I am officially a vinegar fan!

I have read about the versatility of vinegar soooo many times in different Internet sites, but for the life of me, I just don’t have the guts to give up Downy (softener) and Domex (disinfectant) for our good old vinegar. It’s just too weird, right? :D

Well, now that I have a baby and I want to live up to 100, I am slowly and steadily getting rid of chemicals at home. So yeah, I seriously looked into the vinegar alternative. But still, I didn’t get on with it as soon as I want to…for the simple reason that I don’t want to stink…hehehe!

1. Vinegar as a Softener

My dear Tita Vicky plunged head on and used vinegar for her laundry just to appease me…and viola! It really does work like magic! After that, I went straight to the supermarché and bought a liter of “vinaigre crystal”. I am not sure what it is called in other countries, I guess just plain “vinegar”. Just make sure you buy the clear, transparent vinegar, not the cloudy one which we call “sukang puti” in the Philippines. I poured half a cup of vinegar in the washing machine’s slot for softener and loaded the machine with 3 kilos of laundry. I was half expecting the whole apartment to smell sour…hehe. I was so happy that my laundry came out smelling clean and super soft! Our clothes were so easy to iron, too! I also read that chemical softeners lessen the absorbency of our towels, so I guess this is another reason to switch to vinegar. :)

2. Vinegar as Disinfectant

Another vinegar experience I have is using it as a disinfectant for our hardwood floor. I am such an OC freak when it comes to our floor because my daughter is now learning to crawl and would usually explore beyond her playmat. After vacuuming the entire apartment, I wet a rag, add a sprinkle of vinegar on the wet rag, and wipe the entire floor with it. Yay, squeaky-clean floors! I killed a gazillion bacteria, too! Promise, it doesn’t smell that bad. Just air out your home for a minute or two and all the vinegar smell will be gone.

Oh, I also disinfect my daughter’s toys by wiping them with water and vinegar. I have to disinfect everything in sight because she puts everything in her mouth!

3. Vinegar as Tub, Sink, and Toilet Bowl Cleaner

The apartment where we live in has a plain white tub, sink, and toilet bowl. So yeah, I can see well the build-up of dirt and grime…and it tortures me no end! My hubby does the toilet cleaning, and this is what he does:

To remove grime and dirt on the tub and sink, he sprinkles generous amount of baking soda and spray it with water (careful not to wash it down the drain). He leaves it for a few minutes, then wets a sponge and rubs the tub and sink with the baking soda. He rinses them with water. To disinfect, he dips the sponge in vinegar and wipes the tub and sink with it. He then finally rinse and dry them thoroughly. Yeah, sparkling white tub and sink! Even the faucets sparkle!

For the toilet bowl, he disinfects the entire thing by rubbing vinegar on it. What amazes me is how vinegar removes the discoloration in the bowl! My hubby will first push out the water in the bowl so tahat it’ll go down the tube. He does this using the toilet bowl brush. When the water is mostly gone, he will pour vinegar in the bowl, leave it for an hour or two, then flush! The whole bowl is white! No traces of any discoloration…as if the bowl hasn’t been used at all. Aaahh, I adore vinegar. :)

So there…I just wanted to share my vinegar experience in case somebody else out there wants to live up to 100! Heehee! And for only a few cents per liter, vinegar is sure a cheap, health-friendly, earth-loving way to do your usual chores. I just love green living!

Posted: August 10th, 2010 under Save Money, Series.
Comments: none

This post is most likely for your parents or grandparents. :)

I am not a picky eater. In fact, I eat almost anything and everything under the sun, with the exemption of innards. Because of this, my cholesterol and triglycerides skyrocketed to dangerous levels. My husband is no exemption, as his lipid profile readings were worse than mine. Our doctor was very alarmed and frequently lectures us on heart attack, stroke, and various medical nightmares. We were also given the usual statins — lipitor, zocor, etc. but we never really took them since they will damage our livers in the long run; not to mention that they are outrageously expensive.

In an effort to become healthy, or at least bring down our cholesterol and triglycerides to an acceptable level, we started, uhmnnn, dieting…which lasted for only a week or two. Tee-hee! We even got a swimming pool membership to sweat-off the fats, which we hardly used due to frequent overtime at work and a million other reasons i forgot already. In short, we were unsuccessful in our attempts to improve our lipid profile…until we were introduced to Wholefood Wheatgrass and Alfafa (WWA). Read more »

Posted: September 25th, 2008 under Healing Herbs.
Comments: none

When I was I kid I got hold of this board game named Games of the Generals. Being a curious kid, I wanted to play it but I was too young to understand how it’s played. Fast forward a few years and I eventually found someone to teach me how to play it. The only catch with playing this board game is the fact that you need an arbiter each time you play, and this is a bit of a drag because it’s hard to find someone who would act as a referee.

A couple of years back, I got bored in the office and ended up thinking of the Games of the Generals board game. I realized how much I missed playing it so I ended up creating a computer-based version of the game just for the heck of it. I made two versions, one with the original-sized pieces and another one for “office” play. :wink: Read more »

Posted: May 11th, 2008 under Let's Play.
Comments: 25

My imagination always gets ahead of me, and I can actually scare myself simply by imagining far-fetched things. Case in point was when I asked my dad how I can survive if I am forced to live in the forest because there’s war going on in the city. He answered me nonchantly, saying that since it is a forest, there will be plenty of plants I can eat…or in case I get sick, I can heal myself anyways since there are herbs around.

Still, i am not satisfied.

I asked him how will I know if the plant is poisonous or not, I surely don’t want to poison myself accidentaly and die in the middle of the forest…to be eaten by beasts. Also, among the million plants around, how am I suppose to know what herb heals what. I made a mental note to bring with me a picture book of healing herbs while running towards the forest. Hihihi! My dad, who is more sensible than I am, said that God is actually more intelligent than I think. He said that God left us clues so we can easily distinguish good plants from bad plants, and what the good plants can actually do. He gave me two pointers: Read more »

Posted: April 20th, 2008 under Healing Herbs.
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I chanced upon this video this week when one of my colleagues sent me the link through IM. Within just two minutes of watching the video, my jaw dropped and the geek in me got excited! I couldn’t contain myself from muttering relentlessly on how ingenious his ideas were.

The person I’m talking about is Johnny Chung Lee. He’s a Ph. D. Graduate Student of Human-Computer Interaction Institute in Carnegie Mellon University. He has a lot of cool ideas that I’m really impressed with. You could check out his website at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/

For this post, I’ll be featuring his ideas regarding the other applications of the Nintendo Wii remote. You’d be amazed how cool this is and how simple it seems to be. You’d understand what I mean after you watch the videos below. Read more »

Posted: April 18th, 2008 under Tech Notes.
Comments: 2