For a long time I've aspired to having a chemical free home. But those fancy "all-natural" cleaners from the store are expensive, and I like my bleach. And I'm always skeptical when I hear things like, "just clean your house with lemon juice and it will sparkle!". Well, I've recommitted myself to finding chemical-free alternatives to household cleaners.Today I started with the laundry. For sometime now we've done almost all our laundry in cold water and used the clothesline instead of the dryer (weather permitting). But I've always felt a bit guilty about the environmental damage done by detergents. So I started researching some alternatives and came up with a combination of baking soda and vinegar. The baking soda removes the dirt and stains while the vinegar acts as a fabric softener and also neutralizes odors and kills germs and mildew. And you know what, it works!
Today I did several loads of laundry, one on hot, the rest on cold, and a variety of settings. I used 1/2 cup baking soda and a 1/4 vinegar per load. I'll continue to test different amounts of each to find the optimal amounts. When washing with cold water, I find it necessary to dissolve the baking soda in some warm water first - treat it like you would a powdered detergent, dissolving it in a little water before adding your clothes. Just put the vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser.
Our clothes and linens came out clean, odor free, and soft. Good-bye expensive, toxic detergents!
That's awesome! I tried talking my wife into trying vinegar and baking soda to wash our clothes. She isn't convinced yet. We've been transitioning to vinegar and baking soda to clean other things around the house too. It's also great to "sterilize" the chopping board after chopping meat (if you still eat meat, that is). By the way, I built a raised garden and we finally sowed basil, oregano, and cilantro. My compost was also ready, and the worm tea seems to be kicking in. I have so many worms I don't know what to do with them. Nobody seems to want to buy them in my community like they did in the Seattle area.
ReplyDeleteSend some worms our way! We've just started working on our new yard and the soil is awful - a very heavy clay component.
ReplyDeleteI'm also making the transition to baking soda, borax, and vinegar for our household cleaning - with good success. Its amazing we've been convinced we need all these toxic chemicals to lead healthier lives - rather counter intuitive.