Karen I read on Countryside that you suggest adding vinegar to your laundry. I sometimes add baking soda. What exactly does the vinegar do?

-- claudia in NY (cooleyville@aol.com), April 22, 2002

Answers

It is used in the place of fabric softener. Vinegar softens clothes and still leaves them absorbant without any chemical residue. Additionally, if you have allergies it removes alergines. It also keeps your colored clothes bright as it acts as a color setter. Add it to the final rinse water in place of fabric softener. I promise, never a vinegar smell!

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), April 22, 2002.

Karen, how much vinegar do you add? I've been adding some, but trying to figure out how much and if it is more economical than fabric softener (which I rarely use - only on jeans and underwear/t- shirts because Lance likes the smell). Oh, and I don't add both in the same load!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@mmcable.com), April 22, 2002.

I have very hard water here, a lot of calcium, iron, manganese (sp), I have a water softener but it isn't enough. I have started to add vinigar to help with the lime deposits as well as soften the laundary. I fill the little cup for the fabric softener with vinegar. That and Kaen's detergent and I'm set.

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbuynan.net), April 22, 2002.

Sorry, that was supposed to say Karen.

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), April 22, 2002.

White Vinegar? Or Apple cider vinegar? I like the sound of adding this to my laundry, I refuse to use fabric softener. LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), April 22, 2002.

Use white vinegar. Approx. 1/4 to 1/3 cup. Another benefit is it is so much cheaper than fabric softner!

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), April 22, 2002.

Thanks for reminding me to buy some white vinegar! I use it instead of fabric softener too. Sometimes in winter I have a static cling problem. I buy some really cheapy static stoping sheets and cut them into fourths. I prefer vinegar though

-- Ardie/WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), April 23, 2002.

Another plus about adding vinegar is that it helps to rinse more of the soap from your clothes which makes them cleaner. I dont have a softner dispenser so I use one of those Downy balls. It works great. Sometimes when I forget to take a load out of the washer and it doesnt smell fresh anymore I add some soda and run it through the second rinse cycle. Blessings Peggy

-- peggy (peggyan2@msn.com), April 23, 2002.

The ancient Babylonians inscribed its virtues on stone tablets over 7000 years ago. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used it to treat his patients in 400 B.C. Helen of Troy bathed in it as a way of relaxing. In the Middle Ages, during the Black Plague, bands of thieves doused their skin in vinegar to protect themselves from germs before robbing the dead and dying. Even today it is still used in many everyday chores around the house. Its key constituent, acetic acid bacteria, makes it useful in cleaning, deodorizing and many other tasks. A cup of white vinegar in the laundry rinse cycle will help dissolve alkalines left from detergent. The clothes will be solf and sweet- smelling, too. The acid in vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics but strong enough to dissolve the alkalis in soaps and detergents. Plastic can be cleaned and made anti-static by wiping down with a solution of 1 tablespoon of distilled vinegar to 1 gallon of water. This will cut down on the plastics' tendency to attract dust, e.g. your computer and workstation, check out the static dust around your television, it drove me crazy until I started researching and experimenting with vinegar, and without all those harmful cleaning chemicals I breathe easier too. Marlene New Zealand

-- Marlene Jones (bridgewater2000@hotmail.com), June 22, 2002.