And I don't??? (that's sarcasm, by the way:)
Seriously, is there any body out there reading this that DOESN'T like for their clothes to smell nice?
What I'm about to share with you may ruffle some feathers, and may not be well received by some, but trust me on this, it works, and every dollar you save adds up.
This post required a little online research on my part, because I haven't purchased fabric softener in years, and today is Monday, clothes laundry day (who am I kidding, every day is laundry day) at my house, so I figured today would be a good day to share!
So, here's my tip. Ready? Ok. Take a breath, it'll all be fine.
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| Heinz White Distilled Vinegar |
Skip your fabric softener. USE VINEGAR.
Yes. Vinegar. White, distilled vinegar.
Eeeew! I don't want my clothes to smell like vinegar! It's a valid argument. You would think, as strong a smell as vinegar has on its own, that washing your clothes with it would cause your clothes to smell like a deviled egg. But it doesn't.
I use the same amount of vinegar as I would fabric softener, and add it in at the beginning of my wash cycle, in the same place I would put my fabric softener. The smell is completely rinsed away, my clothes are softer, my towels are out of this world fluffy -even my cheap dollar store towels. I do use the Downey Unstoppables in my laundry, but I am in love with the smell of those wonderful little things, and I buy them (and my laundry detergent, couldn't get the knack of making it myself) in bulk at Sam's Club. So I'm saving some more cash there!
It seems that the vinegar helps keep my white clothes whiter (I don't sort anything, everything gets washed on the cold water cycle and I've only had an issue with color bleeding twice in the 10 years since I was 15 and started doing my own laundry), and my colorful clothes brighter. Reds are redder, blues are bluer... you get what I'm sayin'.
Vinegar gives you the same effect as fabric softener, and is greener, and cheaper (but I'll get to that. Hang on a titch). I'm not a "green" freak. I'm not into all the environmentally friendly stuff, I probably should be, but I'm not, sorry.
Vinegar -as some of my coming posts will tell you- is a household necessity in my home. I clean something or wash something using vinegar EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And it works better than anything I can buy at the store.
So let's do a little price comparison, shall we?
A 51 oz bottle of fabric softener (about 61 loads) costs $3.99 at Target. I do at least 1 load of laundry a day, most of the time two. So 51 oz would last me around a month, maybe a month and a half. In my online research I found up to a 170 oz. bottle for $15.31 on eBay. They say it will last up to 197 loads, doing a load a day that will last you about 6 1/2 months. Or like me, two loads a day, around 4 months. WOW, that's a deal! Let me go to eBay right now!!! I'll buy it in bulk!
STOP! Wait! I'm not done! I purchase a 128 oz bottle of white distilled vinegar for $2.37 at Save a Lot (typically the big bottles of vinegar are on the bottom shelf at the grocery store, I buy one every time I'm at the store, whether I need it or not, I'm hoarding vinegar.) And how many loads of laundry does it do? Well, as I do around 2 loads of laundry per day, every day, without fail (I wash something every day, clothes, rugs, bedding, curtains, dog beds... my washer runs constantly. I'm a clean freak, what can I say?) my 128 oz bottle that I purchased for less than $3 lasts me 8 months. Yes. 8 months.
(I'd like to add a disclaimer here. I use one bottle of vinegar for laundry and laundry only, and use another bottle to mix my DIY household cleaners etc.)
I saved $12.94 cents and have enough product to add to every single load of laundry for 2 months longer than the 170 oz bottle of fabric softener. $12.94 is a huge amount of money to save, to me anyway! Even if you buy the 51 oz bottle of fabric softener at $3.99, buying the vinegar still saves you $1.62. Either way, you are saving money! And we all know how HAPPY that makes me!!
The best part of this, to me, is that it's hypoallergenic. I have eczema and dry skin so badly on my shoulders and arms and so when I was growing up my Mom was only ever able to use certain kinds of laundry products (I use ALL detergent, because it, too, is hypoallergenic. My husband likes the kind in the blue bottle with the orange top because he says it smells like candy. I say he needs to see a head-shrinker.), or otherwise deal with me scratching my arms and back until I bled. When I started doing my own laundry at 15, we had settled on a brand of detergents from Amway. I used them up until Aaron and I had been married about 2 years, and after a while, with money being tight, I chose to stop using the Amway products because of their expense. I fiddled with different kinds of detergents for a few months until my mom suggested I start using ALL and Vinegar. BOOM! I haven't had an issue with my detergent or fabric softener making my eczema worse in the 2 years that I've been using these products together.
So whether you want to save $13 or $2, whether you have eczema, or whether you just wanna see if it'll work, give the vinegar a try. It WILL save you money and it WILL NOT smell up or hurt your clothes, towels, rugs, bedding etc.
I swear by this method. I will continue to use vinegar as my fabric softener for the rest of my life. It is wonderful, and inexpensive. And who could ask for more?
Thanks for stopping by today!
Happy Laundry Day! (I'm headed back to my mountain of laundry right now!!)
In posting this, I mean no ill will toward any company that produces a fabric softener. I simply have learned to adapt to what I need in order to not itch like a crazy woman, and look like Baloo from "The Jungle Book" scratching up against a tree. The ALL Laundry Detergent company is not perking me for mentioning their product, and neither is Heinz, or Amway. I pulled the photograph of the vinegar jug from Google. Thanks Google. I use whatever off brand of vinegar I can find, because it is cheaper and vinegar is vinegar. Also, vinegar does not expire or go bad. So stock up on it!
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