Vinegar-- the DIY miracle worker

 Most of us are generally aware that vinegar is not just for cooking but actually a great tool around the house. However, hundreds of uses exist for vinegar and sometimes it can be difficult choosing methods that are truly useful. In order to make this easier, I have created a list of my top 10 ways to use vinegar for your home, vehicle and office.

1. Cleaning your electronics -- especially your computer. Using a 50/50 mixture (vinegar/water), wet a clean cloth in the solution then wring out as best as you can and start cleaning our electronics. Cotton balls and Q-Tips are excellent tools for getting in those "hard to reach" spaces. NEVER CLEAN WHILE ELECTRONICS ARE TURNED ON!
2. Rid yourself of bad odors (smokey and otherwise). We all have cooked, spilled, dropped, opened or been in the presence of unwanted odors. To rid your home, dorm or wherever of these smells, place a bowl filled 1/3 of the way with vinegar in the room where the smell is the strongest. This is a great tool when moving into older apartments, dorms and houses as well as when you accidentally overcook your dinner or have a visitor who smokes cigarettes. FOR ODORS IN SMALLER SPACES--- soak a piece of bread in vinegar and then place in the area overnight to rid yourself of that odor FeBreze wouldn't kill. This works especially well for closets and car trunks.
3. "Un-Stick" stickers, glue or other sticky items from a surface. As a huge fan of stickers, I have often times placed stickers on surfaces which I later regretted. I also hate sticky things like syrup or crappy price tags so when I want to rid myself of these sticky problems, I use either vinegar or rubbing alcohol. On the sticky spot, spray or pour enough vinegar to cover the sticky area. Let vinegar sit for 30 seconds to 1 minute (longer if a stronger type of stick) and wipe clean with a cloth. Rubbing alcohol does not have as long of soak time and can be used to remove sticky items almost instantly.
4.  Remove carpet/rug stains. Myself, being a college student, I have spilled my fair share of food, drink and other staining items on the carpet and/or rug in my vicinity. Often times stains on carpets and rugs are met with negative hopes of removing the new stain, but vinegar can bring a positive solution to this as well.
   -- Rub light carpet stains with a mixture of 2 tablespoons salt dissolved in 1/2 cup white vinegar. Let the solution dry, then vacuum.
   -- For larger or darker stains, add 2 tablespoons borax to the mixture and use in the same way.
   -- For tough, ground-in dirt and other stains, make a paste of 1 tablespoon vinegar with 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and rub it into the stain using a dry cloth. Let it set for two days, then vacuum.
   -- To make spray-on spot and stain remover, fill a spray bottle with 5 parts water and 1 part vinegar. Fill a second spray bottle with 1 part nonsudsy ammonia and 5 parts water. Saturate a stain with the vinegar solution. Let it settle for a few minutes, then blot thoroughly with a clean, dry cloth. Then spray and blot using the ammonia solution. Repeat until the stain is gone. (Source:150+ Household Uses for Vinegar)    
5. Prevent frost from developing on your windshield in the winter. If you live in an area where you experience winter, then you've experienced the anger at discovering stubborn frost on your car windows when you're running late for work or class. Until now you probably had no idea you could do something about this... but you can! Next time, in preparation for frost, spray vinegar solution of 3 parts vinegar to 1 part water on your windows. Apply several coats for the protection from frost to last longer (up to several weeks).
6. Everything you would ever want to clean or disinfect in your kitchen.
   NOTE: This also works for appliances in dorms!
   There are many individual uses for vinegar in your kitchen and I've decided to lump them into one here.
   --Refrigerator:  every fridge will develop weird odors and sticky residues over time. The easiest way to resolve this is cleaning your fridge with equal parts vinegar and water. Make sure you get all far corners, storage bins and the dust that collects on your outside of your fridge as well.
   --Microwave: if the fridge has a rival for most disgusting, you know the microwave is it. Place a bowl of 1/4 cup vinegar with 1 cup water in the microwave on HIGH for 5 minutes. After the time is up, use a cloth dipped in your solution to easily wipe away grime.
   --Disinfect Cutting Boards: Personally, I'm never very good at making sure I clean my cutting boards as well they should be. Usually I just rinse it off and start cutting something else, rinse, repeat. But you can easily disinfect your cutting boards (especially useful for wood) with full strength vinegar. Full strength vinegar has excellent power against E. Coli, Salmonella and Staphylococcus.
   --Coffee Maker: One of the greatest tools of college students and full time workers alike is the coffee maker and while we're generally in a hurry to make the coffee and run, coffee stains and build-up can turn your coffee maker into a bacteria maker. How to easily avoid this? Pour a solution of 2 cups vinegar and 1 cup water into the water chamber. Put a coffee filter in the machine. Turn on the coffee maker and let it run through its full brew cycle. Remove filter and add new, unused filter. Run 2 more brew cycles, adding a new filter each time, with only water in the water chamber. Viola! Clean coffee maker :)
7. The amazing all-purpose cleaner.
   NOTE: My personal favorite all-purpose cleaner is called 'LA Awesome'  and is found at "Dollar Tree - Where everything is $1". It's great for laundry, walls, sticky stuff and more. The solution has a reputation for being organic, non-acidic and non-oil.
   --Glass, Stainless Steel and Plastic Laminate surfaces: Fill spray bottle with 2 parts water to 1 part distilled vinegar and a few drops of dish soap.
   --Walls and Painted surfaces: Mix 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 cup ammonia and 1/4 cup baking soda in a 1 gallon milk jug (thoroughly washed out) and pour into spray bottle.
8. Reduce sunburn and itching. Dab burned or itching area with soft cloth (old, clean t-shirts work great) or cotton balls. During the summer months this is especially useful.
9. Brighten clothes. Washing machines are a great modern tool that is part of our every day lives but we do not always have control over the quality of the machine we are using or have the money available to afford "nice" laundry detergent (I swear detergent gets more and more expensive every time I have to buy it). I know from living in dorms, I struggle with keeping my colors bright as the washing machines are old and my detergent is generally average in quality. Adding 1/2 cup of white vinegar to wash loads will brighten colors in each load used.
10. Remove wrinkles without ironing. Many of us don't have time or the desire to spend time on ironing our clothes, or the money to spend on dry cleaning. The next time you need to remove wrinkles from your clothes on short notice, do not panic! After drying your clothes, simply mist the item with a solution 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water. Hang the item to air dry and you're ready to go--wrinkle free!

I hope you've found some use from my top 10 uses for vinegar. Please share any of YOUR favorite uses and/or ones you found don't work as well as claimed.

Sources:
150+ Household Uses for Vinegar
101 More Uses for Vinegar