Visakha

Vinegar is more than just an important ingredient in salad dressings and homemade pickles. This humble, fermented liquid has all kinds of uses around the house.

In fact, some of the properties that make vinegar useful in preserving food are the same ones that make it a great green cleaning ingredient. Vinegar is antiseptic, meaning that it kills bacteria. It’s also acidic, which makes it great at cutting grease as well as pickling those cucumbers that are growing like gangbusters in your garden.

There are two vinegars that I always try to keep in ample supply at my house: white vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is so popular for natural cleaning and DIY beauty that you’ll often see folks refer to it just as ACV. I buy both of these in the biggest jugs that I can find, because I use them both so frequently for everything from common uses like making refrigerator pickles to less common jobs like cleaning out the fridge.

Got your big bottles of white vinegar and ACV at the ready? Check out 17 ways to use these vinegars besides eating them!