Vinegar is a veritable powerhouse when it comes to pretreating stains, softening water and boosting regular laundry detergents. When cleaning fabrics, white distilled vinegar is preferred, but apple cider vinegar works just as well if that's what you have on hand.
This article includes a number of ways you can use vinegar in laundry. We'll start with the basics, but note that none of the tips listed here should be tried with dry-clean-only fabrics. Paper Blankets For Moving
Vinegar works as a natural fabric softener. Unlike commercial fabric softeners, it's cheap and doesn't rely on harsh chemicals.
Distilled white vinegar can also neutralize odors, giving your clothes a fresh scent by removing odor-causing buildup. And don't worry — as long as you use laundry detergent, your clothes won't smell like vinegar.
Here's how to soften fabrics and remove strong odors for different garments and situations.
Be extra careful when using any chemicals, including vinegar, on delicate fabrics. Test the solution on an unnoticeable part of the item before washing the entire garment.
Vinegar can work magic when it comes to washing colored garments and removing stains. Here's how:
Vinegar is a great ally in the fight against laundry stains. Here are a few examples:
A basic mixture of half water and half vinegar as a laundry pretreatment can do the trick with many common stains on clothing. Keep a spray bottle of this in your laundry room. Spray mixture on the stains before washing to give an extra boost.
As you've seen, vinegar can be of great help when it's time to do laundry. You're probably wonder why it's taken you this long to add vinegar to your laundry routine; it's certainly better than buying new clothes.
Make a thin paste of vinegar and salt, then spread the paste on rust stains in fabric. Lay the item out in the sun to bleach, or apply paste, stretch fabric over a large kettle, and pour boiling water through the stained area.
In both cases, allow the item to dry, then check the stain. Run the item through the rinse cycle in the washing machine, then check the stain again. Repeat treatment if any stain remains.
Keep this pretreatment solution on hand in the laundry room to use on virtually all tough clothing stains. Just combine:
Keep the solution in a clearly labeled spray bottle.
The acidity of vinegar can lead to corrosion in synthetic rubbers when applied too frequently over long periods of time. Check the rubber seals on your washing machine to verify whether they are made of synthetic or natural rubber. If you're unsure, you'll want to use diluted vinegar sparingly in your wash cycle.
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