Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Vinegar


I'm allergic to traditional fabric softener. For some reason manufacturers seem to even put irritants into the hypo allergenic varieties as well. I had heard about using vinegar for fabric softener but thought that had to be some kind of joke. My towels kept getting scratchy so on one desperate day I gave vinegar a try. It worked! Everything smelled better as well, which is odd considering you I used vinegar. I'm not questioning it though, as long as it works it's fine with me!

Keep your drains clear. Put 1/4 of a cup of baking soda in your drain (this works great for kitchens or baths) follow that with 1 cup of vinegar. Let it sit for 15 to 30 minutes then rinse with hot tap water. I do this every other week and my drains work great! When we first bought the house they were a little on the slow side, I promise this works.

Control the shower sprayer. I hate when I turn it on and some nozzles drip while others spray off to the side. I like to unscrew the shower head and put it in a plastic bag filled with vinegar. Leave it overnight for the best results and in the morning you will have a shower head that is like new. If you can't take yours off secure the plastic bag over the shower head with rubber bands and leave it that way. Just make sure you take off the bag before your husband gets in the shower. If you like practical jokes leave it, it is quite funny to see his reaction. I promise I didn't do it on purpose! I laughed for days over that, is that wrong? LOL

Try one or all of these tips and see if they work for you! And if you know something else let me know in the comments!

Make sure you check out We Are THAT Family for more great tips and tricks.


For 175 uses for vinegar check out this Readers Digest article. It is amazing all the things it can do!

5 comments:

  1. Vinegar works well in the dishwasher's rinse cycle, to prevent spots on the dishes.

    And I'm experimenting with using it as a daily shower cleaner -- diluted in a spray bottle. But it has a light vinegar smell after spraying, which I'm not sure I like! Maybe I need to dilute it more or give up on that idea.

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  2. I am a self-proclaimed ambassador for vinegar. But...I hadn't yet heard about using it in place of fabric softener. It would also be cheap. Yay! You can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be trying it out soon. Thanks for the tip.

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  3. I forgot about the rinse cycle on the dishwasher, I use it that way too!

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  4. We've been using vinegar for a few months now and just LOVE it. No static cling, clothes are soft. We also make our own laundry detergent and use 4 dryer balls to cut down on drying time. Great post and ideas. I'm going to try the thing on the shower head (cleaning it, not the practical joke), but I thought that was way too funny!

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  5. I do that too. My dh has a senstive nose that smells everything so when he heard me tell someone to use vinagar to soften clothes he said they will smell. Not. I have been doing it for a month and he hasn't notice.
    Baking soda is great in the bath tub. It softens the skin.

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