Vicki Marcok's Most Excellent Solution to Cleaning Problems

“One part dish soap to two parts vinegar,” she said. “A friend told me about it a couple of years ago. Put it in a spray bottle, spray it on, wait five minutes and wipe it off. Terrific.”

She’s right! Got rid of almost all the burned-on crud in the oven, took grease off the walls behind the stove and shined the bathtub to a brilliance not equaled in years.

The last is particularly rewarding as the tub is a big old one with iron feet that we had refinished several years ago with acrylic. At the time, the contractor warned us not to use abrasives or harsh cleaners on the surface. Since then it slowly has gotten dingier and dingier, despite frequent and energetic applications of elbow grease, fancy-dan green-style cleaners, baking soda, and vinegar on its own.

But Vicki’s miracle solution really was one: the collected whatever rolled off the surface without much effort and what was left rinsed off with clean water. The last step, I suspect, is important, because if you don’t you’re likely to have leave residual soap film that will collect more grime.