Most of us use off the shelf commercial products to clean our laundry. Sometimes the choice is made based on the least expensive laundry product or the product offering a coupon for the week.
Laundry is often listed as one of the least favorite chores and the fact is no one really likes to do laundry, but everyone loves to have clean, fresh smelling clothes. But by using laundry solutions that contain synthetic ingredients, you’re cleaning your clothes in harmful chemicals.
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.
But by choosing to go the more natural way and use organic products, you won’t miss out on that freshly 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.
Make Your Own
Make Your OwnYou can use some laundry cleaning solutions you make at home, but this is time consuming and if you’re just getting started with using natural cleaners, it’ll take some time before you get the hang of making the mixture. If you want to make your own laundry soap, GoingGreenSuccessTips.com has a great natural laundry soap recipe.
Or Buy Ready-Made Green Detergent
But an easier way to go 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. The organic cleaners that are best for your clothes will say that they don’t contain any synthetic dyes and they 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 based on plants and not on synthetics. Buy the concentrated laundry detergents that you can buy in the larger containers so that you’ll save more money.
Some brands to check out are Green Works, Green Shield Organic, Molly’s Suds, Caldrea, Seventh Generation, Clear All Natural, Planet Ultra, and All Small & Mighty Free & Clear. You’ll want to check the labels to be sure they fit your needs.
Treating 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 stains that needs to be pretreated, like 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 and the vinegar will remove the ink stain. Vinegar is also an excellent stain remover to rid clothes of 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.
