- This is an Australian website - Contact Margaret RainbowWebSince I wrote these leaflets in 1989, many products are claiming to be "environmentally friendly." But we should take the trouble to keep ourselves well-informed & up-to-date. Few laundry & cleaning products are truly environmentally friendly, and the first line of defence for the environment is still to use as little as possible. We also need to research the ingredients of any product we plan to use. The wholesale use of bicarbonate of soda, either as an additive, or a filler, in any product DOES NOT MAKE IT ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE! Bicarb soda, & any other sodium salt is still salt, & will sooner or later find their way into our soils, further increasing salinity & damaging soil structure.
For a list of sodium content of some popular products, go to LANFAXLABS.COM.AU
For further research, a comprehensive database of the composition of household products can be found at:
http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=chem&id=850
GENERAL LAUNDRY WITHOUT POISONING OUR WATERWAYS!
You will need:
WATER, PREFERABLY RAINWATER
BOWLS, TUBS, BUCKETS
PURE SOAP, (If you can, avoid soaps made from Palm Oil. Toilet soaps usually have a lower Ph. than laundry soap, and there are many unscented or naturally scented varieties available.)
HOUSEHOLD AMMONIA** or BICARB.SODA
PLEASE DO NOT USE BORAX - Here's Why?
FRESH AIR
SUNSHINE and/or WIND, or AN AIRY UNDERCOVER SPACE SUCH AS A CARPORT OR VERANDAH
WASHING MACHINE (Optional)
** Note**Unlike soap & soda, household ammonia does
not damage soil structure & is a nitrogenous
fertiliser.
Use with care, & avoid
avoid inhaling fumes.
The following simple steps will dramatically reduce the amount of washing you need to do each wash day:-
Most clothes do not need washing
after one wearing. Wear clothes
suitable for your task, keeping best
clothes for best, work clothes
for work. Change when you get home.
Shake your clothes when you
take them off, then
hang them up to air.
Remove spots & stains.
Check the pockets.
For temporary protection from food,
dirt, & splashes, use an apron or old shirt
over your clothes.
Handwash socks & underwear daily using a very little bar soap only if necesssary. Soak smelly socks overnight in a litre of water & 2 teaspoons Bicarb. soda. Wash next day, putting a dash of vinegar or lemon juice in the rinse.
Strip & air beds & bed linen daily.
Hang wet towels, bathmats & face-washers
out to air dry immediately after use.
Back to Water Saving Tips
The night before wash-day, inspect
each article for stains. Remove them (If you remove these when they occur, or when doing a daily check, this will not take long)
then sort laundry into whites, pastels,
coloured, & dark colours.
Soak each
overnight in soft water. Articles that are not colourfast should
be soaked separately in a small bowl.
In the morning, lift out the whites,
wring lightly, & place in the washing machine. Rub badly soiled places with laundry soap. Then pour most of
the soaking water into the machine, taking care not to disturb the dirt
that has settled in the bottom of the container during the night. (It's amazing just how much dirt is removed by the soaking process!)
Top up the machine with water poured off the pastels, & more clean water if necessary. If clothes
are heavily soiled, add one cup of
bicarbonate of soda, or laundry ammonia - the water should feel slippery when you rub your fingers together.
Wash!
(You can
of course wash everything by hand
if you have no machine.)
FOR AUTOMATIC MACHINES Save the suds. Put wash through rinse cycles as usual, adding a cup of vinegar or strained lemon juice to the final rinse.
FOR TWIN-TUB MACHINES:
Spin the soapy water back into the
wash-tub. Remove clothes from
spin-dryer, rinse thoroughly in
soft water, wring lightly & re
place in spin-dryer. Spin. Pour
a bucket of water containing a
cup of vinegar or strained lemon juice onto the clothes
in the dryer & spin again.
Whichever method you use, take clothes
to outside line, & hang out,
shaking each article well, and turning inside out before
pegging out.
Repeat the operation for each
group of articles.
Save the really sudsy dirty water for flushing the loo (use a bucket, not the cistern!!) - I often use it to wash the floors first. The rest can go on the garden. Since some of the rinsing water contains vinegar or lemon juice, this will help prevent damage to soil structure caused by soap & soda residues. (So will mulching with organic materials.)
SPECIAL NOTE:
Soap & soap powders, if used like soapless detergents, will eventually gum up your washing machine. Using vinegar or lemon juice in the rinsing water will help this to happen more slowly, but it WILL happen.
This is another good reason to use ammonia rather than soap powder. (A little laundry soap rubbed onto stains won't hurt)
Also, if you live in a district where the tap water is very hard, alkaline, or saline, either use rainwater, or install a water softener, to keep your washing machine pump functioning.
Note: In researching & answering questions about earthwise living, Margaret offers information, opinion, & personal experience, but no quick fixes! Readers should evaluate these offerings in the context of their own situations; they are suggestions, *not* recommendations. Any responsibility for their implementation rests *solely* with the reader.
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- This is an Australian website - Contact Margaret RainbowWeb
URL - http://www.users.on.net/~arachne/laundry1.html