Natural Laundry Cleaning Solutions
Laundry is listed as one of the least favorite chores. And the fact is even those who “like” to do laundry, would rather be doing something else. However, everyone loves to have clean, fresh smelling clothes. A lot of consumers use off the shelf commercial products to clean their laundry. Sometimes the choice is made based on the least expensive laundry product or the product offering a coupon for the week. The majority of these laundry solutions contain synthetic ingredients, meaning you’re cleaning your clothes in harmful chemicals. But by choosing natural laundry cleaning solutions and by using organic products, you won’t miss out on that quality laundered smell and appearance. You’re still going to have clothes that look their best and smell great, too. What you will miss out on are the things that aren’t healthy for your body or the environment.
Compounding the Problem
These chemicals don’t always come out in the rinse cycle. Then if you toss the clothes into the dryer and add a chemically treated dryer sheet or you use a liquid fabric softener, you’re adding even more chemicals. Laundry cleaning solutions are one of the top causes of skin allergies and eye irritants.
Not Quite Sure?
You can use some laundry cleaning solutions you make at home, but this is time consuming. If you’re just getting started with using natural cleaners, it’ll take some time before you get the hang of making the mixture. An easy way to try out going natural and save time is to use a readymade organic laundry cleaner. Not all laundry cleaners that claim to be natural really are, so you’ll have to check them carefully.
What to Look For
The organic cleaners that are best for your clothes will say that they’re without any synthetic dyes. They also won’t contain any phosphates. Look for laundry detergents that say that they’re free from chlorine chemicals. Also, look for labels that say the product is hypoallergenic and the ingredients are plant-based and not on synthetics. Buy the concentrated laundry detergents that you can buy in the larger containers so that you’ll save more money.
Stains
To whiten clothes, especially clothes that have a stain, you can use Borax to treat them. If you have sweat stains on shirts, put some vinegar in a spray bottle and cover the stain with the vinegar. For clothing that needs to be pretreated, like for an ink stain, you can put the clothing in vinegar. The smell isn’t all that great while it’s soaking, but it does come out in the wash. The vinegar will remove the ink stain and is also an excellent at removing tomato-based stains. Once you’ve pretreated any stains, just wash the clothes in the organic detergent for a natural way to clean your laundry that’s better for your health and safer for the environment.
