I discovered the wonders of vinegar last year, and we use it for just about everything now. I buy gallon jugs of white vinegar on sale whenever I can, and stock up with about 6 at a time. Use it in laundry every load. Keeps the laundry fresher and the washer smelling nice, and really does help to loosen the dirt.
Vinegar is not only great for laundry, but you can use it with your dishes as well. For those of you that hand wash, use a 1/1 mixture of dish soap and vinegar. In the dishwasher, pour a 1/8 cup in the bottom before you start it up. Keeps everything cleaner, and smelling better.
And we keep a bottle of 1/1 mixed vinegar and water under the sink. Instead of using those expensive Clorox wipes, the vinegar/water is great for keeping counter tops clean and killing germs. It's also about the best window cleaner you can get.
Also check out this site called
The Wonders of Vinegar and look at the section marked 60 uses for Vinegar. You'd be surprised what this little wonder of nature can do.
Going back to the laundry thing, in addition to using Vinegar, I started making my own laundry detergent, because it was just getting so expensive. Mix this with 1/4 cup of vinegar in every load, and IMO you'd be hard pressed to find anything on the shelf that works as good. Also, it's dirt cheap to make. All our clothes come out so much cleaner and softer using this:
Simple Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe
1. Grate 1/2 bar Fels Naptha or Ivory soap (or you can try other soaps) in a food processor or cheese grater.
2. 1 cup 20 Mule Borax
3. 1 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
4. 1 cup Baking soda.
5. Process until mixed.
That’s it. It takes 5 minutes. Use about 2 tablespoons per full load of laundry.
Fels Naptha, Borax and Washing Soda are usually available in the Laundry Aisle of your grocery store. Ivory soap can be substituted if your local store does not carry Fels Naptha.
My $15 investment in these ingredients should yield enough detergent for about 450 loads making it about 3 cents per load, plus the cost of the vinegar.