5 Secret Ingredients You Can Use in Your Laundry Loads

We are huge fans of great laundry hacks at The Spruce, and we especially love reusing household items as easy, effective additions to your machine. This is especially true if they can replace harsh chemicals, or lessen the amount of product needed to get a load of laundry smelling great and feeling fresh.

It’s not a great idea to just toss in pantry items and hope for the best—and while we love a great TikTok tip, we also like to check in with the experts to make sure the suggestions are trustworthy. With this in mind, we turned to a few pros to find out which secret ingredients are best for adding to our laundry for the freshest loads.

The Spruce / Candace Madonna

According to Allison Evans, the co-founder of Branch Basics, 3% hydrogen peroxide is a great additive to your laundry routine—but only for your white garments, as it’s an excellent bleach alternative. 

“To use, add one cup of hydrogen peroxide (the one in the brown bottle) directly to the washer,” she says. “Peroxide also works wonders to remove nearly any type of stain from white clothing and is a natural disinfectant.” 

The Spruce / Ulyana Verbytska

At this point, household hacks and white vinegar go hand-in-hand. While there are some limitations, this little kitchen staple can do a lot of heavy lifting at home.  According to Wayne Edelman of Meurice Garment Care, it’s actually a great additive for stain removal.

“Vinegar or acetic acid has the tendency to swell fibers, thus allowing more soluble soil removal,” Edelman says. 

Evans agrees and assures us vinegar won’t make your clothes smell funky, either. Best of all, it’s not just a great natural fabric softener and stain remover. It also helps to descale and clean your washer when using. If you’re