My mom taught me to do laundry with cold water and a cup of vinegar

She swore vinegar made clothes softer than any store-bought fabric softener. I did that for years until I moved into a apartment with hard water and my shirts came out stiff every time. Finally caved and bought a bottle of Downy last spring after three loads of crunchy towels. Now I wonder what other household 'shortcuts' she handed down that were actually making things worse. Anyone else get a weird detergent habit from their parents?

2 comments

2 Comments

milesj701mo ago

Hold on, hydrogen peroxide actually works really well on blood and some organic stains, but you definitely gotta dilute it and test it first or it'll bleach stuff like you said. Your mom wasn't totally wrong, it's just super strong out of the bottle.

gavinw451mo ago

My own mom was convinced that a half cup of table salt in the wash would set the colors and prevent fading. So for years I dumped salt into every load of dark clothes until I read online that it does basically nothing in modern washing machines. Then there was the year she told me to use hydrogen peroxide on all stains which just ended up bleaching a bunch of my favorite t-shirts. I feel your pain on the crunchy towels, I had that exact same experience with hard water and it drove me crazy until I switched to actual detergent boosters.