In
Hands on Home by Erica Strauss (a book which I cannot seem to figure out where I left, grrrr!), she has a marvelous section about bases and acids, and how mixing them makes something very weak/mostly useless.
Acids (vinegar, citric acid, etc): are great for cleaning mineral deposits--think cleaning bathrooms and toilets and showers and all the hard water residue stuff there. If the grime you want gone is INORGANIC, you probably want an acid to clean it. They're BAD for cleaning granite/stone tile/grout because they dissolve the stone. I've also desivered that they've bad for cleaning painted surfaces--they take the paint off my wall! The stronger the acid, the more cleaning power it has.
Bases (
soap, baking soda, washing soda, washing soda, bleach, oxygen bleach, hydrogen peroxide): Are great for cleaning up food,
poop, etc. If the grime you want is ORGANIC, you probably want a base to clean it. So, kitchen counters, dirty diapers, dishes, dirty hands, etc, are usually cleaned best with a base (unless you've got slug slime on your hands, then you want vinegar!). They're also great for cleaning painted surfaces, grout, tile, granite, etc. The stronger the base, the more cleaning power it has.
De-greasers (vodka, rubbing alcohol, limonene): are great for cleaning petroleum-based grime. So, if the grime you want gone is derived from
petroleum, you probably want a de-greaser. So, labels off of jars, grime from car exhaust, gasoline/petrol are usually best cleaned with a de-greaser. Probably the most natural de-greaser could be made by soaking orange/lemon/other citrus peals in vodka for a few months to extract all their limonene. Rubbing Alcohol releases Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and so isn't as good to use as vodka, but if you have a recovered/recovering alcoholic in the house, it might be a better alternative...
Erica Strauss also has a really spiffy list of acids and bases according to their strengths, as well as some really nice cleaning recipes. I LOVE that book.
....now where IS it?!?!