For basic household cleaning, distilled white vinegar has been proven to work just as well as chlorine, which kills everything living—the good along with the bad. Vinegar is great at removing stains, dissolving mineral deposits and grease, removing soap and wax buildup, polishing some metals, and deodorizing almost every room in your house.

Excerpted from Green This! Volume One: Greening Your Cleaning (Simon & Schuster, 2007) by Deidre Imus

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