Try These Suds On Your Duds

I've written about replacing fabric softener with vinegar and, in August, I blogged about the new bleach I'm using, so it only seems fair I should write about my experience with homemade liquid laundry soap. I made my first batch in August and have been using it (along with homemade bleach, vinegar, and a favourite laundry bar soap), exclusively, ever since.

To say this new mixture is thriftier than store-bought is a huge understatement. But, as with everything, it's not solely about saving money but about how well the product actually does the job. A good laundry soap cleans and deodorizes. A good laundry soap doesn’t leave behind anything objectionable that might harm the body, or stiffen, abrade, and/or discolour fabrics. By all these criteria, I have to say the new detergent is working fabulously well. It cleans, leaves the fabrics smelling...well, clean...without any odor (good or bad) and it leaves everything SO SOFT.

When I first replaced fabric softener with vinegar, the laundry was rinsed well, and the fibres plumped up nicely, but sometimes the fabrics felt stiff. I thought the vinegar was merely limited in its softening ability – we do have very hard water here. I was wrong, though. The problem, it turns out, was the laundry detergent. As soon as I replaced the commercial detergent I was using with this homemade liquid detergent recipe*, the laundry has been coming out supremely soft. (*Note: some recipe measurements are slightly off, so the total volume is less than stated; also, given our hard water, I use more than the recommended per-load amount.)

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

Soft fabrics are delightful, but the real test for hubby and I is the effect the detergent has on our skin. Both of us, for different reasons, have sensitivities to ingredients in many commercial cleaning products. This new recipe has proven a "friendly" mixture for us both. Neither of us has suffered any of the rashes and skin irritations we had become used to dealing with. This result isn’t completely about personal perception, either. Ironing proves the difference. Where wrinkles in fabrics were once set so severely the iron was hard-pressed – literally – to straighten them, now, ironing has become a breeze. Also, after ironing, the fabrics remain soft and don’t have that “starched” feel they once had.

This is probably due to the absence of ingredients like builders, fillers, surfactants, emulsifiers and “optical brighteners.” While their omission might be reassuring, it does mean spending a little more attention to stain treatment prior to the wash cycle. For instance, surfactants attach to dirt and lift them from fabrics, suspending their molecules in the wash water and preventing their return to the fabric. The homemade detergent has no surfactants, so I use a favourite laundry bar soap for pre-treatment of any stain and our laundry is as clean as ever.

Just a few simple products now...

It seems the old adage, ‘less is more’ holds true with this cleaner, as with so many others I’ve made at home.  A simple mixture works as well as anything else we were using. No, that’s wrong. This laundry soap is better.  It’s very gentle on our bodies, on our fabrics, as well as on our budget!

Vinegar, a Winning Solution

Answers are sometimes found along convoluted paths. Occasionally, if we're really fortunate, those answers travel with friends. Plain white vinegar was just such a result I discovered.

For years, hubby has suffered with a persistent case of eczema, the after effect of plaster casts. He found no ointment to ease the symptoms. Dietary changes had no significant effect. Altering hygiene practices did little to lessen irritation. It seemed he would just have to live with it.

One day, while discussing this issue with my mother, she told me she had stopped using liquid fabric softeners because they were irritating my father's skin. A light bulb came on. Could this be contributing to hubby's problem? Following her example, I switched from liquid softener to dryer sheets and it seemed to help. Hubby's eczema diminished, but it didn't disappear entirely. Winter, the worst season with the wearing of close-fitting long-johns and brutal weather conditions, still aggravated it. I kept searching.

A girlfriend had once mentioned her love of "dryer balls," how eco-friendly they are and how well they soften and fluff fabrics. Always on the look-out for thrifty and ecologically-conscious methods and products, I wanted to try them but, at that time, was unable to find any. Months later, I finally found a set and was impressed by their reasonable price and how well they worked. Better yet, hubby's eczema occurred rarely once I replaced dryer sheets with them.

Then we moved. Cache Creek's water has a much higher mineral content than Vulcan's and soon our laundry showed signs of it. Fabrics felt courser, colours appeared duller, and fibres flattened. Worse, the eczema began acting up again. Something had to be done but having quit commercial fabric softeners I was reluctant to use them again. Aside from the environmental aspects, the possibility they might aggravate hubby's problem kept me searching for other, more natural laundry rinse agents.

Add caption

That search led me to vinegar. Would it really work? Certainly it was more cost-effective than using commercial fabric softeners. I'd often used vinegar for other cleaning and disinfecting purposes, but never thought to add it to laundry. Still, I hesitated, unsure if our clothes and linens would smell like pickles. Realizing the laundry could be re-washed, if need be, I gave vinegar a try.

What a find! With the very first wash, fibres of our favourite bathroom linens loosened and, folded, they had plumped to nearly double the fullness they had before using vinegar. Colours brightened and bedding felt soft and inviting again. Happily, no garments smelled like condiments. From that point on, only white vinegar and those dandy little dryer balls soften our laundry and control static cling – yes, for some reason, vinegar helps control that, too. As the foul weather blusters in, we watch and wait. For more than a month, hubby's worn long-johns and has been working in cold winter weather, yet his shins remain free of irritation. This may finally be the long-sought solution...pardon the pun.

My search to alleviate hubby's eczema began with single-minded purpose. I wasn't particularly seeking thrift or environmentally friendliness when starting the journey. Those dividends were simply travelling companions of the answer discovered down a long and winding trail.


 

Rags to Niches

The debate still continues over the use of rags versus paper towels. In our home, it's not a case of either/or. Both are used; rags far more often than paper towels, but the latter is on hand for specific purposes.

Sometimes, it's more cost-effective to dispose of towelling. For instance, I use paper to soak up oil from fried foods, or "mop" fats from stock – as we seldom fry foods and only occasionally make stock only a few towels per week are required. To use rags would mean washing them separately to avoid oily stains on other clothing – not very economical, nor environmentally friendly. At other times, is just safer using paper to clean up raw meat juices or spilled egg. Rags could easily contaminate other surfaces prior to their laundering, possibly causing dire illness. Disposing of an occasional towel lessens the risk so I'll continue using paper for this purpose.

Rags, however, are my first choice for most other household applications. Some people feel the "environmental cost" (EC) of laundering rags negates any advantage they might have over paper towels. In our home, rags are never washed separately, but with other "like" items (per their colour and/or soiling,) thus making those loads closer to capacity and thereby saving EC in the long run. It should also be noted that saving cloth from ending up in a landfill before it's been fully "consumed" must also have some merit.

All rags are not created equal, though. I once cut up an old sweatshirt to use for rags. The material – a poly-cotton blend – only pushed fluids around but wouldn't soak up anything...except oils. A-ha! I thought. Now, polyester blends are kept in a separate pile and used anytime there's a greasy mess to clean. Old towels and washcloths are perfect for polishing glass and plastic surfaces – after all, kitchen linens were made for this purpose. Old bath towels make the best soakers, for those larger spills like the dreaded toilet or bathtub overflows. Cotton-blend socks are fantastic additions to the rag bag. Worn on the hand(s), they work well for dusting or polishing small items. They're ideal shoe buffers and, when too soiled, instead of washing and perhaps ruining other laundry items, can be used as campfire "starters." Just make sure to store them in a closed tin, in a cool place, until needed. Just don't cook over that campfire until all trace of the "starter" has been burned away.

Second-hand cloth can be used for more than merely rags. I take old jeans apart and use the salvageable cloth to sew tote bags. Old pillowcases are used as storage bags and are particularly good for foods which require ventilation (e.g. onions.) "Retired" sheets could produce a dozen rags, but are used for another purpose. I cut them, across their width, into one-foot strips and then sew those strips onto the foot end of new sheets to extend their length – most sheets are just way too short for my liking! Nobody sees the mismatching foot end, and we end up with sheets long enough to fold over the top blanket.

As someone who sews, I also have a collection of remnant cloth. This doesn't go to waste either. Quilting is a possibility, but I've yet to learn that craft. So, to use those fabrics I recently made cosmetic pads with some leftover fleece sandwiched between two layers of poplin. Using a zigzag stitch, I sewed rows and columns, approximately 1-1/2 inches wide, separated by about 1/8 inch to allow cutting between them. These cosmetic pads have lasted several months now and launder well (though I put them in a "small-garment bag" to ensure the washer won't eat them.),

Ultimately, even rags become too threadbare for practical use. Don't throw them out yet, though. Laundered, they make excellent packing material.

Over time, this has become like a game: How else can second-hand cloth be of use? Do you play the Rag-time game too? Please leave a comment and share your cloth-recycling ideas.