5 Things You Can Clean With Vinegar—From Your Coffee Maker to Your Microwave

Katie Holdefehr

While there are a few surfaces you should never clean with vinegar, like your marble countertops, white vinegar is a cleaning essential that can be used in every single room of the house. A natural acid, vinegar works wonders to break down mineral deposits and cut through stains. Here's how to clean almost everything with white vinegar, from your tea kettle to cloudy wine glasses.

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How to Clean a Chemex With Vinegar

Coffee drinkers, take note: distilled white vinegar will remove even the toughest stains on your glass coffee maker.

  1. Pour equal parts distilled white vinegar and warm water into the Chemex, making sure to fill up past the coffee stain lines on the glass.

  2. Let it sit for about 30 minutes, then use a bottle brush to scrub away the coffee stains. The acidic vinegar helps cut through the stains, so they should now brush away easily.

  3. Once the Chemex is stain-free, wash it with dish soap and warm water to remove the vinegar smell. This process can also be used to remove stains from the glass carafe of a drip coffee maker.

How to Clean a Microwave With Vinegar

If your microwave is covered in sauce splatters, let vinegar—and a cleaning tool called the Angry Mama—cut down on the scrubbing time.

  1. Fill the Angry Mama with a mixture of water and vinegar, then pop it in the microwave for seven minutes. As the steam is released, it will help loosen up all of the spills and splatters.

  2. One cooled slightly, use a sponge to simply swipe away the greasy mess.

How to Clean a Tea Kettle With Vinegar

If you live in an area with hard water and are a tea drinker, there's a good chance your tea kettle is laden with chalky white mineral deposits.

  1. To remove mineral buildup the easy way, fill the tea kettle with equal parts water and white vinegar, then boil the solution for a few minutes.

  2. Turn off the heat and let the tea kettle cool and sit for a couple hours before pouring out the liquid. The vinegar should help break down the mineral deposits without any scrubbing.

  3. If some residue is left on the bottom of the kettle, repeat this process one more time.

How to Clean a Faucet With Vinegar

White vinegar can also break down the mineral spots that dry on your kitchen faucet.

  1. To remove any surface stains, dip a clean cloth in white vinegar and wipe down chrome fixtures.

  2. If your faucet aerator is clogged with built-up mineral deposits, try this trick (which also works on shower heads as well!). Fill a small plastic bag partway with vinegar, then attach it to the faucet spout so that the aerator is submerged in the vinegar. Secure the bag to the spout using a rubber band or twist tie.

  3. Let the solution sit for an hour before removing. Run hot water for a minute to remove any leftover mineral deposits.

How to Clean Cloudy Wine Glasses With Vinegar

If your go-to wine glasses look cloudy and speckled with mineral spots, white vinegar can help with that, too.

  1. Dip a soft cloth in white vinegar so it's just barely damp, then wipe both the inside and outside of the glass.

  2. Alternatively, if you just have a couple glasses to wash and lots of vinegar on hand, you can soak the glasses in vinegar for 5 minutes.

  3. To remove the vinegar taste, wash each glass by hand using dish soap and water, rinse thoroughly, then dry with a lint-free cloth so more spots won't air-dry on your clean glasses.