Keep Your Clothes Feeling Soft With This Handy Household Staple

When it comes to laundry, the debate between heavily scented detergent vs. our natural pheromones has existed long before we had an opinion. However, what if we told you there's a simple household staple that could rid you from buying detergent again? The answer might be right in front of your eyes: distilled white vinegar. We can assure you that this laundry hack will leave you with clothes that smell better than ever.

Whether you're an expert at laundry and achieving fresh-smelling clothes — or someone who tends to get it wrong while doing laundry — finding the balance between detergent and clean clothes is an essential part of adulthood. To make matters more complicated, traditional detergent has a negative impact on the environment through several of its toxic chemical compounds, such as phosphate, nitrogen, and algae, to name a few. Excessive use of laundry detergent can also lead to an overload of nutrients that negatively affects animal and plant life, also known as eutrophication. With vinegar as an alternative, you can help combat these environmental damages.

Beyond its environmental impact, there are a number of reasons why vinegar is an effective alternative to laundry detergent. Distilled white vinegar is a champion of softening clothes, the effects of which can't always be achieved with detergent or dryer sheets. In addition to softness, distilled vinegar is hypoallergenic, friendly to the earth, and doesn't stain clothes. While laundry detergents use harsh chemicals to achieve results, vinegar has no harsh chemical compounds that will get in the way of softening your clothes.

Distilled white vinegar achieves softness by breaking down the soap, dirt, and extra residue that can stick to our clothing after a load of laundry. Rather than wearing clothes that have become hard and stained blue by detergent, vinegar will remove these stains, brighten clothing, and neutralize any strong odors you're trying to get rid of. While softening clothes, vinegar will also remove any static and lint that occurs when doing loads of laundry.

To get started, identify whether your clothes require any spot treatments before going in the washer. If that's the case, create a solution with ½ cup of vinegar, ammonia, and baking soda, mixed with 2 quarts of water and 2 squirts of liquid soap. After mixing, pour the solution into a spray bottle and spot treat any stains or hardness as a pre-treatment solution. Once the mixture is on, toss the load in the washer before placing ½ cup of distilled vinegar into the detergent compartment.

You'll want to make sure that the vinegar you use for laundry is distilled, since regular vinegar will be harsh on clothing. Instead, distilled vinegar is a milder variation of the product that provides the same effect. Run the load of laundry through a normal rinse cycle, check to make sure cleaning is sufficient and to your liking, and transfer to the dryer on low heat (an environmentally-friendly alternative to high heat). You likely won't need any dryer sheets, but feel free to throw in a single sheet to achieve a light smell.