Never in a million years would I have thought to do this, but- today, on the advice of several online friends, I added vinegar to my laundry. I used it in place of fabric softener. And you know what? It worked great! And my laundry doesn’t smell like a pickle! This is truly amazing in my book. A small jug of the good fabric softener runs me about $6.00. I buy a bottle about once a month (sometimes more often, sometimes less) so in the long run, I am paying about $80.00 a year, just to have soft laundry. I used plain old white vinegar, and put it in my downy ball. Total, it’s approximately 1/8 cup vinegar. A gallon of vinegar costs $1.00. You do the math. A gallon will probably last 2-3 months. So I went from $80.00 down to less than $10.00- that’s a good deal!
Now, to further analyze the aspects of the vinegar, I made sure I washed a little of everything. I am most impressed with the towels of all things. There is nothing worse than climbing out of the shower and wrapping up with a crunchy towel. Yuck. Using the vinegar- and hanging it on the line, my towels are way softer than Downy and the line. When I have a working dryer, I will test it in the dryer- but I am most impressed with the line drying results. My whites are also brighter- not a yellowed, bleached brighter, but a cleaner, whiter brighter. It will be interesting to see how it works in the long run. The bonus is that the vinegar will help keep the washer clean- so when Andy fills it with his gross yucky laundry, I don’t have to worry about tossing in a load of whites right after.
Plus, I have a measuring cup of vinegar out for laundry day, and it is also absorbing any stray smells from the laundry room- thus deodorizing the entire room. Neat, huh? I plan to try a couple of other things with vinegar. I am going to use it to scrub down the kitchen stove (inside). I am dreading that task- and am thrilled with the thought of using something non-toxic. Anyway, back to my work. I just had to share my spectacular laundry reults!