holy cow! WHAT a difference vinegar makes!

[Gigi22]

I posted earlier that I was using vinegar on my sheets and towels. This is the first time I have used vinegar on either. I wasn't very happy with the results of using vinegar on my sheets. I have 100% cotton sheets with a high thread count, and I am fond of the "crisp" feel that they have after being freshly washed and dried. The vinegar made the sheets feel soft, so I won't try that again. But, on the towels and other laundry, success!

 

[4forWDW]

Thanks OP for this post
We are spending so much for detergent and softener this will be a big savings for us
Can't wait to try it.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I'm doing my first load of laundry with homemade detergent with vinegar as a fabric softener. My daughter and her boyfriend got a big kick out the whole concept and suggested I name it, make a label for it, and write a slogan and jingle. Kids...so funny.

I googled the combination of the laundry ingredients mixed with vinegar, since I know you can make "volcanoes" with baking soda and vinegar, and the results are "safe". However, I googled "mixing bleach and vinegar" and it is NOT safe. My dishwasher detergent contains bleach, so I'm hesitant to use vinegar as a rinse. Does everyone who uses a vinegar rinse, or puts vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher, use a non-bleach dishwasher detergent?

 

[rmom50]

I'm doing my first load of laundry with homemade detergent with vinegar as a fabric softener. My daughter and her boyfriend got a big kick out the whole concept and suggested I name it, make a label for it, and write a slogan and jingle. Kids...so funny.

I googled the combination of the laundry ingredients mixed with vinegar, since I know you can make "volcanoes" with baking soda and vinegar, and the results are "safe". However, I googled "mixing bleach and vinegar" and it is NOT safe. My dishwasher detergent contains bleach, so I'm hesitant to use vinegar as a rinse. Does everyone who uses a vinegar rinse, or puts vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher, use a non-bleach dishwasher detergent?

you can use vinegar with bleach. you should never use ammonia with bleach.

 

[ceecee]

I posted earlier that I was using vinegar on my sheets and towels. This is the first time I have used vinegar on either. I wasn't very happy with the results of using vinegar on my sheets. I have 100% cotton sheets with a high thread count, and I am fond of the "crisp" feel that they have after being freshly washed and dried. The vinegar made the sheets feel soft, so I won't try that again. But, on the towels and other laundry, success!

I used vinegar on my 1000 ct sheets and I love the soft feel! It took several times before I noticed a difference.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

you can use vinegar with bleach. you should never use ammonia with bleach.

Mixing vinegar with bleach is not safe. To what extent is probably determined by quantity, but as one site said "Mixing these chemicals just seems like an unreasonable risk to take." (Google "vinegar and bleach".)

 

[Kristi1357]

Can't wait to try out the homemade laundry soap and vinegar.
Thanks for all the great tips, everyone!

 

[micheleq]

I've been using white vinegar to clean for a while now, but just started to use it in the laundry in lieu of liquid fabric softener! Thanks everyone!

 

[danabalana]

I made my laundry soap today and have been using the vinegar in the laundry and dishwasher for a few days now. I'm impressed
I love to find something that saves me money and works well. Thanks everyone

 

[rmom50]

Mixing vinegar with bleach is not safe. To what extent is probably determined by quantity, but as one site said "Mixing these chemicals just seems like an unreasonable risk to take." (Google "vinegar and bleach".)

Thanks for letting us know! Sounds dangerous.

 

[thewesterberg]

The wonders of vinegar! The stuff is amazing - learned another use today. I'm in charge of popping pop corn for DS school once a month as a PTA fundraiser. The commercial popper is quite old and is covered in layers of oil from all the use thru the years. At the end of each popcorn day I try to get some of the stuff off, but have not been successful. Well, today I found a spray bottle with vinegar and water in it... it took it off the layers of oil with little effort! You could actually see through the glass instead of being all cloudy.

 

[SandrA9810]

got my first load of laundry in with vinegar. I finally have a bed to sleep on at my aunt's new house. So that means new sheet sets. I picked out a blue/green organic cotton set.

I'm so happy... I got to pick out my own bed. Which matress firm priced matched from another store, but theirs was hundred times better. So yay, nice and squishy bed. And hopefully nice and fluffy new sheets to go with it.

I hope this works well with underwear, mine always seem dirty and scroungy, and never come clean. I finally threw out all my old ones and bought new, so i'm starting from scratch and clean.

Maybe tonight i can go buy the stuff to make detergent. Sounds like fun. How much should i make for a years worth?? And would a 5 gal jug be enough to hold it all?? For the powder version with only using 2tblsp each load, 5gal seems like it would be plenty. Maybe 3-4 loads a week.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

got my first load of laundry in with vinegar. I finally have a bed to sleep on at my aunt's new house. So that means new sheet sets. I picked out a blue/green organic cotton set.

I'm so happy... I got to pick out my own bed. Which matress firm priced matched from another store, but theirs was hundred times better. So yay, nice and squishy bed. And hopefully nice and fluffy new sheets to go with it.

I hope this works well with underwear, mine always seem dirty and scroungy, and never come clean. I finally threw out all my old ones and bought new, so i'm starting from scratch and clean.

Maybe tonight i can go buy the stuff to make detergent. Sounds like fun. How much should i make for a years worth?? And would a 5 gal jug be enough to hold it all?? For the powder version with only using 2tblsp each load, 5gal seems like it would be plenty. Maybe 3-4 loads a week.

hope it works for you

 

[SandrA9810]

The wonders of vinegar! The stuff is amazing - learned another use today. I'm in charge of popping pop corn for DS school once a month as a PTA fundraiser. The commercial popper is quite old and is covered in layers of oil from all the use thru the years. At the end of each popcorn day I try to get some of the stuff off, but have not been successful. Well, today I found a spray bottle with vinegar and water in it... it took it off the layers of oil with little effort! You could actually see through the glass instead of being all cloudy.

disney does this nightly at each of it's popcorn stands. Not much fun to walk past it while they're cleaning.

 

[SunnieRN]

Can someone please list the washing soda ingredient?? I can not find it in my local stores and I remember that a pool chemical is the same ingredient. I know I found it once, but was going to wait to buy it until I used up the HUGE liquid laundry detergent I had just bought. Now I can't remember the ingredient. Doh.

Also, my plan, for storage reasons is to make the dry soap. I wash everything in cold. If I "melt" the soap in a mug with HOT water first, could I then add that to my cold water, so it will be completely dissolved?

Thanks!!

 

[Nicolepa]

Also, my plan, for storage reasons is to make the dry soap. I wash everything in cold. If I "melt" the soap in a mug with HOT water first, could I then add that to my cold water, so it will be completely dissolved?

Thanks!!

You won't need to do that. I wash everything in cold and I would just throw it in. Never really had a problem as long as I started running the water and put the soap in before I put the clothes in. I didn't wait for the water to finish running I just started it, put the soap and the vinegar in the spout and started loading the clothes.

 

[SunnieRN]

Found the answer, sodium carbonate. I could NOT find washing powder, but found this EASILY!!

 

[Chris]

Oh I never knew this! Going to buy some White Vinegar too!!

 

[novdisneydreams]

I've been reading this thread with fascination and went to the site 1001 Uses for Vinegar. I don't think I need it in my laundry, but I did do some bathroom cleaning/shining with it today - looks great, but I still smell it!!! Am I doing something wrong? I saw a method for cleaning /deodorizing upholstery - 1 quart of water and 1 cup of vinegar - I'd love to try it, but I am afraid that my couch will smell like vinegar ( instead of dog!) forever. I wonder if I need to dilute more in the bathroom or rinse better? Any thoughts???

 

[disneydreamersx4]

Dollar Stretcher.com says do NOT use vinegar to clean upholstery, something about the acidity not good. But they recommend baby wipes to clean upholstery! I'm going to try it.

Baby Wipes Clean Upholstery?
You would be amazed with what baby wipes do. My sister-in-law has a cleaning business and doesn't use anything abrasive. She told me that she uses baby wipes to clean furniture. When I had my own child, and a whole new category of spills, I tried her suggestion out. I was amazed with how well it worked. There isn't too much water and soap, but enough to get stains and dirt out.