Baking soda and vinegar are a powerful cleaning duo. Mix them together and then can unclog a drain or remove the toughest soap scum. Separately, baking soda is an excellent gentle abrasive and the acid in vinegar makes it a great cleaner. If you’re looking for more natural alternatives to some of the other cleaners that are available, or if you’re like me and find yourself ready to clean but the Mrs. Meyers is empty, then baking soda and vinegar cleaning recipes are for you!
I know you’re here for the Baking Soda and Vinegar Cleaning Recipes. They are here. There are pictures for you to click over and get the details on all of them.
But I’m not going to talk about them. First of all, well, they aren’t that exciting, really, are they? But secondly…
I have a story to tell you.
It’s relative. It’s about cleaning. Sort of. And coyotes. And husbands.
Baking Soda and Vinegar Recipes to Clean Your Whole House
DIY Towel Refresh with Baking Soda and Vinegar from The WHOot
I’ve been on an exercise kick. Nothing crazy, but I’m trying to exercise and be healthy. It’s January, after all, aren’t we all doing this?
So last Thursday, I had found this super cute woman, Pahla B on Youtube who you basically can run with. Inside your house. It sounds completely bizarre, but this woman for some reason I found very encouraging and somehow she got me to run for 20 minutes straight, so I’m all for her.
When I was done running, I felt a little, tiny, itty bitty ache in my lower back. By the time I went to bed that night, though, it was nothing. Gone.
The next morning, I was sitting at my desk looking out my window and it was BEAUTIFUL out. Sunny, clear, sparkly winter day. And like 40 degrees which is balmy for this time of year.
On my to do list for that day was to practice taking pictures so I thought I would grab my camera and head out for a hike in the woods.
When I say “hike” it was like a walk that happened to be out of doors. And when I say “woods” I mean there were a lot of trees around.
Clean Your Oven with this DIY from Clean Mama
Everything started out fine. I walked by a pond and some fields. I was a little cold, but mostly fine. I started to get into more of the “woodsy” part of the walk and a thought struck me:
Coyotes?
What do you do if you’re all alone in the “woods” and a coyote pops up??
I quickly texted my friend Laura who said “chase it away” and “punch it in the snout”. In the moment, I thought that was brilliant and straightforward advice. In hindsight, I have some questions. But, my worry was for naught, no coyotes showed up.
But I wonder if that had made me a little tense as I look back on what happened next.
I was probably 15 minutes in to my “hike” at this point and while no coyotes snuck up on me, do you know what did?
That teeny tiny pain in my lower back from the run the day before.
Baking Soda and Vinegar Recipe to Clean Your Sheet Pans from One Good Thing
I’m a tough lady. I can work through pain. Also, I had no choice but to keep going because I had to get back to the car somehow, right?
So I walked on. As I walked… I know this is where the whole thing went off the rails.
My sock. My SOCK slipped into my boot. You know how annoying that is, right?
I bent over, hooked my finger into the sock and gave it a yank. And then I could almost not stand up.
So now. I’m in the middle of the woods, my back HURTS.
What was I going to do? I was in the middle of the (sort of) WOODS!
Clean Your Oven with this DIY Cleaning Recipe from Craptastical
I had to keep going.
Or lie down and die among the trees. Which would have taken forever since it was 40 degrees out.
I had no choice, really. There was a guy with a dog behind me and I would have died a faster death from embarrassment if he found me laying in the pine needles.
I managed to get back to the car. The pain at this point was like a 6.5. I was sort of mostly annoyed and just waiting for it to go away.
It didn’t go away.
Baking Soda Deodorizer Tabs from Retro Housewife Goes Green
I went home and did the sensible, thing, I rested. I’m not going to lie, I might have milked it a little. I asked my daughter to get me things. When my husband came home I said, my back is KILLING me, you’ll have to make dinner. Even my son noticed I was just sort of lying there and felt bad for me.
But I was still in the “this is annoying and I’m going to take full advantage of it” stage of pain.
I made it upstairs that night and slept in my bed. Then I woke in the wee hours of Saturday morning and got up to go to the bathroom.
I stood up and went to take a step and released an unholy howl from pain.
DIY Grout Cleaner from The Simple Parent
My husband says he is scarred by it. He tried to help me get up again, but there was no chance I was getting out of that bed. At this point I was crying once because I was in so much pain and twice because I was so frustrated that I couldn’t walk. Double crying, people.
I started thinking about marriage as I lay there in excruciating pain at 6:30 on Saturday morning. My husband got up and went to the pharmacy and came back with Ibuprofen, a heating pad, a back brace and some Icy Hot. He got the kids up and off to their various activities for the day.
He fed me.
Natural Toilet Cleaner from Creative Homemaking
He answered every time I said, Can you get me… ? This isn’t charging… Where is the clicker? I need more Ibuprofen.
He finally helped me get to the bathroom which was a harrowing adventure that included crying and swearing and just complete misery from me.
The man was in the room when I had babies, but I think not being able to sit up and walk to the bathroom without crying was problably an even more vulnerable state for me to be in. At least when I was in labor I was performing the miracle of childbirth.
In this situation, I was just going to pee.
Garbage Disposal Deodorizer from What’s Up Fagans
Sunday was nearly the same as Saturday and Monday was the first day I could sit myself up and walk to the bathroom without help. All weekend and into the beginning of the week, my husband had taken care of me, the kids, the cat, the house.
Ok, actually. Not the house. As I came to find out on Monday morning, the first time I had been downstairs since Friday.
The disaster that was waiting for me was unprecedented. And there was not a single thing that I could do about it. I could still barely walk.
The frustration of having a mess and not being able to fix it myself, erased all of the tender thoughts I had been having about marriage and husbands. And turned into probably an angry overreaction.
Luckily my husband and I have twenty years of practice with overreaction anger, so a quick text a couple of hours later healed those wounds.
Baking Soda and Vinegar to Clean Window Tracks from The Intentional Mom
My mom came over the next day and cleaned for me. She also brought chicken soup. I hadn’t complained to her about the house or anything. It was like she used her mom spidey senses and just knew I needed help.
And I wanted to not accept the help because I was embarrassed at the state of the house. Luckily she didn’t listen to me, as per usual.
It was the best thing anyone could have done for me.
I didn’t have to feel frustrated, angry, annoyed about the mess anymore. She undid it all in a matter of a couple of hours. And fed me. Best example of a Mother anyone could ever ask for, ever.
There are two morals to this story.
The first one is be prepared to accept help when you need it.
Deep Clean Your Dishwasher from One Good Thing
The second one is teach your kids (and your husband if he is anything like mine) how to take care of things in case something happens to you. Thank God it was only my back and I’m slowly getting back to myself (writing this on day 6 and I still can’t bend over or walk very well). But, if you say to your kids or your husband, clean the kitchen for me and they have no earthly idea what that involves, then you are going to end up disappointed and frustrated with the results.
When you get scared by coyotes that don’t exist, walking up hill in the almost cold and your sock falls into your boot and you can’t move for 6 days, you’ll thank me.
If You Loved This, I’d Love It If You Pinned It!
