Vinegar & Lavender... the solutions to everything

In a conservation effort (wallet and resources - although I suppose those both boil down to money), we put up a clothes line.  The clothes will be linty, but fresh and dry... going back to our roots... doing-it-old-school... childhood memories and all that jazz.  

The only issue is that our clothes are literally stiff as a board and covered in ants.  Yup, we, as many locals, have a HUGE problem with ants.  Our yard is one huge ant hill.  I guess the ants are in love with our laundry detergent.  

Picture me trying to shake ants off boards... 

It's not that easy. 

We have boxes of dryer sheets (I tend to stock up on items when I can get them SUPER cheap), but those won't do a whole lot of good in the washer... and I really don't want to go buy liquid fabric softener.  What did I do?  I Googled it, of course! 

A blog called "One Good Thing, by Jillee" popped up in my search.  She posted a recipe for homemade fabric softener - 6 cups water, 3 cups vinegar, 2 cups hair conditioner.  Seems simple and cheap.  http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/homemade-fabric-softener-finally.html 

Now, to address the ants.  I'm assuming shaking ants off non-board clothes might be easier, but still no fun.  

I have a bottle of lavender oil left over from a home flea treatment... and it turns out ants are repelled by lavender too!  Whoo hoooooo!  I don't even have to go buy lavender conditioner or a bottle of something special.  

I'm making up a batch right now and I'll test it out with a fresh load of laundry in the morning ;) 

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