6 Reasons You Need to Add Vinegar to the Laundry

In the same way that outdoor drying has its limitations, a clothes dryer does as well. It can ruin stuff. Yuganov Konstantin/Shutterstock

When buying vinegar to use in the laundry, choose distilled white vinegar with 5 percent acidity. It’s is a great addition to laundry for lots of reasons:

It’s Cheap

Plain distilled white 5 percent vinegar runs around 2.5 cents per ounce in the typical supermarket when purchased by the gallon.

Name-brand liquid fabric softeners come in at about 8 cents per ounce—around three times the cost. If you don’t use liquid softener, dryer sheets are a cheaper way to ruin your clothes and linens: On average, they are about 4 cents per sheet.