Getting that green cleaning regiment together means gathering lots of household ingredients from lemons to baking soda to vinegar. A huge thanks to the ever-amazing Sarah Miller over at Elephant Journal for bringing another super-cleaner from the pantry to light: VODKA! In fact, vodka seems to combine some of the best properties from many other green cleaning pantry staples.

Like vinegar, vodka is excellent at disinfecting. You can mix up a simple all-purpose cleaner using 1 part vodka and 2 parts water. When it dries, the boozy smell disappears! This mixture works well for cleaning glass, too - just spritz on and wipe off with newspaper.

Domo Kun loves vodka's cleaning power!

If you're looking to fight odors but don't have baking soda on hand, vodka might just come to the rescue! For stinky clothes or other textiles, just spritz on some vodka and let it air dry. The vodka fights odor-causing bacteria and leaves your fabrics smelling clean!

Vodka is a good solvent, much like lemon juice. You can add some to your dish soap to help cut grease. It also helps remove sticky residue from labels, like when you're trying to repurpose an empty glass bottle. Just saturate the sticky areas with vodka, let it sit, and the label should scrub right off.

On top of its cleaning power, vodka has some other unconventional uses. It can help fight the pain of a toothache until you're able to get to the dentist. Sure, doing a shot might make you not care so much about the pain, but you can also swish a shot around in your mouth and spit it out to help numb the area.

If you're headed out into the woods, try combining one part vodka with one part apple cider vinegar and some citronella essential oil for a handy bug repellent.

Of course, as Sarah points out, when the cleaning is done, you might as well get back to basics: fix yourself a cocktail and relax!

Image Credits:
Vodka. Creative Commons photo by antiguan_life
Domo Kun. Creative Commons photo by hjw223