Replace Your Fabric Softener With Vinegar

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Watching commercials on TV can be like opening a door to a realm of madness. Commercials like to take advantage of special effects and outlandish premises. Half of the time, I can't figure out what these people are trying to sell me and the other half of the time, I sometimes question if I have lost my sanity. Some of the truly horrifying and Lovecraftian commercials are for fabric softener. Giggling teddy bears are the stuff of nightmares.

The good news is that you don't even need to buy fabric softener, and, therefore, you will never have to think about soulless, fabric-softener-hawking, homunculi again. Fabric softener sheets are pretty wasteful. You put in one sheet per load and throw away one sheet per load. And for you vegans out there, fabric softener sheets are often made with tallow. You could be drying your clothes with animal fat. And liquid fabric softeners aren't much better:

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From the Good Human:

Some of the most harmful ingredients in dryer sheets and liquid fabric softener alike include benzyl acetate (linked to pancreatic cancer), benzyl alcohol (an upper respiratory tract irritant), ethanol (linked to central nervous system disorders), limonene (a known carcinogen) and chloroform (a neurotoxin and carcinogen), among others.

You can avoid these health risks, the animal fat and the waste simply by using vinegar to soften your clothing. Add 3/4 cups of vinegar to your final rinse cycle and your clothes will come out soft. And now for the best part, vinegar is ludicrously inexpensive when compared to fabric softener. Saving money and saving the planet together again.

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