1. Red wine stains
If you have ever spilt red wine on your clothes or carpet you know how impossible it can seem to remove the stains. Yet it doesn’t have to be difficult to remove these stains at all. Vinegar will help you out.
Wine stain on your clothes
Heat up about half a litre of white vinegar in a saucepan on the stove. Pull the fabric of the clothing tight above a bowl or bucket, with the stain facing down.
Next, pour about half of the heated vinegar over the fabric in the spot where the stain is located. It would be easiest if you’ve got someone with you to hold the item of clothing while you pour the vinegar.
Rinse the clothing with cold water and then let it soak for 20 minutes in the leftover vinegar.
Afterwards, rinse the clothing with cold water once more and then wash it in the washing machine right away.
Wine stain on your carpet
Use a paper towel to dab at the stain to remove as much of the wine as possible.
Heat up 250 millilitres of white vinegar in a saucepan on the stove and then pour this into a spray bottle.
Add half a teaspoon of dish soap to this as well and then shake the bottle so the vinegar can mix with and absorb the dish soap properly. Spray the vinegar mixture onto the stain.
Be careful though: don’t spray too much of it onto the stain because then the stain might spread.
Let the mixture soak for five minutes and then dab the carpet dry with a paper towel. Repeat this process until the stain is gone.
2. Fabric softener
When you’re washing items like microfiber cloths, sports clothes and towels, it’s best not to use any fabric softener.
However, if you still want soft towels, microfiber cloths and sports clothes, you should add a generous splash of vinegar to your laundry.
The vinegar will not only remove the sweat odour from your sports clothes, but it also functions very well as a fabric softener.
And don’t you have to worry about your clothes ending up smelling like vinegar. Once your clothes have dried, the smell will be gone.
3. Nasty smells
Leaving your wet laundry in the washing machine for a little while isn’t a problem.
But If you’ve ever forgotten to take your laundry out of the washing machine, you know your clothes can end up smelling really musty. To get rid of that nasty smell, you wash the whole bunch a second time, but that doesn’t always help.
That’s why you should add 100 millilitres of vinegar to your laundry and wash it at the highest temperature the clothes can bear. That way, the nasty smell will truly disappear.
4. Jeans
When you’ve bought a brand new pair of jeans, the fabric can still feel pretty stiff.
To get rid of that stiffness, you can wash the jeans with your regular laundry detergent along with a splash of vinegar.
By washing your jeans with vinegar, the fabric feels much softer and the jeans will retain their colour much better.
5. Chewing gum
It’s easy to remove chewing gum from your clothes or shoes with the help of a little bit of vinegar:
On clothes:
Put the item of clothing with chewing gum on it in the freezer for 30 minutes. Try removing as much of the chewing gum as possible using a spoon.
Heat up 250 millilitres of vinegar on the stove.
Place the item of clothing on a table. Dip an old, clean toothbrush in the vinegar and use this to scrub the leftover chewing gum off of the clothing.
Repeat this until the chewing gum is gone completely. Pour the remaining vinegar over the fabric to make sure that all of the remains of the chewing gum are gone. Then, wash the item of clothing like you normally would.
On shoes:
Using a spoon, scrape as much of the chewing gum off the shoe as possible without damaging it.
Put the shoe in a plastic or paper bag and put it in the freezer for 20 minutes. Then, scrape the rest of the hardened chewing gum off the shoe with a spoon.
Apply a little bit of vinegar to a cloth and rub this onto the shoe to wipe away all of the remaining bits of chewing gum.