Vinegar is mainly an antibiotic; so if you're looking to cleanse your clothing of bacteria, it's great to add. It also freshens up the smell of almost anything! Baking soda will also freshen! The main thing people did when washing their clothes on “rocks” or washboards was good old-fashioned manual labor! They were beating out the dirt! They also used a home-made soap with lye (from ashes) and fat….no, no, no…don't go putting lye in your clothes. What you CAN do is use a minimal amount of detergent, I use 1/2 of the called-for amount and the agitation of your washer will do the reset. The detergent will separate the dirt particles. I find the cheap-o detergents work as well as the expensive ones and then only using half as much gets the same cleanly clothes. Also I noticed quite a few are just discovering baking soda. Amazing, eh?