Note: You don't have to buy a name brand of vinegar. Buy the cheapest kind you can find. I buy it in a large container. The smell of vinegar after the laundry is finished will be faint and goes away quickly. Vinegar softens towels really well and then they are much more absorbant. Also it disinfects them. Vinegar and baking soda are such wonderful household helpers and so cheap!
As a bicycle rider, I wash my clothing in cold water and generally add about 2 cups of vinegar to the final rinse. If there ever is a scent, it's only temporary [~5 -10 min.] but the plus-side is that the clothing is squeaky clean; no perfumes or odors to attract insects while out riding. Plus it helps retain the colors of my jersies.
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Request: Using Vinegar in the Laundry (11/17/2009)
How much vinegar should I use to deodorize clothing when washing it? How much should I use as fabric softener? Thanks.
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Request: Using Vinegar in the Laundry
Archived on 11/17/2009
How much vinegar should I use to deodorize clothing when washing it? How much should I use as fabric softener? Thanks.
The Heinz vinegar site says 1 cup for laundry, but they also want you to buy more. I use 1/2 cup in every load in the rinse cycle as a fabric softener and it seems to be fine. I have also seen 1/2 cup listed on other sites as being plenty to use. You can always adjust if you find it isn't working for you.
I have been filling the fabric softener dispenser, but when I put the clothes in the dryer I lightly moisten a used dryer sheet, one of a few that were being saved for some "good reason", and the combination seems to work well. The clothes smell nice and fresh, and there does not seem to be a static problem, even though we are now beginning to have some much cooler, dryer weather. This beats cleaning the gunk that had built up in the fabric softener dispenser, under the cup itself and is so much less expensive to top it all. (11/04/2009)
I use a Downy Fabric Soften ball that I bought in the grocery store for my white vinegar. I fill it almost all the way to the top to deodorize and soften, and whiten my clothing. I drop the softener ball in the wash with the white vinegar in it. When the wash water is is spun out, the ball with the vinegar in it will open and be used in the rinse cycle. Works great for me. (11/04/2009)
