Getting Clean Laundry

I've been learning a lot about getting my clothes cleaner, so for the next three weeks I'm going to talk about what I'm learning about doing laundry and getting clean clothes. For week 1 I'm going to talk a little bit about cleaning the washer. For week 2 I'm going to talk about the laundry detergent and fabric softener that I use. For week 3 I'm going to talk about spot cleaning clothing and getting stubborn stains out. If anyone has any tips or ideas, I'd love to hear about them.

Week 1: Cleaning the washer

I have recently started using homemade laundry detergent and vinegar on my dirty clothes. At first I wasn't too sure about it. I was getting lint on my darks and the cleaning was okay. Not great, but passable.

Then I just couldn't take the lint anymore. I did a google search and found the solution to my problem on several sites. There were a few recommendations:

• clean the washer with vinegar;
• clean the lint trap if your washer has one;
• use a cup of vinegar with the laundry detergent in addition to the rinse cycle;
• don't overfill the tub;
• wash the clothes that create lint separately from the other clothing.

Cleaning the washer is pretty simple. It's as simple as running a load of wash. Fill the tub of the washer halfway. Put a couple of cups of vinegar in the tub and let it agitate. When the washer is done agitating, turn it off and let the water soak for at least an hour. While the tub of the washer is soaking, you can use that time to locate the lint trap (if the washer has one) and clean it. If your washer is like mine and has a fabric softener dispenser in the agitator, take it apart and clean it out. There was a lot of mold and junk in the dispense of my washer. Yuck! After it's done sitting, let it finish washing. Wipe out the tub of any junk that's left in there.

I don't know what kind of schedule you're supposed to keep with this, but I'll probably do it quarterly.

I can tell you that my wash has been a lot cleaner since I've cleaned my washer. The lint problem still isn't completely gone, but if I toss the clothing in the dryer for a bit, that seems to take care of it.