Over time and with use, white linen loses its brightness and whiteness and yellows. This causes our clothes to lose their new look. Repeated washing in the washing machine or chemical products don’t always ensure white, soft, and clean linens. To achieve this, you need to turn to natural and eco-friendly products like white vinegar. Find out why you should add white vinegar to your washing machine.
White vinegar is a natural cleaning ally. In addition to household cleaning, it also helps with laundry maintenance. Pour a little white vinegar into your washing machine and see the benefits it can bring to your laundry.
The benefits of white vinegar in laundry
- a natural fabric softener
To make your clothes softer, especially your towels, you can use white vinegar. Thanks to its anti-limescale action, vinegar dissolves limescale in the water to prevent it from depositing on the laundry and making it rough.
To do this, simply pour 250 ml of white vinegar into the washing-up bowl. Not only does white vinegar make your clothes softer, but it also prevents lint from forming.
If you want your laundry to be softer and smell nicer, you can make your own homemade fabric softener.
For this you need:
- 50 cl of mineral water
- 25 cl of white vinegar
- 10 drops of lavender or lemon essential oil.
Simply mix these ingredients in a bottle and pour a capful of this mixture into the dishwashing sink.
- An anti-odor
If you notice that your dirty clothes have a strong odor during the wash, such as sportswear, add a glass of white vinegar during the last rinse cycle. This will neutralize unpleasant odors and deodorize your clothes.
- A color fixative
Use white vinegar to fix the colors of your clothes during a wash cycle and prevent them from fading. To do this, pour 250 ml of vinegar into the washing machine at the beginning of the wash cycle.
You can also use vinegar if you have doubts about a new garment. To set its color and ensure it won’t transfer to other clothing, soak it in a basin with a little white vinegar and coarse salt diluted in water. Let your garment drain for 1 to 2 hours, then rinse it with clean water.
If the rinse water changes color, repeat the process.
- white vinegar to lighten clothes
The acids in vinegar help brighten laundry without damaging it. Pour a glass of white vinegar into the detergent compartment of your washing machine and run a wash cycle. White vinegar not only makes your clothes whiter, it also cleans and disinfects them without detergent.
You can treat yellow stains located under the armpits or in the folds of clothing without using the washing machine. Soak them in white vinegar diluted in water and let them sit for an hour. Then rinse your garment thoroughly with clean water to remove the vinegar smell.
You can also use lemon to whiten your laundry. This citrus fruit is a natural whitener thanks to the citric acid it contains. After washing your garment with soap, such as Marseille soap, pour 2 tablespoons of lemon juice onto the yellow stains and let it sit for a few minutes. Then scrub the stains with a brush and rinse the garment.
Another alternative is to use baking soda. This natural and biodegradable product cleans dirt and removes yellow stains caused by perspiration or moisture. Simply submerge the stained garment in a basin of water mixed with half a cup of baking soda. Let it sit for a few minutes and rinse. For stubborn stains, sprinkle baking soda directly on the surface and rub.
5. White vinegar to clean the washing machine
A poorly maintained washing machine promotes the growth of bacteria and mold. As a result, our laundry becomes odor-infested and stained because detergent residue has accumulated in the machine. It is therefore recommended to thoroughly disinfect and descale your washing machine once a month.
To do this, simply pour a liter of vinegar into the drum, add a cup of baking soda and let the machine run empty.
As we have seen, white wine vinegar has several threads in its arc and therefore allows you to maintain both your washing machine and your laundry so that your clothes always look like new.