Cleaning with household products – Vinegar, baking soda, and other natural solutions

Cleaning the way Grandma did it – 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 fantastic cleaning helpers. I’m regularly amazed by how effective (and inexpensive) those jars and bottles from my kitchen cupboard are when washing children’s clothes. And the best part: they’re natural solutions without too many harsh chemicals. Ideal for little ones’ sensitive skin and for our environment.

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

Vinegar – the multifunctional fabric softener and stain destroyer

Ordinary white cleaning vinegar is truly a miracle product in the laundry. It may not have the most pleasant smell while you’re using it, but the results are excellent and fortunately, the smell disappears during drying.

• Natural fabric softener: I’ve hardly used fabric softener for years, but I do pour a splash of cleaning vinegar into the fabric-softener compartment. Vinegar makes clothes surprisingly soft, reduces static electricity and also helps keep colours bright. And no, your children won’t smell like salad – the vinegar smell rinses away and actually neutralises musty odours.
• Odour killer: Has your little one had an accident in bed, or do your sports clothes smell of sweat? Vinegar to the rescue! Soak smelly clothes for an hour in a bucket of cold water with a generous cup of vinegar. Vinegar kills the bacteria that cause the odour. Then simply wash as usual. Goodbye, nasty smells!
• Stain-removal trick: Vinegar can also help with some stains, such as grass or tomato sauce. Mix equal parts vinegar and water and dab it onto the stain. Leave it to work for a while, then put it in the wash. Vinegar works as a mild acid that loosens certain stains. (Be careful with very delicate fabrics or real wool – it’s better not to apply vinegar directly to them.)

Vinegar is therefore a true all-rounder. Bonus: it also helps descale your washing machine a little with every use, hooray! Tip: preferably use cleaning vinegar for laundry, as it’s slightly stronger than edible vinegar. And if you like, add a drop of essential oil (such as lavender oil) if you want to give your laundry a scent. But honestly, I haven’t missed the smell of chemical fabric softener for ages – clean clothes simply smell neutrally fresh.

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) – your best friend against odours and stains

Baking soda, known in Dutch as sodium bicarbonate, is a fine white powder that you may know from baking. But did you know it’s also a cleaning champion? This stuff is mildly abrasive, cleansing and especially effective against unpleasant odours.

• Get rid of odours in clothes: Have you ever had shirts or sports shorts that still retain a hint of sweat smell after washing? (Think teenagers’ socks or a T-shirt after a hot day of playing outside.) Add 2–3 tablespoons of baking soda to your detergent in the machine. Baking soda neutralises acids and odours. Your laundry will come out fresher. For very strong smells, you can also soak the clothes for an hour beforehand in warm water with half a cup of dissolved baking soda, then wash them.
• Scrub stains with baking soda: Make a paste from baking soda and a little water. Spread it on stubborn stains, such as on the collar of a dirty jacket or on muddy stains on shoes. Rub it in briefly (my trusty Scrub Daddy sponge often comes in handy here!) and leave it to sit. The baking-soda paste absorbs and scrubs at the same time. Then rinse or brush it off and voilà, the stain is gone or at least greatly reduced. Be careful with brightly coloured fabrics; don’t make the paste too concentrated and test it on an inside seam if necessary, although baking soda is generally safe.
• Washing-machine maintenance: Just like vinegar, baking soda is good for your washing machine. Every so often, I put 1/4 cup (about 4 tablespoons) of baking soda in an empty drum and run a hot cycle. This helps remove soap residue and unpleasant odours from the machine. A fresh washing machine means fresher laundry!

You can often find baking soda in the supermarket, but there are also convenient packages available online. For example, “TikTok viral” bicarbonate baking soda is available from ViralCleaning – yes, baking soda is even trending on TikTok as a cleaning miracle! Or go for the classic: the yellow box of Arm & Hammer baking soda, a trusted name that Grandma already had in her cupboard. Whichever brand you choose, it works brilliantly.

Other natural cleaning helpers for the laundry

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

• Lemon juice: Lemon is a natural bleaching and deodorising agent. Use it carefully on light-coloured fabrics: I sometimes treat a stain such as berry juice or rust on a white shirt with pure lemon juice. Leave it to soak in the sun for a while (sunlight + lemon = natural bleaching), then wash it out. Note: not suitable for dark clothing, as lemon can fade the colour.
• Salt: Ordinary table salt is useful for fresh, wet stains, such as red wine (okay, perhaps less children’s clothing and more Mum’s dress 😉) or blood. Sprinkle salt over the fresh stain; the salt draws out moisture and the staining substances. For bloodstains on, for example, a pair of shorts: soak them in cold salt water first, then wash them. Salt helps loosen the blood. Always use cold water for blood, otherwise the protein will coagulate!
• Green soap (soft soap): That pot of amber-coloured, syrupy soap – also known as soft soap or green soap – is ideal for rubbing into dirty spots. Apply a little to the dirty collar of a jacket, or to that indescribable grime on a sleeve, rub it in and leave it until the next wash. Green soap is natural (often plant-based) and gentle on textiles, while still tackling grease and dirt effectively.
• Gall soap: We already mentioned it briefly with grass stains. This is a traditional soap bar (also available as a liquid) containing ox-gall extract. It sounds unusual, but it works brilliantly on organic stains such as grass, blood, chocolate, fruit and more. Wet the stain, rub in the gall soap, leave it to work and voilà, wash as usual. These days, you don’t necessarily need to keep a bar on hand; there’s a modern version, such as the Bye Stains Pre-Wash bottle with a brush head. The result is the same – Mother Nature lends a hand.
• Cornstarch or talcum powder: Oops, a greasy stain (such as oil or butter) on a shirt? Sprinkle some cornstarch or baby powder on it straight away. It absorbs the grease from the fabric like a sponge. Later, you can shake it out and treat the residue with washing-up liquid before putting it in the wash.

As you can see, there’s a whole arsenal of kitchen-cupboard ingredients you can use before reaching for more expensive or harsher products. And they often work just as well, if not better. Besides, I secretly feel like a kitchen witch whenever I solve a laundry problem with a little vinegar and baking soda – a bit of Harry Potter meets the Housekeeping Club, right?

A touch of something new doesn’t hurt

If you’re not really into mixing your own remedies, there’s also plenty of choice nowadays when it comes to cleaning products inspired by these natural wonders. Fabulosa, for example, has an entire range containing “bicarb” (baking soda). Their Fabulosa Bicarb All-Purpose Cleaner Spray (Unicorn Dust), for example, combines the power of baking soda with a wonderfully magical scent – ideal for quickly removing a little stain from the sofa or cleaning the worktop while your children run around. And what about biodegradable laundry perfume or scent beads for the wash? They make your laundry smell lovely without harsh chemicals. Sometimes I also like to mix old and new: a splash of vinegar and a capful of eco laundry perfume in the washing machine. The best of both worlds!

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

Conclusion: go green!

Doing the laundry with household remedies is not only kinder to the environment and your wallet, it’s also quite satisfying. Every time I solve a laundry problem with something as simple as vinegar, I feel like a happy domestic goddess. And believe me, my children don’t notice anything – except that their clothes are clean and don’t smell of chemical flowers (some fabric-softener scents are really intense, phew!).

So try incorporating one or two of these natural tips into your laundry routine. Before you know it, you’ll be just as much of a fan as I am. 😉 Besides, it’s quite fun to be able to boast to your friends that you defeated the stains with baking soda or swapped your fabric softener for vinegar. Lovely and old-school, but completely up to date!

Do you have any golden household tips of your own for the laundry? Please share them – the more natural magic, the better. In the meantime, I’ll keep experimenting with my kitchen-cupboard apothecary to get the laundry as clean and green as possible. Good luck, and above all, enjoy doing the laundry (yes, really, it’s possible)!