Eco Wash: Alternative Ways

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The question "how to replace the washing powder" arises before conscious housewives more and more often. After all, no matter how advertised modern detergents, - and phosphates, synthesized surfactants, optical brighteners and other overly active components of washing powder do not give rest.

I do not want to feel the negative effect of these funds on myself. The article contains information and useful tips on how to wash and bleach things with safe natural remedies; how best to prepare things for better washing.

In general, there are two conditions for a successful wash. First, it is much easier to wash the laundry if it has not been dirty for a long time, so you should not save up dirty things. The second condition is soft water. Distinguishing hard from soft water is easy even in the most Spartan conditions. You need to take a glass of hot water and put some soap into it. If it dissolves quickly and without sediment, and the solution becomes clear after cooling, then the water is soft. A film on the surface of the water is a sure sign that the water is hard. Today, there are special products on sale that are designed to soften water. But if they were not at the right time in the right place, then you can use ordinary soda, adding 2 tbsp. spoons into water before soaking laundry, washing or rinsing.

Any, not even the dirtiest, laundry should be soaked beforehand. This will greatly ease your efforts to wipe away stains. White linen is soaked overnight in warm or cold water. Handkerchiefs should be placed separately in very salty water. It is better to soak colored linen for 2-3 hours and only in cold water.

Soap, washing soda, borax

To ensure a successful transition from commercial detergents (reagents) to a safe alternative, you must first get rid of residues from your clothing. Wash garments in the hottest water the fabric can handle, adding 50 ml of baking soda for each load. This must be done to prevent yellowing.

To prepare the most environmentally friendly washing powder, mix 250 ml of grated soap, 125 ml of washing soda, 125 ml of borax (sodium tetraborate). Store everything in a special box. Add 125 ml of this mixture to the water in your washing machine before washing. By adding wine vinegar (125-250 ml) while rinsing, you can get rid of all soap residues and soften the fabric.

Laundry soap

Natural fabrics are perfectly washable and at the same time significantly softens (which is important, for example, for sliders or diapers) laundry soap.

Laundry soap grated on a grater + a teaspoon of soda is normally washed even in a typewriter.

For decades, our mothers and grandmothers washed with ordinary soap, and at the same time, their clothes were clean. The most suitable is laundry soap. For washing, you need to prepare such a solution: add 50 g of grated soap to a bucket of warm water and 3 tbsp. tablespoons of soda. Dark fabrics with unstable coloration are washed without the addition of baking soda.

Soda ash

In general, different formulations are needed to wash different fabrics. Acidic and neutral environments are favorable for washing products made from animal fibers (wool, silk), alkaline ones - for washing products made from plant fibers (cotton, linen); moderately alkaline medium - for washing fabrics made of artificial and synthetic fibers.

Therefore, products made of cotton and linen fibers can be washed with soda ash (these are alkaline salts). It washes perfectly, even thick linen sheets - they become snow-white! Especially in the washing machine (automatic). But it is necessary that the washing temperature was 50-70 ° C.

But for woolen and silk fabrics this is completely unsuitable - they become tough, fragile and quickly deteriorate.

Mustard

Mustard is a universal remedy. And the dishes can be washed with them, and the head, and it is great for washing.

Take about 50 grams per machine, everything is washed perfectly, and after washing things smell fresh, and not washing powder. It must be poured into an "automatic machine" (just not into a cuvette, but immediately into linen), and the temperature above 40 should not be done (mustard is brewed). In case of stubborn dirt, first apply mustard gruel to the stains and then to the machine.

Cotton does not take mustard. Silk and woolen items can be washed in mustard. For 1 liter of water, take 15 grams of mustard, stir well, leave for 2 - 3 hours. Then drain the liquid without sediment into a bowl of hot water. Pour the remaining mustard in the sediment with hot water, wait until it settles and drain the top again. Wash things 1 time (if heavily soiled - 2 times, each time pouring fresh "mustard" liquid). Then rinse thoroughly in clean water. At the last rinse for woolen items, add a teaspoon of ammonia per 1 liter of water, for silk - 1 tbsp. a spoonful of vinegar in 1 liter of water.

Salt

Surprisingly, table salt is also very good at washing things, especially chintz, linen (both colored and white). At the same time, after washing, colored items absolutely do not lose their brightness even after a large number of washes.

For washing with salt, things must be folded into a basin and filled with water using a measuring cup (you need to accurately measure how many liters of water you pour in). Then carefully squeeze things out and set aside, and dilute so much in the water that remains in the basin (1 tbsp. Spoon with a slide for 1 liter). After dissolving the salt, put the things back and leave them soaked for an hour. After this time, we wring out the things, rinse them and - that's it! We enjoy cleanliness and freshness. Of course, this option is suitable for lightly soiled clothing and will not help remove stains, even simple ones. But as you know, most summer linen and chintz items very quickly lose their attractive appearance from frequent washings. Washing with salt will help preserve the color and texture of the fabric. Not to mention saving on detergent and being environmentally friendly.

Soap root (soapwort)

It is good to wash silk and woolen items in a solution of soap root. You can buy it at a homeopathic pharmacy or on the market.

For 1 kg of dry things, you need to take 50 g of soap root, split it into small pieces, pour 0.5 liters of boiling water and leave for a day. During these days, the solution must be mixed several times.

After 24 hours, the mixture must be boiled for an hour over low heat, removed, wait to settle, and strain through cheesecloth. Pour boiling water over the root remaining on the gauze and leave for several hours. So we get another soap solution, although less concentrated, but still quite suitable for washing.

Pour the resulting soap into a bowl of warm water, beat a fluffy foam, divide into 2 portions and wash things 2 times (if the things are slightly dirty, just once is enough). Then rinse with clean water at room temperature (add 2 teaspoons of ammonia to the last rinse to rinse a white woolen cloth).

The soap root solution must be used immediately. You cannot store it - it quickly deteriorates.

Horse chestnut

The chestnuts need to be collected, dried, grinded on a coffee grinder (beforehand, be sure to remove the brown skin, because it paints things), pour into a basin and pour hot water. The foam is obtained as from a regular washing powder. Can be washed directly with this water, both by hand and in a machine. When washing by hand, to achieve the best result, you need to soak things in this "chestnut" water for an hour, and then wash them here and rinse in clean water.

Beans

Bean wash is another option for eco wash without powder. Somewhat unusual, but for woolen things - that's it. And most importantly - waste-free production is obtained: we will eat the beans, and wash them in the water from under it.

To prepare it for 1 liter of water, you need to take 200 g of beans, cook in a sealed container until tender. After cooking, strain the broth through clean cheesecloth, pour into a bowl of hot water, beat the foam. After washing things, rinse them well several times in warm water, adding vinegar at the last rinse (1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water).

Potato

Potato juice is suitable for fading fabrics and woolen items. To do this, grate 2 kg of peeled potatoes (you can take the old, sprouted, which is no longer suitable for food), drain the juice, add hot water until the solution becomes warm, beat the foam. Wash clothes by wringing lightly. Rinse several times in warm water, adding vinegar at the last rinse. In this way, you can wash any woolen items, except for whites, because subsequently, when ironing, white things turn a little yellow.

Ash

Ash can be used for washing, as long as it is of vegetable origin. Try to avoid getting various chemical residues into the ash, for example, from various packages that do not burn, but melt. It can be very bright modern wrapping materials, during the combustion of which various poisonous odors and abundant soot are emitted.

For those who have a house with a stove, the following method will work.

White linen is washed with ash from wood burning. Wrap it in cheesecloth, several layers, tie this bag, put it in a tub of linen, which is on the stove. While the stove is heated (for an hour or more), this whole thing is boiling on the sly. Then you take out the linen, caress it, hang it out in the summer, and in the winter you can on the snow (not in the city). The sun in the summer and frost in the winter complete the whole process. Lingerie sparkles with cleanliness and smells fresh!

If you need to wash a few things, put a cotton cloth on top of the bucket, take the ash from the oven, sprinkle it on this cloth and carefully pour boiling water into the bucket. After some time, the ash releases alkali into the water, it remains only to remove the fabric with the ash and wash things in this water. Then rinse.

Ash alkali: white ash from burnt wood is soaked in water. The alkali passes from ash to water. After that, the ash is like a harmless (alkaline-free) fertilizer into the ground. And use water for washing (this is how our ancestors washed).

Here is another washing recipe: place birch ash in a container, pour water and insist until the water becomes soapy, then pour the water into another container so that the ash does not get into, you can strain through a fine sieve and boil the laundry in this water. Previously, it was the only way to wash it, it bleaches very well. Well suited for washing deciduous tree ashes, especially aspen.

Soap nuts

This product has recently appeared on sale, more often via the Internet, and has already won many fans, mainly because it is easy for them to wash, and you can wash any fabrics. No need to soak, drain or brew anything - just throw a few shells of Indian soap nuts in a canvas bag into the washing machine along with the laundry and turn it on. If you want to wash it by hand, throw 4-6 eggshells into a bowl of warm water and whip the lather. After taking out the nuts, you can start washing.

Whitening

One of the ways to wash white linen is to boil in two containers of 7 liters of water each. In one container, dissolve several crystals of potassium permanganate, in another 10 grams. laundry soap. Pour both solutions together and put 2-3 things overnight. Rinse in the morning. There are no stains and the linen is snow-white.

White linen can be washed with vegetable oil. Proportion: 100 grams of refined vegetable oil in 3 buckets of water. All this is stirred and it is the white linen that is put in for soaking. Then rinse and that's it. And whoever has washing machines in the house, they simply spin it all in the car, then rinse and dry.

You can also bleach without chlorine. For 10 liters of hot water, you can add 2 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide and 1 tablespoon of ammonia.

White socks, knee-highs are better washed if they are pre-soaked for 1-2 hours in water, to which 1-2 tablespoons of boric acid have been added. Boric acid bleaches whites better than bleach.

White clay - kaolin - bleaches well; her grandmothers often mix with starch and wash white clothes.

Blue clay bleaches cotton well!

Soda is also a bleaching agent.