this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
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pet urine, whiskey, perfume, you can use white vinegar to get rid of most smells on most materials: carpets, furniture, clothes, without damaging the material.

vinegar is amazing at breaking down odors and then evaporating and not leaving a trace.

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[–] Mouselemming 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

But if it gets damp the gross vinegar smell comes back! Disgusting.

[–] Varyk 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

nope, it doesn't!

when vinegar dries, the acetic acid which is responsible for the vinegar smell evaporates, so it's completely gone after the vinegar dries.

If you still smell vinegar, then your vinegar has never dried, and is lingering in the middle of a futon or mattress or other thick padding.

If you have a dehumidifier, you can make sure whatever you pour the vinegar on is completely dry.

then there's no smell and the smell won't come back because the acetic acid has evaporated.

awww haha, I remember you.

you digging through my history?

it's interesting, I'll give you that.

[–] Mouselemming 0 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Oh sorry I didn't mean to dig,at least not past the last conversation. I'm trying to watch TV at the same time as I Lemmy on my phone. I wondered how I wound up in vinegar. But I do have strong feelings about it because it was supposed to take a smell out of some towels, and after one wash with vinegar they smelled like vinegar forever, every time they got damp, after several washes and drys. It was worse than whatever I was trying to get out, I finally threw them away.

[–] Varyk 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

"Oh sorry I didn't mean to dig,at least not past the last conversation."

you're claiming you made the mistake of looking at my posts instead of the comments we've been exchanging back and forth and then again accidentally scrolled down 12 posts, didn't notice that it was a completely separate post with other threads that had nothing to do with what we were talking about,, and then you only referenced vinegar specifically and coincidentally on that same post even though it has nothing to do with what we were talking about?

doesn't really check out.

sounds like you're a little embarrassed about being called out for digging through old posts irrelevant to the topic.

like I said, I have a pretty good history, so you don't have to be embarrassed, but you might want to find a better misdirect than you not understanding how vinegar or laundry works.

since acetic acid (the vinegar smell) evaporates after it dries, it sounds like you either didn't use vinegar or you didn't dry your towels properly.

not doing your laundry correctly is such a weirdly specific topic to address 12 posts deep.

you can either wash the vinegar out or dry your laundry properly.

I actually have another theory, but it's another life hack I'm posting in a few days and I don't want to spoil anything.

tune back in soon!

[–] Mouselemming 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I went to your name to trace back how we'd gotten started on the conversation, was interrupted by other events, came back to my phone and flicked down the page, and saw "vinegar" which caught my eye because strong opinion.

You know the meme of the old lady peering at the screen through her granny glasses? Basically me but on my phone.

Washing in a washing machine, added white vinegar to the rinse water, dried fully in the dryer, vinegar smell permeated the washer/dryer room but it's in the basement of the apartment building and the towels seemed okay so I didn't worry about it. But as soon as the towels were used the smell returned. I washed and dried them again, no vinegar, just scentless Tide pod, again the smell returned when they were used and got damp. I don't use vinegar on anything else in the bathroom nor on myself, because I don't like the smell. I think people who do like it should go ahead and use it, because it's effective at cleaning and killing mold, but I don't and I won't.

I'm going to try to get back to "Top of Last 6 Hours" and stay there, but it's possible we'll run into each other again. No enmity intended, just a different experience leading to a different opinion. Have fun!

And again, good on you for having voted already. Much more important than towels. My vote counts for not much, being in a deep blue district of a blue state with a large population, but I have family in PA who also voted for Harris.

[–] Varyk 0 points 4 weeks ago

gpt it. it sounds like the lingering vinegar has been tied up with your detergent's bonding agent, which stays on fibers for multiple wash cycles after being used once.

If you mix vinegar into oil or alcohol, it can get stained into fibers, but if you completely dry and then throw it under the sun for the afternoon, flip it over to make sure all of the acetic acidd bonded into the fibers gets a chance to evaporate, that vinegar smell will go away.

it's all tied to that one compound evaporating.

If you wash your towel once with the detergent and then wash it three times with no detergent, you'll still have that slight deyergent smell because of the bonding agent in the detergent.

PA resident here, coincidentally.

have a good rest of your day,; i appreciate your explanation.