Natural Cleaning Solutions In The Laundry

We do the laundry a lot more often than we used to. Today, it's not unheard of for people to pop two shirts into the wash a day (one from work and one from the gym). In the past, people wore things for longer so there wasn't as much for the laundry maid to do. "Wash day" came once a week, usually on Mondays when there was cold Sunday roast left over and nobody had to cook much so they could concentrating on the nightmare job of doing the laundry.

But just because you've got a modern washing machine with a wool cycle, a hot cycle and enough lights for a very small Christmas tree doesn't mean that you have to use fancy modern wonder ingredients to get your clothes clean. Do yourself and the environment a favour, and use natural laundry products to wash clothes like your grandmother (or great-grandmother) used to use.

If you must use commercial washing powder (and I have to admit that I do - in a hard water area, using liquid soap in the machine on a cold cycle has a tendency to gunge up the pipes and valves) you can get away with using less than the manufacturer tells you to use on the side of the box. Let's face it: who wrote the stuff on the side of the box? Who's going to make more money if you go through three boxes of powder in stead of two? Right. In practice, you can reduce the amount of soap powder per load to three-quarters what the manufacturers tell you to - or even half. You can also be kinder to the environment by using a brand (which, happily, is usually cheaper) that doesn't have oodles of whiteners, brighteners and fragrance. This means you will pump less goodness-knows-what into the water system. And remember that washing clothes in commercial powder is still better than dry cleaning.

If you wash in hot water or if the water in your area isn't hard (lucky you!), you may be able to get away with using liquid soap in your washing load. This doesn't mean a commercial liquid soap. Instead, save soap scraps and pour boiling water over them to melt them down. Once the result has cooled to a gel, it can also be used for soaking grubby clothes as a pre-wash treatment, as general maid-of-all work for cleaning floors, cleaning cars and spot-cleaning carpets. You can also use it as shampoo. You can also use soap flakes, which you can buy again, thankfully, if you don't fancy grating a bar of soap.

If you are in a hard water area, you can still use soap flakes or soap gel to wash clothes, but you will have to add a water softener. Borax is the classic water softener used in many natural domestic cleaning recipes.

Soap residues are responsible for making towels and blankets as stiff as cardboard. Thorough rinsing helps, as does drying in the open air. But to really make sure things stay soft enough to rub on sensitive bits of your body, use vinegar as a fabric softener. Put about half a cup per load into wherever fabric softener is supposed to be put in your washing machine, or else add it to the final rinse.

Essential oils are also popular additions to natural laundry products. Some oils not only add a pleasant scent but also help remove stains and act as disinfectants. Eucalyptus oil makes a great stain remover and is the key ingredient in Sard Wonder Soap (if you can get hold of this, it is fantastic for removing all sorts of stains). Tea tree oil is antibacterial. So is lavender.