Ugh, laundry! Everyone’s favorite chore. Even though it’s not always loads of fun (ha, ha.) having perfectly clean laundry isn't as much of an art as it was just a few years back thanks to modern commercialized products and machines. Unfortunately, with these time-saving solutions come a few disadvantages, like harsh chemicals, dyes, fragrances, and non-recyclable plastics for packaging up all that wonderful blue slimy wonderfulness. Finding a detergent that's frugal, safe for us, safe for the environment, waste-free and that actually works on grungy farm garb can be rather errmmm...impossible to find. So we did a bit of research, and after a few years of trial and error, came up with seems to be the perfect solution to a major issue I've always had. As they say, I have more than the National Geographic...but bam! Laundry is no longer one! So today, lets delve into each of the ingredients in our laundry soap, and the science behind how they work to give us the cleanest, freshest, whitest laundry ever. Borax (Sodium Tetraborate) is a natural mineral with a pH of 8. This slight acidity boosts the cleaning power of your soap. The sodium component of borax is also helpful to soften your water, making soap cleanse more effectively. Borate works to keep soap distributed throughout the load, which ensures no soapy residue in your laundry. Borax removes odors and inhibits fungi, mold, and bacteria. It packs a punch for cleaning cloth diapers, workout gear, and anything else immensely odiferous. Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate) works by lifting soil from fabrics and suspending them in the wash water. Like borax, it is a water softener and enables your soap to do its job. Because of its high alkalinity, it is highly effective for removing tough stains like coffee, blood, and tea, yet harmless enough to use on plants to treat a variety of fungal and other pests. Vinegar White distilled vinegar is a WONERFUL addition to your wash load for several reasons. It helps fight odors and bacteria, brightens, softens, and prevents cling from fuzzies and hair. I use it in the last rinse to ensure my line-dried laundry remains soft. Nothing is worse than crispy jeans or towels that stand up in a corner by themselves. By the way, I came across this cool explanation of why air-dried clothes sometimes come out crispy. If you're interested in that sort of thing, here's a short and sweet scoop on the matter. www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/why-do-clothes-feel-soft-coming-out-of-the-dryer-but-crunchy-when-theyre-air-dried.html Soap Whoo hoo! My favorite subject!!!! Many home-made laundry detergent recipes call for Fels-Naptha soap. I was never super enthused with it since this product contains palm oil and it smells weird. It didn’t clean laundry as well as I hoped, and if anything, it seemed to leave a grey dingy residue over time. Therefore, I started making my own pure coconut oil soap for laundry since coconut oil soap is known for its extreme cleansing qualities and is not a rare and diminishing natural resource. The recipe has both a low water % as well as a low super fat, which basically means there is extremely little (5%) actual water or oil remaining in the soap after saponification and cure. This surfactant isn’t super “sudsy” and won’t overflow your machine. If you’re interested in the recipe for laundry soap DIY, you can find that here. It is a tricky recipe to deal with, you must be so careful to keep the mixture at a low temperature to avoid a burning hot soap “volcano.” Yeah, not cool! For this reason, I do not highly recommend it for beginning soap makers, but the results are well worth the trouble for me! It is extremely effective for removing grime, grease, and everything in between. Its alkaline properties makes it a great stain remover as well! Hydrogen Peroxide This household sanitizing product is wonderful for removing stains and brightening whites. Please do be careful not to combine with vinegar, as the reaction can cause damage to skin. If you like to use both, use it for your beginning laundry cycle and add vinegar to the final rinse. Or just pick one or the other. 😉 Tabs Vs. Powder We’ve decided to add a laundry powder option to our webstore, as the powdered mix may be more suited to HE machines or when using cold water. I highly recommend using either a bit of peroxide or vinegar in your load and using no more than a TB of powder detergent per load. The tabs are wonderful for saving time and they do dissolve quite readily with water and agitation. I hope this list has helped answer some of your questions regarding natural laundry detergents, and how to use them most effectively. Now, ya'll go out and conquer the pile with gusto this week ;-)
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HELLOI'm Lydia. Mom to one wild barefoot fluffy headed toddler, a herd of cows, flock of sheep, a group of too many chickens and a neglected garden that against all odds, survives. Married to a wonderful husband with an equal number of titles and jobs...Dad, bro, (also as in, "bro, get over here gimme a hug") hydro-electric power plant mechanic, volunteer firefighter, fixer of all things with wheels and engines. (Ya, I'm proud of him.) Farm life, family, coffee, and Jesus make my world go round. Archives
August 2023
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