Today we learn.
For our benefit, and for the benefit of all those crunchy goddesses (and men) who come after us. We learn so we can share. We also learn because if we stop learning we die. (Tom Clancy wrote something to that effect once. And who are we to question Tom Clancy? WHO ARE WE?)
Today’s lesson comes courtesy of mounting frustration on my part, because I keep seeing recipes for DIY fabric softener that uses copious amounts of both vinegar and baking soda.
Why is this bothersome?
Let’s learn!
Baking Soda + Vinegar = ???
Baking soda is a fabulous ingredient to clean with. Pots and pans scrubbed clean in an instant. Bathtubs shine.
Vinegar is also a stellar cleaning tool. Counter tops are clean and disinfected. In the dishwasher rinse well, glasses are rinsed sparkly clean.
Amazing stuff, this natural cleaning. You’d think, putting these two hard-hitting ingredients together would leave you with something no man-made cleaner/softener could touch, right?
Not so much.
Remember this?
What childhood would be complete without the baking soda and vinegar volcano science project?
Remember how it exploded up into a creamy, bubbly, overflowing blob that eventually dripped onto Kyle’s shoes and you were all, “EWWWWW, GROSSS” and you and your friends giggled and talked about how dumb boys were but secretly you wondered whether Kyle would ever write you a note that said “yes/no/maybe” on it? Remember that?
Well, when that happened (the volcano, not the note), a chemical reaction took place.
Two chemical reactions, really.
From ThinkQuest:
The acetic acid (that’s what makes vinegar sour) reacts with sodium bicarbonate (a compound that’s in baking soda) to form carbonic acid. It’s really a double replacement reaction. Carbonic acid is unstable, and it immediately falls apart into carbon dioxide and water (it’s a decomposition reaction). The bubbles you see from the reaction come from the carbon dioxide escaping the solution that is left.
What’s left is a dilute solution of sodium acetate in water.
In fact, it’s almost all water.
The sodium acetate (which is a salt) may offer a tiny bit of grease-removing ability, but it’s not much. Probably not enough to really notice. At all.
So, really, all you’re doing, when you combine baking soda and vinegar to make a cleaning agent, is cleaning with very neutralized water with just a teensy, tinsy amount of salt in it.
That’s not going to get your counters very clean, and it’s certainly not going to soften your fabrics much.
Oh My Gosh! I’m So Embarrassed
Have you succumbed to using one of these recipes you’ve found scattered throughout the internet? Have you maybe, ah, pinned one on Pinterest?
Not to fret. It’s a mistake most people make when they’re first learning DIY cleaning.
In fact! I even made the mistake myself way back when with the Best Homemade Bathroom Cleaner Ever . It uses very little vinegar, so only a small amount of the cleaner was neutralized, but still … I was silly.
I think the thing we can all learn in this is that these recipes have circulated, and they’ve been tried and loved, for years.
You know where the silver lining is in all of that?
Water is a more effective cleaner than we give it credit for. AND, the placebo effect in using fabric softener is alive and well.
Maybe we don’t need to use anything?
I’ll still be using this fabric softener, though, because the placebo effect is strong with this one.
Go Gently and Teach
I’m willing to bet a bunch of you crunchistas already knew ALL of this.
But it’s upon the smart and savvy lot of you all now to go forth and spread the word. Gently. Kindly.
So that the crunchy people who tread behind us do so with effective products and happy hearts.
And also so we don’t all just look completely clueless when the synthetic chemical product evangelists come a’ calling.
What say you? Have you done this before? Do you have a recipe with baking soda and vinegar that you thought was doing a thorough job?
Or did you recall your volcano experiment and every chemical reaction your fourth grade teacher expected you to remember throughout your whole life?
PS. The recipe I linked to above? The one on Pinterest. It is from Tipnut, which is one of my favorite sites on the internet. She hosts a plethora of tips – some crunchy, some not. But there are gems hidden all over her site … everywhere. So don’t be too hard on her. : )
Community Swap Booty and You Wanna Swap With Me?
This combination works well to clean drains. It’s certainly a lot better than caustic drain cleaners. It doesn’t help with other things. However, vinegar by itself and baking soda by itself are great cleaners, and I always use them instead of toxic cleaning agents.
Maybe it’s a placebo effect, but I swear my clothes have come out brighter and fresher smelling after mixing the baking soda and white vinegar in my fabric dispenser. I didn’t mean to do it the first time around. I have been using the vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser to help soften and disinfect my scrubs for work. Not sure how well it disinfects the germs off of them, but we all know vinegar is a great disinfectant and it helps me sleep better knowing I might be killing off those nasty germs I bring home from the hospital in case the homemade laundry soap doesn’t wash them all away. Anyways so I washing towels and read that baking soda can be used to help remove soap residue from the towels but washing them again with hot water and baking soda. Well being the overly tired and think I might be clever at times person I am decided to forgo the second washing and just maybe add the baking soda to the fabric dispenser so it would get rid of the extra residue during the rinse cycle. Guess it seemed to work. When I went to do my regular load of clothes, I added the vinegar and there was some left over baking soda in the dispenser. It fizzed a little, and didn’t think of it, but my clothes seemed to come out nice and bright and extra clean that time. So the next load, I did add baking soda then vinegar to the dispenser and that load came out extra bright and clean. And so did the other loads I did that day. I love it. I’ve used baking soda in my homemade laundry soap before but it made the soap less effective imo. I had to use more per load that batch to get the same clean, so I’ve tried just adding it separately and same thing, seem I needed more soap. Seems it would cut the cleaning power of the soap. But adding it afterwards does ok by itself but when i accidentally added the vinegar seems to make a huge difference. Maybe it’s just the left over salt, Idk. Or it is just a placebo effect. I do have a water softer and filtration system. Also, I was kinda worried if it was harming my washer mixing these two together but reading this post maybe it wont. But I figure I share my experience, and see if anyone else might have had the same experience. Cause I swear my clothes just look so my better.
I used to use baking soda, vinegar, etc., etc., then I found industrial hydrogen peroxide. There’s nothing like it when it comes to cleaning mildew and mold…and I do mean nothing even comes close. So short of replacing grout because of mold/mildew problems, get this product. One draw back though. It’s hard to ship because it’s considered to be a hazard. Not that it will explode or anything, but it is very strong and will burn your skin if it happens to get onto your skin…not to mention your eyes. BUT aside from that, it is not toxic at all and leaves everything sparkling. If left out without being contained, it becomes inert. You have to be careful, but it’s worth it in my opinion. I haven’t tried it on poison ivy yet…that’s my next adventure.
I’m not sure how strong the hydrogen peroxide you get is but even just at 30% it is very harmful to your mucous membranes if you breath it in. So be careful. A hospital I worked at used to use a company that came in, sprayed a 30% solution of hydrogen peroxide for about 30 min to kill everything, even MRSA and c-diff (which because of the spore it encapsulates itself in is extremely hard to kill), then they sprayed a neutralizer to neutralize the hydrogen peroxide turning it back to water and oxygen so it would be safe. We were not allow to enter those rooms and they would even tape and seal the door gaps. When i asked why they did that, the guy explained how even at 30% is highly irritating for people especially your mucous membranes, so they didn’t want us near it and breathing it in or getting in our eyes. But yes was told that hydrogen peroxide it a great antimicrobial and kills everything in higher percentages. Even the household 3% is effective for everyday germs.
I prepare 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar with one quarter tsp of baking soda mixed with one cup of water and I drink it to neutralize my stomach acidity. It tastes great ! It’s so refreshing and it works !
The reason vinegar and baking soda does clean is not because of the end result, but because of the chemical reaction. It only is effective while the chemical reaction is happening, so it is short lived.
Aside from extreme cases like bleach, cleansers don’t work because they are corrosive but because they improve the rinseability of the surface they are cleaning. The excitation of the vinegar and baking soda releases kinetic energy and heat, rapidly, which can help loosen other substances, making them easier to rinse away.
It is still effective for things like clearing drains as a result, where direct mechanical scrubbing isn’t feasible, but I wouldn’t think it would make a good fabric softener.
I want to thank you so much for bring a little rational thought to the crazy tips and tricks you see all over the internet. I am a huge fan of natural and safe ways of doing things, but just declaring something natural doesn’t actually mean it is safe or it will actually work.
My personal crusade is to get people to stop following the advice to use olive oil to fix every woodworking problem out there. Some sites have people coating entire antiques with olive oil to make the nicks and scratches go away. In 6 months when the olive oil has gone so rancid that you can’t even have the furniture in the house you will figure out it wasn’t a smart idea.
Thanks for this article and keep it up.
I use baking soda and anhydrous citric acid. It foams and you end up with sodium citrate. It has been used to replace phosphates in household cleaning products. No vinegar smell either.
In my experience, putting a moderate amount (quarter cup max) of baking soda in the detergent dispenser and a splash of vinegar in the fabric-softener dispenser of my washing machine (and no manufactured detergent at all), gives me absolutely clean, odor- and static-free clothes. It works better than anything.
I think the whole “baking soda and vinegar doesn’t work” thing is utter nonsense, ginned up by detergent makers and propagated by know-nothing bloggers, like, frankly, you.
Well, you’re somewhat right. That neutralizing reaction which, yes, does create mostly water, is why cleaning with baking soda and vinegar is so effective. The trick is to not mix them together beforehand (creating the chemical reaction without actually using it) but to mix them on whatever it is you’re cleaning. So, generally, give whatever you’re cleaning a good scrub with a baking soda/water paste, then rinse with vinegar.
As for using baking soda to boost laundry detergents, and vinegar as a fabric softener, so long as your washer has a dispenser for softener the two products will be released at completely separate times. The baking soda is released during the wash cycle with the detergent, it is then completely rinsed out and the vinegar is dispensed during the final rinse. It truly does work, too. I ruined multiple towels and tech-shirts by using conventional fabric softener on them (they became rough and poor quality and the odors lingered permanently), not to mention the electrifying static I used to experience. Since using only vinegar, my tech-shirts and towels are soft and odor-free, and I don’t get shocked when removing them from the dryer. Seriously, it only took two washes to ruin one of my old tech-shirts, whereas I’ve now had eight tech-shirts last through many, many, many washings with vinegar and still are in good enough shape I can wear them as both workout and non-workout shirts. It even seems to remove more pet hair (though this part may be placebo effect).
You do realize that fabric softener is not a cleaning agent, don’t you? It coats the fabric, it doesn’t clean it. Your statement in the second paragraph about fabric softener doesn’t have anythig to do with what follows.
It’s so funny you spoke about your own fabric softener. Although it is environmentally bad, I’m too brainwashed to give it up! So I dampen a BRIGHT ORANGE wash cloth with softener and water. I never wah this cloth. I toss it in the dryer. It lasts several loads, then I repeat.
BUT now that I read YOUR idea, that might all change! I love eucalyptus! Didn’t know you could buy it in essential oil, though!
You’ve actually explained something to me that I found in practice but didn’t understand – AND is a method of cleaning using baking soda and vinegar that works – but .. is messy. You use an old spice shaker bottle to sprinkle baking soda along the grout lines, and pour vinegar over top – and then scrub with a grout brush. Mixed together in advance it’s largely useless, but when the reaction happens ON the grout, it was highly effective (combined with elbow grease, of course). It must be that carbonic acid for the very short time before it breaks down. However, now you’re left with salt ALL over your clean tile, and I had to use tile scrubber that puts down and picks up water to get it off the floor again.. so I don’t recommend it for regular cleaning, but it really works great for once every few years deep cleaning instead of the harsh smelly cleaners.
Whoever this is, regarding your “brain dead” remark, lately it seems like any blog/Web site that allows comments is appended mostly by the percentage of the population that is brain dead (esp. in areas of awareness, enlightenment, reality and English usage), and/or those who fear any form of progress “outside the box” or away from the familiar, or whatever it is that spurs so many people to get vicious while vehemently preserving the (already gone) past … Maybe brain dead means those who don’t see that time only moves in ONE direction (as we perceive/depict it), which is FORWARD.)
There must be some universal law-reason that we can’t go back and do things over… we can only learn from the past and keep moving on. Repeat the positive behavior and leave the negative crap behind in the dustbin of history, where it belongs. As I like to say, “Don’t beat yourself up for what you did wrong because it’s impossible to go back and change it … instead give yourself credit for what you did right!”
It’s kind of like that Old Testament story about how Lott and his family were not allowed to look back at the destruction behind them or else they’d be frozen like statues into pillars of salt (this happened to Lott’s wife). Symbolically this is a lot like not letting go of/not releasing one’s bonds to the ugly past, which then creates similar problems in the present and also results in arrested mental growth.
See more detailed instructions from me on this, a few entries above yours, as a reply to post by shanaaz…
The removing burnt-on grease item posted here by “shanaaz” is very effective. I’ve used vinegar and baking soda together in exactly this way after several trial-and-error methods to get grease out of ovens, toaster ovens, broilers, stove hoods, etc. It is especially important NOT to mix them together in advance. I found that the easiest way to apply this method is to take an old toothbrush (or nail brush, or whatever scrubbing item you prefer) and dip it in vinegar (poured by itself into a bowl or cup or whatever), then sprinkle the baking soda on top of it from the box, or else use a bowl of baking soda and sort of “scoop” the wet brush into it. NOTE: At some point you’ll have to replenish the bowls with fresh vinegar/baking soda because either they’ll run out or else they’ll neutralize each other. This happens when the fizz effect no longer happens or else it just won’t cut thru the grease itself.
THE “TRICK” … is to create the “fizz” while the soda is sitting on the grease, which makes it much easier to clean residue with just the brush and a little more dry baking soda. I don’t know why/how, but the “live” chemical reaction combined with scrubbing makes the grease roll up into little dough balls (soda absorbs it) and you can just fluff it away. It’s lots easier than trying to cut thru gooey grease with vinegar alone or with a spray chemical product (if you dare to inhale).
The bubbles in the reaction maaaaayyyyy have some cleaning effect if used straight away, on some surfaces, but really, yeah, no it’s mostly a completely pointless exercise.
I think what a lot of people are missing in the use of vinegar and baking soda is the response of the chemical reaction in and of itself.
If you mix them together, that important reaction is gone right away. You really cannot mix them together. But you can do the vinegar/conditioner, and then throw in 1/4 cup of baking soda and that would give you what you want.
I do this in order to get soft water and help combat against iron in my water – of which I have both!
And although the vinegar/soda thing works well on greasy ovens, etc., you are right that it does nothing for the laundry… separately perhaps, but never together… as they do neutralize each other’s solo chemical benefits.
you can also mix hair conditioner with (lots!) of water into a spray bottle to make a nice fabric softener. Warning: doesn’t help with static.
I heard Yoda’s voice when I read “the placebo effect is strong with this one”.
So I accidentally drank the residue of soda and water in a cup of water…don’t ask me how but it was the middle of the night and was going for a cup of water. I realized it after I had gulped it down and could taste something weird, but I was too sleepy to do anything about it except spit out the last remaining mouthful. I didn’t die…but was a little worried because that was washing soda, not made for baking, but I only have a headache and had to poo several times. In short I don’t recommend this to drink, even if it is supposed to be mostly water. =-)
Well it cleaned you out well … so … bonus!! LOL!!!!
man i wish i’d read this before i wasted a bunch of vinegar, the last of my baking soda and some salt. all cheap, but still… i’ve spent the last 20 minutes trying to get the smeary, cloudy, horrible mess i made off my huge bathroom mirror. is there ANYTHING ‘natural’ and cheap that i can use for mirrors and glass that actually works? thanks. great site.
If you’re keeping track, count soap (actual soap soap) as a base too. I’ve seen recipes calling for mixing soap with vinegar, and they produce fatty acid.
The same goes for mixing vinegar or lemon juice with other alkali such as borax or ammonia — it won’t fizz, but if the way it’s supposed to work is by the acidity of an acid or the alkalinity of a base, they’ll be at cross purposes.
I learned that one on my scalp in the early days of no ‘poo, unfortunately. Oh, dear.
Baking soda destroys oil, if you get oily hands you can use a bit of baking soda with water to clean them the same with oily hair. But after washing hair you should rub in half a teaspoon of vinegar and then rinse off again otherwise the baking soda can cause problems . The same with clothes, first wash clothes with baking soda on its own, rinse , then wash again with vinegar on its own. Vinegar apart from cleaning also restores the ph of the washed clothes to a more suitable level for human skin. Never mix the two together unless you want a lot of bubbles , which opens blocked drains as the bubbles act like a plunger, a plunger would be better working but not as much fun. Baking soda or vinegar are cleaner’s the by themselves, but mixing them together removes their respective cleaning abilities. I advise 7everyone to experiment on themselves by rubbing cooking oil onto their hands then see how a bit of baking soda and water cleans them, a lot less toxic than hand gel or detergent. Vinegar is also a great colour fixative so lightly soiled bright colours can be washed with it alone in the machine, I havent tried using it on its own but I’m sure it can’t clean as good as baking soda. A nice idea would be to add a natural essential oil to the conditioner cycle, I think cedar wood oil would be nice, or as a previous person said eucalyptus oil ? You can buy lemon oil pressed from lemon peels…
I just use a few tables spoons of straight vinegar in the rinse cycle of my front loader washing machine and the clothes seems to be softer due to helping any soap residue rinse more completely. I’ve read and found after 40 years of housekeeping that the stiffness in garments is from using too much soap in the washing machine and/or not sufficient rinsing. the SOAP can be the culprit! I’ve never used fabric softeners, ever, but find this simple and cost effective trick to work for me. Added benefit is that the inner drum of the front loader never has that musty smell they are notorious for developing. Never took chemistry; just been a common sense gal.
Ok, so this actually makes sense, but I thought the reason baking soda and vinegar worked so well together was because the acidic vinegar cuts through gunk and the baking soda acted as a little grit to help scrub; kind of like soft scrub. Does the reaction completely break down the little bits of baking soda? And is there any way to add ingredients so they’re less likely to react. Like perhaps adding ammonia & essential oils dilutes the vinegar enough to keep the baking soda’s integrity? Thanks so much for solving this conundrum!
First, you’re quite witty – and I assure you, I’m not one easily impressed, so kudos to you – I will read on.
Second, thank you thank you! I came online to search out this exact question and you’ve answered in exactly the appropriate way (= NOT SO MUCH)!
I’ve been doing DIY soap and laundry detergents for years and years (with zero vinegar in the recipes). I find the very idea of marketing revolting, so I love sticking it to the Man by making my own and savings tons of money and sacrificing very little in the way of time or convenience. What a pleasure doing things in a homemade, old fashioned kind of way that allows me to be totally in control and a slave to no name brand!
Anyway, I’ve recently been using more and more vinegar, for other things, other recipes and been kind of impressed by it. Overall, though, I have not missed the vinegar in my life, I can tell you, because I find the smell almost intolerable. Nonetheless, I’m woofing it down twice a day because it helps with congestion, so I’ve been curious.
I came across a dishwashing detergent recipe that I wanted to try, using baking soda and them a little lemon juice (acidic) in a lot of water and melted soap. It’s suds up some but I haven’t found it so absolutely fabulous in the cleaning dept. as was promised. That made me question the reaction I saw in the pot as I was mixing them all and what was really going on with these baking soda + vinegar recipes….
I have long used baking soda and vinegar as a drain cleaner, and I understand fully how that reaction works to fizz away gunk. But once the reaction happens, it’s pretty inert and useless after. So, I surmised that’s what happened with this dishwashing recipe, too. Now, I’ve got five big bottles of it and I have to use about 1/2 cup every sinkful to get it to work. Waste of time, ingredients, and I won’t be using that recipe again.
Though, I wonder if baking soda alone would work better in the water, maybe with the melted soap. Perhaps it would make a gel liquid? Dunno. Though, I’m still on the lookout for a good dishwashing recipe, as I could use Washing Soda and/or Borax, but they tend to irritate my hands if left in the water after a while…..
THANKS!
I’ve just discovered your blog (after searching ‘natural baking soda’) and read three posts already. I clean with baking soda and vinegar almost exclusively, but always separately. The only thing I’ve ever combined them for is cleaning the stains in sauce pans. I’ll put in baking soda, then pour in vinegar to cover the stain, and let soak a few hours. Maybe water would bring about the same loosening of stains, but I like the bubbles. 😉
I’ve been thinking about making homemade deodorant soon, and one of your recipes is now in the running for my first attempt.
Thanks for sharing on these topics! The world needs people like you to inform others!!
I knew they neutralized each other, and thus the only time I like baking soda / vinegar combo is for two things: I first scrub my stainless steel sinks with baking soda & water until they’re clean and then rinse with splashes of vinegar– because I find that the fizzing action gets into the brushed texture of the steel and helps shine it, and then I rinse with hot water afterwards. OR for declogging a slow drain– I pour in a large amount of baking soda into the drain, glug some vinegar on top, watch it fizz, and then pour very hot (almost boiling) water afterwards to help degrease… But otherwise, it’s just a complete waste of time to mix baking soda and vinegar. Vinegar on its own is great, esp. mixed with lemon juice and dish-soap to clean soap scum, and baking soda paste with water is also great. But ne’er the twain shall meet.
(from Wikipedia)
Industrial
Sodium acetate is used in the textile industry to neutralize sulfuric acid waste streams, and as a photoresist while using aniline dyes. It is also a pickling agent in chrome tanning, and it helps to retard vulcanization of chloroprene in synthetic rubber production. In processing cotton for disposable cotton pads, sodium acetate is used to eliminate the buildup of static electricity.
Most of the recipes I saw use both, but NOT simultaneously! The neutralization happened toward the end when we were about to touch the finish products with our bare hands.
Hi Crunchy Betty, Actually, I tried using vinegar for cleaning not too long ago, and it was amazing! It cleaned better than bleach for counter stains, it wiped up extrememly easy, and even in the bathroom, it worked beautifully to make things white! (All without the chemical issue of bleach).Now, the way to use the baking soda wasn’t just to mix them together… the way to use it is to first sprinkle baking soda onto places that you need an abrasive cleanser, and scrub, then spray the vinegar to neutralize the baking soda, so you can wipe it up easily. Or, if you have a particularly grimy place, you can use the volcano effect (use baking soda sprinkled liberally, and then spray it right away with vinegar – leave it sitting until all done bubbling, then wipe up – and Voila! No scrub necessary! This worked best for the oven, sink drains, and the bathtub rings. Hope this helps… I became a true convert – it really was wayyyyy better than I expected it to be when I used it!
I think the exception is that any application of baking soda and vinegar that causes the chemical reaction to involve the mess you are trying to clean, then it does work better than plain water. I clean the top of my stove by sprinkling on baking soda and spraying it with vinegar. The fizzing loosens the cooked on mess, and the remaining baking soda easily scrubs off any that didn’t come up on its own.
Can i just say when i first ventured into the diy thing 5 yrs ago i fell for all the myths: (maybe a post on myths ?) but now i just use hot water for most of my cleaning> According to what i’ve read it and elbow grease do most of the work anyway (liquid and abrasion) i also use the orange plastic netting my onions and oranges come is as scrubbers. Cheers x
I argues!
Whenever I clean the oven (which is ashamedly only twice a year) I always sprinkle baking powder over the bottom, to soak up greasy dribbles. When cleaning time comes I spray a water/vinegar solution onto the gicky bicarb and force it to bubble up into a big gicky mess. This mess is always very easily wipeable, probably because the bubbles help to lift and disperse all the muck. Oven cleaning takes about fifteen minutes because of that. Sweet. I think the word catalyst should be in there somewhere but I’m not sure where.
Also! Doing the bicarb/vinegar trick to loosen blocked sinks is great! As long as you form a complete seal over one end of the pipe (i.e. the plughole) the momentum of the gas is usually enough to de-bung.
Mind you, so would a Mentos and a bottle of coke 🙂
the oxygenation is cited in some things i’ve read as a way of breaking up grime… i get the science but like you my twice yearly oven cleaning is so much more tolerable with BUBBLES
Thank you! Every time I see one of these recipes, I feel sure that the baking soda and vinegar were neutralizing each other, but so many people swear by it that I didn’t feel like arguing.
Thank you so much for this reminder. I just recently tried a recipe for a carpet spot cleaner using vinegar and baking soda. Needless to say, it did not work as promised. Do you have any tips for cleaning carpets?
i use vinegar as a fabric softener, works really well, and no there is no smell…. BS works ok as a cleaner but most of the time i use a mix of essential oils like a thieves blend and i like that really…not too expensive as the eo’s last a really long time
I just came across this post and am curious to explore the fabric softener idea further… (I have a need to “soften” some of my husband’s underwear.) What I’m wondering is, does hard water result in clothes being “hard”/rough? If so, the sodium acetate may in fact work as a fabric softener since it might soften the water. Without getting into TOO much chemistry, hard water is a measure of Calcium and Magnesium in the water. Some salts can be used to help remove those minerals and thus “soften” the water. I am just not sure if sodium acetate is one of those salts and also I am not sure if using softer water will actually make your clothes softer. Additionally, I have no idea how just vinegar in the wash would help and I am very hesitant to add it my washing machine since it’s acidic and it’s my understanding that this can harm the pipes and hoses. So, I am left wondering… Does anyone teach a “Chemistry of Cleaning Products” class?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! So glad you myth-busted this one. I have read a number of blog posts by over-eager DIY cleaners who seem to think there’s something magic in the bubbles when you mix vinegar and baking soda. I guess they just weren’t paying attention in high school chem class when they clearly taught us that if you combine an acid and a base you wind up with an exothermic reaction (sometimes a dangerous one), water and and salt.
i gotta say though: i do like them bubbles : i just do it for the bubbles and then my kids can help
So it must be the baking soda that cleaned my nasty oven before I poured the vinegar on it? It sure did make it nice and sparkly.
I stopped using fabric softener before I cared about toxic chemicals, because I never noticed a difference (other than good ol’ Colorado static electricity), and because I learned from the clothing company I worked for at the time that fabric softener can damage fabrics. Plus why spend money on them? Now because of the narsty chemicals (a reality tv show where someone was addicted to eating them stated they contain nerve toxins and carcinogens), I am glad I don’t. Plus, for static all you need is a misting bottle full of water to dissipate the electricity.
Its the best way to get soap scum out of the shower, for me anyway. i’m still using a regular, animal fat chemical ridden soap & shampoo for that matter.
Thanks for calling our attention to how these things really work (or don’t work). I’d heard of BS+Vin together as a drain cleaner (kind of a drain-o volcano), but I haven’t tried it myself yet. Probably ‘cuz I heard somewhere about their canceling each other out. I use them *separately* for cleaning and/or scrubbing various household surfaces and I almost don’t even need anything else. They’re simple, cheap, and they work.
That’s another one I do. I love making sink volcanoes. I’m not sure it actually works but placebo effect + volcano makes me happy anyways LOL
Here’s the thing. The myth is NOT busted it’s just being applied wrong. You have to put the baking soda in first (this softens the water – it makes a big difference if you already have hard water) THEN when the rinse cycle comes on you THEN put in the vinegar. The vinegar will react with the already saturated baking soda clothes and the “fizzing” as they are calling it is the actuall working cleaning agent, once that dissapates then it has lost most of its power. Also, strangly enough if you JUST use vinegar (the baking soda won’t weaken it if mixed) that works too. The vinegar breaks down the soap and makes it easier to rinse off the soap. It’s the soap or detergent that makes clothes age more quickly. Vinegar helps with that : )
Oh and it does deodorize at least
I have found that static and wrinkles can be avoided by turning the heat down on the dryer and/or reducing the amount of time you dry your laundry. Static can also be eliminated by ditching the non-natural fabrics (or at least removing them from each load before the dryer stage). Air-dry your fleece and microfiber items. They dry pretty quick and last longer that way. Bonus: It gets rid of the static problem in the other laundry.
I toss laundry in the dryer for a few minutes to remove the “crunch” factor (LOL at the play on words there!) and then line-dry linens in the sunshine and air-dry clothing upstairs in the breeziest room. Sun-dried sheets smell amazing! The benefits are numerous: clothes last longer and look nicer with NO ironing; bedrooms smell nicer and occupants sleep better; towels shed less and last longer and hold their color longer. I use baking soda in white loads or vinegar in dark loads; not both…LOL
Another benefit – UV is a great killer of all things germy.
I think I’m going to grab some thick twine or rope tomorrow and start line drying some of my clothes. I’ve put it off, because my “backyard” is visible to 100% of the people walking down the main street in Manitou, and … weird. But maybe I can find a place to hide them.
You just made it sound SO nice. I must try it!
Manitou’s weird…they wont think twice about your undies 😉
Start with your sheets. The results are simply sensual…all five senses, but especially your sense of smell, will be delighted! It’ll convince you to line-dry other things, too. 🙂
FWIW, darks will fade in the sunshine, so I air-dry them inside. Find a breezy room for best results or create it with a ceiling fan and windows…like I do…LOL
Enjoy! 🙂
In the “old days” women would hang their sheets on the outside of the rotary clothes line, and hang their “unmentionables” (underwear) on the inside lines. The sheets would hide the underwear from view. Me, I keep some nice underwear to hang on the line for show, and hang my real underwear on a rack inside where no one can see!
THIS IS A GREAT TIP! I like your attitude, also LOL
I’ve never combined the two (except for my own amusement). I will use vinegar to dissolve any leftover BS though. I have a spray bottle that is the mix of water and vinegar that sanitizes (with a few drops of tea tree oil). I use it for everything pretty much. I use BS for stuck on things or grime.
((Sometimes, after I’ve used BS to clean my toilet, before I flush, I make a small scale volcano..for fun))
You wild girl, you! Cleaning toilets isn’t supposed to be fun, ya know. 😉 LOL
I think Manda’s tip would even encourage the menfolk to clean once in awhile…just don’t give ’em your entire stash of baking soda! LOL
Speaking of which … is it just me, or is the price of baking soda going up bunches lately? I had to stop buying Bob’s Red Mill because it was so expensive and I switched over to Frontier (a local natural foods store sells it in bulk, so you can just buy what you need). But it was still $4.10 a pound. That seemed like a LOT of money, once I weighed out a pound.
I compromise by buying cheaper baking soda for cleaning and the good stuff for eating/baking. I get 10-pound bags at Smart&Final for $3.xx. DH buys the good stuff at the health food store in the bulk spice area (a little different than the bulk flours/sugars area). He gets a scoop that lasts and lasts. (We put it in a glass baby food jar that is permanently labeled.) My 10-pound bag goes into a reused screw-top jar over and over and lasts a couple months.
And, since reading The Zero Waste Home and My Plastic-free Life blogs, we’ve been reusing the 10-pound bags several times. Working our way to less and less “trash” all around… one baby step at a time. 😉
I get ours at CostCo… 13.5 lbs. A&H for $5.99. I split it between the housecleaning and the laundry.
I haven’t noticed any price change, but that’s because I’m not in charge of the shopping. 🙂 If you’re having a hard time finding affordable baking soda, I know a company that sells quality kitchen supplies at reasonable prices, and super huge packages. I think they sell to the Utah/Colorado/Idaho area. (You live in Colorado, don’t you?) It’s called Alison’s Pantry. They probably have BS at a good price. If not, you can just buy a wicked tasty brownie mix to make yourself feel better.
(Why is it I always seem to be advertising stuff I like here? Am I a slave to corporate America? Do I even know what that means?)
I just bought a four-pound box at Walmart for $3.75. Off-brand is less than the A&H product. I hardly think there’s a difference, as BS seems to be BS to me, huh?
I’d never clean if I couldn’t make it fun LOL
I’ve never pre-mixed. THat seemed dumb. But I’ve had good luck with doing a baking soda-water paste, working it into the surface, then adding vinegar. The heat and bubbles formed in the reaction seem to help lift grime. Mixing it together & then putting it on anything… I agree doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.
When I first read that post I started thinking that that was the recipe for drain cleaner. You pour the baking soda in your drain and follow with vinegar. Foams up and then follow with Hot water. I was wondering how this would work for general cleaning, oh well, probably put a bit of excitement in a few homes when they tried it!
The only useful BS + Vinegar recipe I’ve ever heard of where these two worked together was to unclog a clogged drain. Pour baking soda into clogged drain then pour the vinegar. Let it foam until the foam dssolves and then rinse with super hot water. It’s worked for us when our drains have a mild clog. I doubt it will unclog anything that is completely stopped up though.
I have a question about all this vinegar talk though.. When adding vinegar to laundry as a softener, does it make the clothes smell anything like vinegar? I mean even in the smallest amounts? I deplore the smell of vinegar so if so i will just go without softener.
When you pour in the vinegar (which I put in the built-in fabric softener dispenser, but you can pour directly into the washer during the rinse cycle or use a “downy ball”), it smells like vinegar. Once your washer is finished, no smell.
That said, I use vinegar less for the fabric softening effects and more for the laundry-freshening effects. I add a scoop of baking soda to my whites and linens for fresher laundry, but I use the vinegar for the darker loads. I use less than half the detergent this way and still have great-smelling clean laundry (smells like “nothing”) fresh out of the washer.
When I use it as a spray in the dryer, I don’t smell any vinegar afterwards, but the clothes have to be completely dry. One time I pulled them out a bit damp, and I could still smell it on one of the heavier sweaters.
It absolutely does help cut WAY down on static cling (we live in such a dry area, and static cling is a way of life), and I think it makes the clothes softer, too. But probably 60% of my love for it is totally placebo – and loving to smell the eucalyptus oil when I spray the bottle.
I actually did know cleaners with B.S. + vinegar = nonsense. 3 years of Chemistry in college, which I loathed but now find I use frequently. I have made your bathroom cleaner, which is fabulous. At least your recipe said it was ‘optional’; I’ve seen others that claim you cannot clean without it.
Better to be silly and realize your silliness than, well, you know. We could all eat a little humble pie from time to time. We should correct common misinformation, lest we all end up like my drill sergeant father. 5’8″ with a 7’1″ ego. The rapture is more likely than him admitting he is mistaken during his lifetime.
Ahh … Napoleon. I used to be rather close to a guy JUST like that.
Admitting our mistakes is the first step to perfection. (I just made that up. You can say it sometimes if you want.)
I use the vinegar and baking soda as a mild cleaner for fake wood cabinets. It makes them look clean and the room smells better. I was pretty sure it wasn’t doing much of anything but they looked better to me.
I also use baking soda and lemon for the tub – let the baking soda sit and then scrub it with a lemon half. That really seems to get rid of gunk and grime on the tub and is gentler than the no scrub abrasives (that probably killed ten million lung cells from inhaling the chemicals) I used to use. There’s lots of fizzy with this cleaner, but I think the chemical reaction may be different.
Plus (and this is completely unscientifc) the fizzing makes me feel better. 🙂
Hee. “Fizzing makes me feel better.”
One of my favorite ways to clean out the grody plastic coffee cup Skip insists on using (and literally turns black after a few months) is to pour some baking soda on top of a lemon and scrub the holy bejeezus out of it. Works like a charm.
I think there are certain times where, if you put both of those things together (the acid and the baking soda), you end up with the goodness of both at once as well as the fizzy fun. BUT it has to be done immediately. If you try to mix ’em ahead of time and just use the solution? Eh. Water.
I do sometimes pour vinegar over my baking soda when I’m all done scrubbing with it. Maybe it is just for dramatic flair. But, I do think it helps break the soda down to rinse off better.
As far as the laundry… I’ll stand by my vinegar in the wash for a rinse. It DEFINITELY helps with static cling and “softness” in my loads. I’ve noticed a marked difference w/o it.
I agree with using vinegar only as a fabric softener rinse. No need for anything else to be added to have soft laundry. As far as static, I do add static balls to the dryer for extra heavy sweatshirts and the like in winter, but for most loads, the vinegar rinse alone is enough to keep away the static cling.
It does soften, the only thing though is that it seems to remove any of the nice smells from the detergent or additives you might use.
That’s probably true if you choose to use those things. I have family members who are sensitive to fragrances so we quit using store bought detergents and make our own….fragrance and additive free.
Wha – What? WHAT?! DOUBLEYOU TEE EFF?!?!?!?!?!
Well, damn. There go all of my beliefs and dreams. I mean, really, if baking soda and vinegar is the equivalent of salted water, WHAT does that say about the rest of the world? What about Bonnie and Clyde, Donnie and Marie, peanut butter and jelly, pickles and peanut butter, FRENCH FRIES AND CHOCOLATE FROSTIES?!?!?!?!?!
T_T Oh, what a cruel world it is…
I’m glad I’ve been specifically told. If I hadn’t, when coming across one of those recipes my common sense and experience would have flown out the window.
Another fun childhood experience is Mentos in Coca-Cola. That itself doesn’t exactly pertain to cleaning, except for the Coke. I read a story about a lady who put Coke in her ‘toilet of horrors’. And then it was a toilet of shiney awesomeness.
I can see why that would work given the science experiments with soda on teeth. Makes me even more scared to drink it, but less scared to clean my BF’s bathroom!
I know, right? Some instructions a little more specific: just dump your Coke in there and let it sit, thirty minutes to overnight. (Yup. That’s me, super specific. Mainly just because I don’t exactly know.)
Here’s a thought: does anyone know if can you use Coke to clean / unclog a drain?
Hold the phone! Does that mean The Best Homemade Bathroom Cleaner Ever, isn’t? I have my Amazon cart full of things to make it…Help a sister out!
It still TOTALLY is, without the vinegar. Just skip that part (it’s optional anyway) and your bathroom will shine. Yay full Amazon cart with crunchy stuff!
Vinegar dies softens — hair too (while removing oils).. mix 1 vinegar : 4 water with essential oils to dial down the smell. No smell when hair’s dry.
Did you even read the post? No one is disagreeing that vinegar is great. It’s the COMBO of vinegar and baking soda being called into question here.
That fizzing is soooo deceptive! Oooooh look at the bubbles! It must be loosening all that grime and carrying it away… I wish it worked that way cuz it’s so much fun to make baking soda volcanos. I’d probably clean my bathroom all the time if it did.
that recipe on pinterest looks familiar, although I’ve seen it without the baking soda. I’ve heard vinegar works well as a softener and wrinkle releaser. I haven’t tried it, so I can’t say for certain.
I do think, if you’re looking for the “reaction” to help you out, combining the two things works. Like with unclogging a drain or cleaning the garbage disposal. And it’s fun!
Or! If you use the vinegar to neutralize the baking soda – after the main cleaning has happened. (Like with your face, especially.)
I use vinegar and eucalyptus oil as my fabric softener. Like I said – may be the placebo effect, but I think my clothes are SO much softer and “nothing” smelling afterwards. Not so sure about the wrinkle releasing, though.
I could probably tell, if I didn’t leave my clothes in the dryer for 5 hours after they were done. Heh.
How much euc. oil do you use?
Vinegar IS a softener (not placebo at all). It also softens hair and removes oils. Mix 1 part vinegar : 3-4 water and add essential oils to the bottle to dial down the smell. Has no smell once hair is dry.
Hehe yeah I learnt that one trying to clean the shower. It was a bit of a moment for me – “whaddaya mean it’s not cleaning…??…but it’s fizzing…!!!??”.
Live and learn, baby, live and learn!