Mmhmm, just put it in after you've done the main soap stuff, while you're rinsing. A lot of the stiffness is from soap still left in the clothes, so the vinegar strips it out. (Don't use apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar or balsamic, though. If it's colored, it can tint your clothes. There's a reason people use vinegar as a dye mordant! Stick with the white distilled stuff, if you can!)

Huh. I learn so many new things every time I talk to you.

Balsamic vinegar too expensive to waste on clothes.

Well, that's what *I* would have thought.

You'd be amazed what four year olds will do, though, and proudly announce they are helping.

I didn't know about the vinegar either :o

I don't use the dryer just because I am too lazy to wait that long. And I kind of like hanging clothes :D (I know, weird).

Good to hear your finished all your experiments for that day, Chrizine :)

It's experiments to measure the performance of a computer system we built. The whole project is mostly about learning how to measure these kinds of things and how to understand the data that you get.

I don't use fabric softener most of the time. I don't like how they smell. You can still hang your clothes, they might be a bit stiff in the beginning, but after 5 minutes of wearing them, it's all good.
I've thought about trying vinegar to get the softening effect without the horrible perfumes, but I was worried the vinegar smell would linger in the clothes then. Does it do that, Akili? What would you use if you wanted to add scent? Just a few drops of essential oils? We've thought about trying that, since my bf likes his clothes to smell "nice", I just hate all the softener smells we've tried (one of them so much it almost makes me gag when I find a piece of clothing in my wardrobe that still smells of it) and I don't really want to continue buying whole bottles of the stuff just to throw it out after a few washes. That seems wasteful.

Oh lort. Silly kids. How they even reach the washer?


Wouldn't hanging clothes to dry take longer than throwing them in a dryer? Isn't that part of the reason they invented dryers?


I've used vinegar in my clothes plenty of times before. The smell doesn't linger. You WILL smell the vinegar while the clothes are washing though.

I wouldn't put oils in the washer because oil will stain your clothes. Don't want that to happen.

Hanging them doesn't take very long, it's just that you have to wait a while until they're really dry. When it's sunny and you hang them outside it's not so bad, they'll mostly be dry the next day, but if it's humid they can take a lot longer.

Good to know that the smell doesn't linger! I might have to try that then :)

My dryer only take an hour to dry a whole load of clothes.
So a lot less time than a day.

Yeah, sure, that's what I meant - the actual drying takes longer, but it's not much more work.

Chrizine wrote:It's experiments to measure the performance of a computer system we built. The whole project is mostly about learning how to measure these kinds of things and how to understand the data that you get.

I don't use fabric softener most of the time. I don't like how they smell. You can still hang your clothes, they might be a bit stiff in the beginning, but after 5 minutes of wearing them, it's all good.
I've thought about trying vinegar to get the softening effect without the horrible perfumes, but I was worried the vinegar smell would linger in the clothes then. Does it do that, Akili? What would you use if you wanted to add scent? Just a few drops of essential oils? We've thought about trying that, since my bf likes his clothes to smell "nice", I just hate all the softener smells we've tried (one of them so much it almost makes me gag when I find a piece of clothing in my wardrobe that still smells of it) and I don't really want to continue buying whole bottles of the stuff just to throw it out after a few washes. That seems wasteful.

you can do a few drops of essential oils mixed into a lot of the vinegar you are going to use and mix it up REALLY REALLY REALLY well, and again before you pour some of the vinegar in, but.... vinegar and oil don't mix well.
So easier if you use a few drops of a scent that is alcohol-based instead of oil-based.

I mostly don't bother, and don't really notice any vinegar smell, but every once in a while something will, and then I'll just take a satchel of spices like you stick in chests with clothes or linens, and rub it over the clothing briskly before putting it away, and that takes care of it.