this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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Borax gives me rashes, but I’ve used laundry bar soap or just the super sensitive skin liquid stuff. I use vinegar instead of name brand fabric softener because it’s cheaper and the other stuff gives me a rash. Nearly all of the store bought laundry stuff gives me rashes.
Doesn't that make your clothes smell like vinegar?
Nope. The volatiles that make vinegar smell like, well, vinegar, are pretty dang volatile. Plus you're diluting it with a bunch of water, plus you're running it through the dryer which further drives off the vinegar-smelling volatiles. In the end you're just left with fresh, clean-smelling laundry.
Neat. Are we talking cleaning vinegar or the food-grade stuff sold in smaller quantities?
Edit: thanks for the clarification, everyone.
I just use food grade stuff for myself. Mostly because I can only get the cleaning vinegar in large jugs where I am. It works perfectly.
Good to know, thanks for the info.
At our grocery stores you can buy a gallon of food grade white vinegar. Works great. I think it undoes old fabric softener on towels so they absorb better. But I have no empirical proof. No vinegar smells after it dries. I can smell it while it washes in the washer.
Just standard white vinegar sold in regular grocery stores. I use cheap food grade vinegar.
No, I use it during the rinse cycle and it’s fine.
You have to really make sure borax is fully rinsed out or it can leave some residue as well. But, it can be extraordinarily effective at cleaning clothes, particularly if you 1) fully dissolve it in water prior (use boiling) and 2) soak for at least an hour.
Borax is also effective at killing mold. But, like you innormally stock with vinegar. Gets rid bacteria, viruses and mold too.
I was always so frustrated in college when I'd run a load at the laundromat, and then discover I'd missed a dryer sheet someone had left in the dryer. I'd be itchy all week.