White Vinegar and the Laundry

This is not the post I intended to post, but as I have been missing long enough to get back into the groove of doing things I have chosen a slightly different subject to that which was intended.  Partly because I have loads of photos to load but cannot access my cable at this precise moment in time (how inconvenient) as soon as said lead is located will add the relevant photos to the post - which is already written and ready to go.

It all started with a book (well it usually does in my case) a book called "Homemade" from the Readers Digest Family ISBN 978-192156968-5 which is a book containing recipes for over 700 hundred Everyday items that are easy to make and will save you money. Mine was sourced from Better World Books (second hand cheaper price but a clean copy) via Amazon.  

I was browsing through having a good look when something simple caught my eye.  A simple "receipt for whitening yellowed whites". Sometimes the whites get tinged yellowy sometimes to do with the water sometimes to do with the soap powder but it is annoying and as something similar had happened with my undies (which are cotton) I decided to experiment and try using the vinegar.  I am an advocate in any event of the soaking bucket and I do keep loads of white vinegar in for a natural cleaning product (because of six cats and a dog) and for preserving.  I quite regularly make my own citrus vinegar for degreasing and cleaning particularly in the kitchen.  So quite simply I had everything to hand and decided nothing ventured nothing gained.

HOW TO WHITEN YELLOWED WHITES

You will need:

1/2 cup (125ml) white vinegar

6 cups (1.5 litres) warm water

A soaking bowl or bucket

Mix the ingredients into your chosen soaking vessel (mine has a lid).  Mix the ingredients together then add clothes soaking in this solution overnight then launder the next day.

It really has whitened the items concerned and I am very chuffed with the results.

As an aside to this other half had some sports shirts which I had washed and they had come out looking blotchy.  So I popped them back into the washing machine with the white vinegar in the soap powder dispenser and washed on a 30 degree quick wash and then washed normally and they have come up extremely well.  Sometimes the washing powder gets a bit lumpy and I do not think it disperses well in the machine but this seems to have done the trick.

I shall be using both methods again.

Catch you soon

Pattypan