Wondering how to get fabulously clean laundry every time without spending big bucks? One simple ingredient can give stains a smackdown, soften hardened towels, and nix odors. What’s it, you say?
Oh, it smells bad but the laundry gods have done us right by giving us vinegar. It can make most laundering problems disappear if used properly. It works well with others, is environmentally-friendly, is cheap, and is easily adaptable for homemade cleaning recipes of all sorts.
If white vinegar is not a part of your regularly scheduled laundry programming, now is the time to change that. Jump below to see all the ways you can use distilled white vinegar for your dirty loads. After reading, you’ll want to make it a mainstay in your washroom.
1. Remove Stains
Do you have any pesky stains that you just can’t get out no matter how many times you try to wash them away? HealthLine suggests spraying the affected area with vinegar and letting it sit for at least 10 to 15 minutes. After this, you can wash the item like normal. For stains that are a bit milder, you can simply create a mixture of one cup of vinegar and two cups of warm water, and let your item soak in that.
2. Get Rid Of Odors
It’s normal for clothes to get a little smelly from being worn, especially considering the grueling activities that some people do on a daily basis. Another reason why clothes might have a less than desirable smell to them could be from issues within the washing machine itself. A quick hack to help eliminate this smell, or at least minimize it, is by adding vinegar to your laundry.
If your towels have a mildew smell to them, TiffyTaffy recommends washing them on a normal cycle with two cups of vinegar and a washer full of hot water. To deodorize your clothes, HealthLine suggests adding half to one cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle. If the smell is extremely strong, try letting the clothes soak in vinegar for about 20 minutes before washing them.
3. Use As A Fabric Softener
According to Tiffy Taffy, vinegar is a great product for breaking down detergent residue. This means that it’s the perfect solution for making your laundry feel softer. By adding half a cup to your washing machine’s fabric softener dispenser, you can easily get your clothes, towels, and linens back to feeling brand new.
4. Protect Colors
If any of your darker clothes have started to lose their original color or are lightening up too much, adding some vinegar to your laundry routine could be the answer to this problem. According to Tiffy Taffy, it’s normal for soap residue to stick to your clothing’s fibers, but adding half to one cup of vinegar in the final rinse cycle can help prevent this.
5. Preserve Whites
If it seems like your white clothes, towels, and linens have lost their original color, try adding 1.5 cups of vinegar to the wash cycle. If any of your whites have stains on them, Tiffy Taffy recommends soaking them in a half-gallon of hot water mixed with two cups of vinegar overnight before washing them.
