Vinegar – the miracle wood cleaner
The ability of vinegar to do a million and one useful tasks around the home is very well known to many of us.
From cleaning clothes to treating burns and bites, vinegar is supposed to be great for a whole host of household tasks and health matters. Just do a search on ‘vinegar uses’ and you’ll soon see what I mean.
What I didn’t realise previously, was just how great it is for cleaning and restoring old wooden furniture.
I’d picked up a display cabinet in a local second hand furniture store and had largely despaired of getting the thing truly clean – and so had it earmarked for a little tool storage in the garage.
But since I discovered the vinegar ‘miracle’, the display cabinet is now able to take pride of place in my living room.
It’s so quick and easy to use, too. Here’s what to do…
Mix a cup of olive oil with a quarter of a cup of white vinegar and put it into a spray bottle and shake it around. Now spray the solution onto a soft cloth (not on the wood itself) and start working it in – always working with the grain; you’ll soon get the feel of it.
You’ll gradually see the wood coming clean and the sheen returning. You may have to keep repeating this process over and over as I did if your furniture piece is very old and dirty. But it’s a labour of love. Each application brings it up further. Letting it dry off in between applications will help. And if there are awkward nooks and crannies, you can work the solution in with a soft bristled brush – then polish it off with a soft cloth.
What’s happening is that the olive oil nourishes the wood while the ‘miracle’ vinegar is cleaning it.
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Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
