Washing with household remedies – Vinegar, baking soda and other natural solutions

Cleaning like grandma used to do – it may sound old-fashioned, but secretly we can learn a lot from the home remedies of the past. In a world full of trendy pink sprays and purple pods, we almost forget that vinegar, baking soda, and lemons are also great cleaning helpers. I am often amazed myself at how effective (and cheap) those jars and bottles from my kitchen cupboard are when washing children's clothes. And the best part: they are natural solutions, without too much chemical stuff. Ideal for the sensitive skin of little ones and for our environment.

So come on, time to take a look in your kitchen cupboard when you do laundry. Below I share a few of my favorite household remedies and how I use them in the fight against dirty clothes. Will you join me on this “green” cleaning journey?

Vinegar – the multifunctional fabric softener and stain remover

Regular white (cleaning) vinegar is truly a miracle in laundry. Maybe not the most pleasant smell during use, but the results are great and the smell fortunately disappears during drying.

• Natural fabric softener: I have hardly used fabric softener for years, but pour a splash of cleaning vinegar into the fabric softener compartment. Vinegar makes clothes surprisingly soft, reduces static electricity, and also helps keep colors bright. And no, your children will NOT smell like salad – the vinegar smell rinses away and actually neutralizes musty odors.
• Odor killer: Has your little one had an accident in bed or do the sports clothes smell like sweat? Vinegar to the rescue! Let smelly clothes soak for an hour in a bucket of cold water with a good cup of vinegar. Vinegar kills bacteria that cause the odor. Then just wash. Goodbye bad smells!
• Stain removal trick: For some stains, like grass or tomato sauce, vinegar can also help. Mix equal parts vinegar and water and dab this on the stain. Let it work for a while and then wash. Vinegar acts as a mild acid that loosens certain stains. (Be careful with very delicate fabrics or real wool – better not to use vinegar directly on those.)

So vinegar is a real all-rounder. Bonus: it also slightly descales your washing machine with every use, hooray! Tip: preferably use cleaning vinegar for laundry, which is a bit stronger than edible vinegar. And if you want, add a drop of fragrance oil (e.g., lavender oil) if you want to give the laundry a scent. But honestly, I no longer miss the chemical fabric softener smell – clean clothes just smell neutrally fresh.

Baking soda (zuiveringszout) – your best friend against odors and stains

Baking soda, in Dutch zuiveringszout or natriumbicarbonaat, is a fine white powder you might know from baking. But did you know it is also a cleaning champion? This stuff is mildly abrasive, cleansing, and especially great against nasty odors.

• Get rid of odors in clothes: Have you ever had shirts or sports shorts that still have a hint of sweat smell after washing? (Think of teenager socks or the t-shirt after a hot day playing outside.) Add 2-3 tablespoons of baking soda to your detergent in the machine. Zuiveringszout neutralizes acids and odors. Your laundry comes out fresher. For very strong odors, you can also soak the clothes for an hour in warm water with half a cup of dissolved baking soda before washing.
• Scrubbing stains with soda: Make a paste of baking soda and a little water. Apply this to stubborn stains, such as on the collar of a dirty jacket or on mud stains on shoes. Rub in a bit (this is where my trusty Scrub Daddy sponge often comes in handy!) and let it sit. The soda paste absorbs and scrubs at the same time. Then rinse or brush off and voilà, stain gone or at least greatly reduced. Be careful with very colored fabrics; do not make the paste too concentrated and test on an inside hem if in doubt, although baking soda is usually safe.
• Washing machine maintenance: Like vinegar, baking soda is good for your washing machine. Every now and then I put 1/4 cup (about 4 tablespoons) of soda in an empty drum and run a hot wash. This helps remove soap residues and bad odors in the machine. A fresh washing machine means fresher laundry!

You can often find zuiveringszout in the supermarket, but there are also handy packages online. For example, there is a “TikTok viral” bicarbonaat zuiveringszout for sale on ViralCleaning – yes, baking soda is even a hype on TikTok as a cleaning wonder! Or go for the classic: the yellow box Arm & Hammer baking soda, a trusted name grandma also had in the cupboard. Whichever brand you choose, the effect remains great.

Other natural cleaning helpers in laundry

Of course, home remedies don’t stop at vinegar and baking soda. Here are a few honorable mentions I like to use:

• Lemon juice: Lemon is a natural bleaching and deodorizing agent. Use carefully on light fabrics: I sometimes treat a stain from, for example, berry juice or rust on a white shirt with pure lemon juice. Let it soak in the sun (sunlight + lemon = natural bleaching) and then wash out. Note: not for dark clothes, lemon can fade color.
• Salt: Old-fashioned kitchen salt is handy for stains that are still wet, like red wine (okay, maybe less for children's clothes, more for mom’s dress 😉) or blood. Sprinkle salt on the fresh stain; the salt draws out moisture and the stain substances. For blood stains in, for example, a pair of pants: soak first in cold salt water, then wash. Salt helps loosen the blood. Always use cold water for blood, otherwise the protein coagulates!
• Green soap (soft soap): That jar with amber-colored sticky soap – also called soft soap or green soap – is ideal for rubbing on dirty spots. A little on the dirty collar of a jacket, or on that unidentifiable grime on the sleeve, rub in and let sit until the next wash. Green soap is pure nature (often plant-based) and gentle on textiles, but tackles grease and dirt well.
• Ox gall soap: We mentioned it briefly with grass stains. This is a traditional soap bar (or available liquid) with ox gall extract, sounds odd but works great on organic stains like grass, blood, chocolate, fruit, you name it. Wet the stain, rub in ox gall soap, let it work and voilà, wash. Nowadays you don’t necessarily have to have such a bar at hand; the modern variant exists, like in that Bye Stains Pre-Wash bottle with brush head. But the effect is the same – mother Nature lends a hand.
• Cornstarch or talcum powder: Oops, greasy stain (e.g., oil or butter) on a shirt? Sprinkle some cornstarch (cornstarch) or baby powder on it immediately. That absorbs the grease from the fabric like a sponge. Later you can shake it out and treat the remainder with dish soap before washing.

As you can see, there is a whole arsenal of kitchen cupboard ingredients to use before reaching for more expensive or chemical products. And often they work just as well, if not better. Besides, I secretly feel like a kitchen witch when I solve a laundry problem with some vinegar and soda – a bit of Harry Potter meets the Household Club, right?

A touch of new can’t hurt

If you’re not really into DIY remedies, there is nowadays also plenty of choice in cleaning products inspired by these natural wonders. For example, Fabulosa has a whole line with “bicarb” (baking soda) in it. Their Fabulosa All-Purpose Cleaner Bicarb Spray (Unicorn Dust) combines the power of soda with a magically nice scent – ideal for quickly removing a spot from the couch or cleaning the countertop while your children run around. And what about laundry perfume or scent balls for the wash that are biodegradable? They make the laundry smell nice without aggressive chemicals. Sometimes I also like to mix old and new: a splash of vinegar AND a cap of eco laundry perfume in the washing machine. Best of both worlds!

But remember: you don’t always have to have the newest of the new. Those old-fashioned tricks have existed for generations for a reason. They really work and often you already have everything at home.

Conclusion: green is doing!

Washing with household remedies is not only friendlier to the environment and your wallet, it also gives quite a satisfaction. I feel like a happy Hulda Housekeeper every time I solve a laundry problem with something simple like vinegar. And believe me, my children don’t notice – except that their clothes are clean and don’t smell like chemical floral scents (some fabric softener smells are really intense, phew!).

So try integrating one or two of these natural tips into your laundry routine. Before you know it, you’ll be as big a fan as I am. 😉 Besides, it’s quite fun to brag to your friends that you defeated the stains with baking soda or swapped fabric softener for vinegar. Nice and old-school, but totally of today!

Do you have any golden household laundry tips yourself? Please share them – the more natural magic, the better. Meanwhile, I keep experimenting with my kitchen cupboard pharmacy to get the laundry as clean and green as possible. Good luck and above all, happy laundry (yes really, it’s possible) wishes!