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I've had many a walk through the neighborhood spoiled by one household doing the laundry, and using Downy or some other fabric softener. It stinks up the whole
by tomohawk 9y ago
I've had many a walk through the neighborhood spoiled by one household doing the laundry, and using Downy or some other fabric softener. It stinks up the whole neighborhood. Not to mention the scent overload when people wear clothes treated this way to work.
Just use white vinegar instead - it works and doesn't cause all the pollution.
- rabboRubble 9y agox2 vinegar. It works for all sorts of household cleaning. I use it on floors with a touch of Dawn, shower cleaner in a 1:1 ratio boiling hot vinegar to Dawn with baking soda as a kicker, glass cleaner, 1:1 cold water and vinegar on dog pee marks and carpet spots, etc. About the only thing vinegar is not recommended on is wood products.
- KhanMahGretsch 9y agoBaking-soda and vinegar lays waste to bathtub stains in a way that can only be described as brutal! 10-min soak and scrubbing with those tiny crystals makes it brand-new.
- EvanAnderson 9y agoI really like the results of bathroom cleaning with vinegar but I end up with a very raw-feeling throat and sore eyes afterwards. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong.
- awinder 9y agoYou’re not messing with bleach right...
- EvanAnderson 9y agoOh, no. Just vinegar and water. It does wonders for soap scum in grout. My guess is that I'm getting the inflamed mucous membranes from the low PH vapor coming off the vinegar...
- goalieca 9y agoWhat temperature water are you using? (Do you see where I’m going with this?)
- rabboRubble 9y agoTell me about it! My boyfriend had a nasty shower situation going on. He would try to clean it, even going so far as using Ajax / Comet type stuff, nothing would touch it. After researching and stumbling across vingegar:Dawn and baking soda idea, I tried it on his tub. Honest to god, the grime came off like a banana being peeled. At this point, I stopped using commercially available house cleaners. They don't work as well, and are chemically more hazardous. One year later, I still have a cleaning boner from that cleaning session. Apparently there is something called cleaning vinegar that has 10% acetic acid. Food grade vinegar is only 5%. I only can dream of the grime removal the 10% strength vinegar can accomplish.
- 52-6F-62 9y agoMy girlfriend and I purchase the 10% vinegar. It’s available in large jugs, too. Can confirm. It, baking soda, and sometimes a little table salt if you need abrasion, works wonders.
- eecc 9y agoI don’t get the mixing of baking soda and vinegar: won’t that neutralize the solution (actually I read that the soda will buffer it slightly alkaline.) so what’s the purpose of mixing the two?
- jbpritts 9y agoAgreed. Many natural cleaning solution lists them together, though. Are we missing something. I would think that each would be more effective alone.
- rabboRubble 9y agoI don't understand the underlying chemical reaction, but the vinegar:Dawn mixture alone did not get the boyfriend's tub clean. I had let the mixture sit in the tub for like an hour too periodically doing test scrubs. It wasn't that it wasn't working, it was that scrubbing wasn't clearly only doing a half job. Once I added the baking soda, like I said in a different post, the grime came off like a banana peel with much less effort on my part.
- novaleaf 9y agothe salts formed by mixing the 2 are abrasive. but thats it.
- jimmaswell 9y agoBaking soda is great for cleaning pants too. Just boil some water with baking soda in it and everything stuck to the pan is taken off. In extreme cases you can add some peroxide.
- superlopuh 9y agoVinegar destroys marble
- leemailll 9y agomarble is basically carbonate. It is vulnerable to any acid treatment. White vinegar without dillusion usually has a ph level around 2, that’s quite acidic
- devb 9y agoAnother mixture (that I admit I don't understand) is baking soda with hydrogen peroxide. It obliterated a close range direct hit skunk spray on my jeans and sneakers with a 20 minute soak.
- userbinator 9y agoOn the other hand, as someone for whom the smell of vinegar or anything vaguely sour/acidic causes much discomfort (sometimes, almost to the point of wanting to vomit), I'd choose the fabric softener smell. Of course the best is no smell at all, but I'd bet there's a good reason that those products smell the way they do, and not like something else.
- tomohawk 9y agoAnd I'll bet if you would actually try it you would find that it doesn't leave a scent.
- mirimir 9y agoI avoid laundry aisles in markets.
- djsumdog 9y agoI kinda like the smell, coming out of dryer vents on a below freezing night.
- swiley 9y agoYeah I love that smell, stink isn't the way I'd describe it.
- cyberpunk0 9y agoThe whole neighborhood, really? Totally not exaggerating there...
- andyjohnson0 9y agoI'm not the person you were replying to, but we had a neighbour who used strongly scented laundry products and we could often smell it half way down the street and sometimes in our own home.
- culot 9y agoPeople who use dryer sheets and fabric softener are the worst. You can smell a block over, and even from such distance its enough to give me difficulty breathing.
- Broken_Hippo 9y agoOr just don't use fabric softener. I quit years ago, and my clothes last a bit longer (I also do not use a clothes dryer). Don't use products you don't need, be it hygiene or cleaning products. Buy low- or no-scent laundry soap. Avoid air fresheners, scented lotions, and whatnot. Some folks don't need daily deodorant, and most of us don't need daily showers. And as an aside: Vinegar is generally only used as a replacement for fabric softener. As I mentioned, it isn't a problem to go without, but furthermore can harm some of the rubber tubes and stuff in your washer.
- jamesrcole 9y ago> most of us don't need daily showers You must live in a cool climate. Your claim doesn't hold true for lots of places in the world.
- subnaught 9y agoYou must live in the late 20th or early 21st century. Your claim doesn't hold true for most of human history.
- jamesrcole 9y agoThe person I was replying to was clearly referring to people in the present ("most of us")
- Broken_Hippo 9y agoI currently live in a cold climate, yes. But haven't always - I'm used to hot and humid summers - you know, those ones where you can't actually dry off after a shower. I also am "lucky" enough to get night sweats due to hormones occasionally, to the point of soaking the blanket on top of me. Believe it or not, so long as you are generally clean, you are fine. Wash your face on your non-shower days, then wash the sweaty portions. Armpits, genitals, and under the breasts if you have them. Wear stuff that helps keep you from sweating. Problem solved.
- 9y ago
- burkemw3 9y agoI use dryer balls to prevent stiff clothes and static: eg https://www.amazon.com/Dryer-Balls-Count-Assorted-Colors/dp/B004W7GNB2 https://www.amazon.com/Dryer-Balls-Count-Assorted-Colors/dp/...
- astura 9y agoI've found those to be not very effective.
- jimmaswell 9y agoI don't use anything but basic detergent and I've never felt the need for softener. It's just another pointless product nobody would want if it weren't advertised to them.
- joncrane 9y agoDoes the vinegar go in the washer or the dryer?
- tomohawk 9y agouse it in the exact same way you would use liquid softener