getting on people's food poisoned them, and in others, kids have been poisoned by drinking the cleaner.  This is yet another reason to try and stick with all natural products for cleaning.  What I'm recommending here is that you either use white vinegar by itself or that you infuse it with herbs.  This will give you all the cleaning power you need.  (Do not use vinegar on hardwood, stone, and marble surfaces as they may be damaged by it.)

I normally just use distilled white vinegar and a clean, wet cloth to wash my counters, sinks, floors, etc.  When I'm preparing to make products for sale, I take the extra step of spraying the just washed, wet surfaces with isopropyl alcohol, then I let everything air dry.  Doing this kills more than 99% of the germs.  Unfortunately, in the last month, there's been no rubbing alcohol on the store shelves - it's needed more in medical facilities - so, you may not have access to it right now.  That means all of us need to make do with what's on hand, and vinegar and herbs are still available.  As I stated last week, I want to try infusing herbs in my vinegar to make it more effective at disinfecting surfaces.

In doing the research, I've found recommendations for allowing the herbs to steep in distilled white vinegar for as little as 24 hours up to two weeks.  (My most trusted sources say two weeks.)  Since I love to experiment, I'm going to make three jars - one to steep for 24 hours, one to steep for 1 week, and one to steep for 2 weeks.  I'll compare the three and give my conclusions next month in this Tidbits blog.  I'll be using fresh lemon peel, dried sage, dried thyme, and dried rosemary.  All of these are highly antimicrobial and should add their antimicrobial properties to the vinegar, which will add more oomph to the cleaning, and hopefully help it smell better.  (Please be kind - this is my very first diy video.)

To clarify a couple of points in the video: 
1.  I used pint jars and filled each jar with 1 cup of herb and 1 cup of white vinegar. 
2.  The parchment paper was used because the lid of the jar could be corroded by the vinegar (not the jar itself).

Once the vinegar has been infused with the herbs then strained, we'll mix it with an equal amount of water in a spray bottle and have fun cleaning!

​Check back next month to find out the results!