I love Science.

I have written before about the amazing things that vinegar and baking soda can do.  Well today the dynamic duo struck again.  I have a large roast pan that is nasty.  So today while doing other normal dishes, the thought to try the duo on the roast pan popped into my head.  So here is what the pan looked like before I began... Yuck!
*I am only grossing you out with this photo for educational purposes.*

I rinsed it out and sprinkled baking soda on the sides and on the bottom.

I just happened by lucky coincidence to have an empty spray bottle rolling around in the kitchen, so in went the vinegar.  (Like my stack of clean dishes back there?)

I sprayed the vinegar all over the pan.  I probably got a little carried away because, of course, it makes bubbles and its FUN!  I let it set for a while, spraying it again whenever I happened to be in the kitchen (cause it will keep bubbling).
One Harry Potter movie later:  I used hot water (the hotter the better cause its greasy) and a scrubby pad to scrub off all the ick.  The sides are the hardest part though since they don't get to sit in the paste the duo makes, but with a bit of elbow grease on my part, this was my result:

TA-DA!

Please, no applause.
Obviously there are still some sticky looking spots on the sides and over on the right, but WOW major improvement!  I will probably hit it with another spot specific treatment tomorrow.  I bet this will work on my icky baked on gunk cookie sheet too... hmmmm.

Vinegar and Baking soda... 2 simple products

that when used together can create a chemical reaction used to create science fair volcanos for decades.  But when used apart can make your household chores more cost efficient and your house a little bit cleaner for the effort.  I have only just began to utilize the benefits of these two ingredients and my interest began when I originally saw this post on Pintrest (where else!).

Who knew?? Use baking soda and vinegar to fix funky towels. Over time, and with many washes, your bath towels will build up detergent and fabric softener residue, leaving them both unable to absorb as much water and smelling kinda funky when they do. Rather than give Target another lump sum, run them through the wash once with hot water and a cup of vinegar, then again with hot water and a half-cup of baking soda, as wikiHow suggests. That strips the residue from them, leaves them smelling fresh.

I decided that I would try it on my bath towels.  I knew that it couldn't hurt them and honestly they had become quite funky smelling.  I am not the best with my laundry habits and sometimes things get left in the washer wet for too long.  Also I have cleaned up a few doggie accidents from my carpet with whatever towel is closest.  The result is a towel that it is difficult to dry your face off with because both of these smells stay in the towel for several washes after.  Yeeck!  So, as I said, I knew that it couldn't hurt.  So I did it.  I ran the load of towels through with just the vinegar (although I did use about 1 and 1/2 cups instead of just the 1 cup on the pin) and hot water.  Then with the 1/2 cup of baking soda and hot water.  I don't know about removing the residue and improving the water absorbsion like it says in the pin, but I can say that the smell was completely gone!  Even my liquid laundry detergent couldn't do that!

Another vinegar cleaning miracle that I have already used is to remove potential stains from my fabric couch.  I have a 4 year old and the trail that children leave behind can certainly cause strain on a mother.  My daughter just happened to be coloring with markers... on my couch!  A no no to begin with and a shame on me for not noticing.  Sometimes when they are quiet, you just want to enjoy it while it lasts.  Needless to say I ended up with purple marker on the arm of my couch.  I started to freak out, as is to be expected.  After a few frantic minutes on the internet I found a homemade cleaning solution that I actually had the stuff for and promised to not ruin my sofa.  I have since used it a few times and can honestly say that it does remove both marker and blood... don't ask.  Since you (hopefully) won't need very much of this solution at a time here is the quick make version.  I use a regular coffee cup and put about 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish detergent, and fill up the mug with cool water.  Stir.  Take a dishtowel or a washrag and dip a corner in the solution and blot the spot on the sofa.  DO NOT RUB!  You don't have to soak the spot just blot and then blot with the dry part.  Repeat until the color of the stain stops showing up on the wet part of the rag.  Allow to dry.  Everytime that I have used this the stain came up completely.  I do have a brown couch though so I don't know how well it would work on a lighter color.  BEWARE:  if you do have a darker color couch you will pull up some regular butt dirt (everyday soiling from just sitting on the couch) with the stain.  If you are a cleaning nut, germaphobe, or otherwise perfectionist this could be enough to send you into a cleaning frenzy in which case you will have to make a bigger batch of the couch cleaner.  Good luck.

There are so many more ways to use the vinegar and the baking soda in everyday cleaning.  My next attempt will be cleaning my hallway carpet where those doggie accidents have been.  It still has a bit of a smell in some places.  I have heard that the vinegar will remove the enzymes that cause the smell and deter the dog from using there again.  Surely if the vinegar and baking soda got the smell out of my towels, then they can work on my carpet too.  I will let you all know.