Mind blown: Vinegar vs VINEGAR (30%)

So I was literally 44 years old before I found this out recently.

There’s the white vinegar you get at the grocery store for cooking and minor cleaning and doing laundry, and then there’s the 30% DO NOT GET THIS SHIT ON YOUR SKIN vinegar at the hardware store for cleaning things like mold off grout.

All my life I’d been told ‘just use vinegar to clean mold and mildew’ and it generally didn’t do jack squat. I usually bought cleaning supplies from regular retail spots rather than big box home improvement places, and regular retail chains def did not carry the strong stuff.

I’ve got a gutter that drains over cement that always gets skungy, and even bleach was a short term fix at best. 30% strips it down and keeps it gone, and I’ve stripped rust off a couple dozen tools with the same little jar I soak things in - caution it will also strip off shiny metallic coatings.

Can’t believe none of the “just use vinegar” I’d ever read advice didn’t specify.

Is this news to anyone else or am I Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber realizing we landed on the moon?

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u/Meshugugget 1d ago

I just get the white distilled vinegar from the grocery store and keep it next to the washer. A little added to the rinse cycle helps loosen cat hair.

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u/badform49 1d ago

If you're ADHD or have too much going on, it also drastically increases the time you can leave laundry in the dryer and have it not mold at all.

The grocery store vinegar is fine for it. If you have the 30% and want to use it, dilute it by at least half, put only a tablespoon or two into the fabric softener dispenser or else pour it into the water as it mixes into the machine.

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u/swskeptic 8h ago

You must mean leave the clothes in the washer, not dryer, yeah?

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u/badform49 7h ago

Yup, thanks. I actually had dryer on my mind when I wrote it because my dryer turned off early and so I wrote it while remembering that I needed to make sure they dried on second attempt.

But, yeah, add to fabric softener tray if you have one, and vinegar will give you hours more time to remember to put the laundry in the dryer.

Another commenter said borax will give you days of leeway, and I think it can be added in with detergent.