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!
