The easiest way to ensure your laundry is green is to put all your white items in the same washing load as a very bright green piece of fabric with non-colour fast dye. Aaah, we got you for a second, didn’t we? Joking aside, there are ways to make washing more natural and still get clean, dry, comfortable clothes. These eco-friendly laundry practices save energy and water and contribute to a healthier environment.
No Need To Use Hot Water
Let’s start with energy consumption. Does anybody still wash using hot water? With modern laundry detergents designed to do an excellent job in cold water, I’d be amazed if anyone still does. Hot water is a big part of anyone’s energy consumption, and I’d rather save hot water for washing bodies than towels. Hot water sets protein stains, too. If you need a bit of heat to help get things out (e.g. mud), it’s best to soak the item in question in a bucket of hot water with a good dollop of ordinary soap. And whether you wash in hot or cold water, it makes better economic sense to run full loads only rather than little half loads (this advice applies to dishwashers, too). This may mean you wash every two days (or even once a week, depending on your family and circumstances), but this is not bad. You may also have to wait a while for a full load of delicates to build up… or wash them by hand. By adopting these practices, you’re being eco-friendly and saving on utility bills.
Water and Energy Saving Tips
A washing machine uses a lot of water and electricity, but there is a way to reduce these.
- Wait until you have enough laundry for a full load instead of running empty loads.
- If you have emergency washing with just a few items, set your water level accordingly.
- Do not overfill the washing machine; they need sufficient space inside to clean your laundry.
- To save energy, wash with hot water, but rinse with cold water.
What Do You Use To Get Your Clothes Clean?
Next comes what you use to get the clothes clean. Most people, let’s be honest, use commercial laundry detergents and commercial cleaning products. These aren’t the best, environmentally speaking, but you can get decent washing powder from Ecover. You can also reduce the amount of chemical gunk going into the wastewater system by doing less washing. You don’t have to wash every item of clothing after only one wear. Underpants, yes. Yes, I would say things that are grubby or sweaty. But you can wear the same T-shirt or pair of trousers for several days before they need washing. If you haven’t done very dirty work, you can even make a pair of trousers go for a whole week before they need washing. Shocking? Gross? Smelly? Not really. One shirt a week was the norm within living memory. We’ve only got into the habit of washing things more frequently since the invention of electric washing machines. Before that, everyone was perfectly happy wearing the same shirt all week unless it got filthy.
Fabric softeners aren’t essential, and much of your washing can be done without them. However, it’s nice to ensure certain items have a softener to stay nice and fluffy—blankets, pyjamas, and soft toys, for example. The natural alternative to a commercial fabric softener is to use vinegar—plain ordinary white vinegar. If you like the smell of fabric softener, you can scent that vinegar fabric softener by adding some essential oil and lavender if you want to be traditional.
Choosing Eco-Friendly Detergents
To avoid these risks, eco-friendly detergents are a good choice. They’re gaining popularity as people learn about chemical dangers. Eco-friendly options include detergents, fabric softeners, and bleach. They use natural, organic ingredients that are safe for skin and clothes.
Benefits
Popular eco-friendly brands, like Seventh Generation, avoid dyes and artificial fragrances. They’re also nontoxic and biodegradable, which means they break down naturally and don’t harm the environment. You won’t find detergent clumps in your garden; they decompose quickly. These detergents don’t use artificial brushes, phosphates, or petroleum-based agents. They’re gentle on the skin. They’re for septic tanks.
Ingredients
Detergents that are good for the environment often use coconut and corn-based surfactants. Natural enzymes tackle protein and starch stains. Borax softens water, and sodium gluconate removes soil without re-depositing it on fabric. These detergents typically include salt for cleaning and brightening.
EnSofteners and Bleaches Good for the Environment
Eco-friendly fabric softeners use soy derivatives, which soften fabric when mixed with water. Eco-friendly bleaches replace chlorine with hydrogen peroxide, which reduces chronic health risks. Special baby-friendly detergents are available for delicate clothes.
Using Eco-Friendly Detergents
Environmentally friendly detergents create less foam because they don’t use soap-like ingredients. Yet, they work well in washing machines. House cleaning can become less of a chemical warfare affair.
Homemade Laundry Products
“Essential oils can be added to these laundry treatments for a natural scent. The traditional scent in the laundry is lavender (the name lavender derives from the Latin lavare, meaning” to wash”). Eucalyptus oil is another popular essential oil for the laundry, as it has stain-removing properties. Other oils are moth repellents, especially natural camphor and cinnamon.”Essential oils can be added to these laundry treatments for a natural scent. The traditional scent in the laundry is lavender (the name lavender derives from the Latin lavare, meaning “to wash”). Eucalyptus oil is another popular essential oil for the laundry, as it has stain-removing properties. Other oils are moth repellents, especially natural camphor and cinnamon.
Soaking and pre-wash treatments: For many stains, a long soak in cold water is necessary to loosen excess dirt and float it out of the fabric. For tougher stains, add soap gel to the soaking water. Making soap gel is easy: save slivers of soap in a container and pour hot water over the scraps to melt them – you can add essential oil to scent the gel if you like – eucalyptus oil has some stain removal properties. Select the water temperature carefully. While hot water can melt and loosen grease and enhance the wetting properties of ordinary soap, hot water will set protein-based stains (e.g. blood or egg yolk). Lukewarm (blood heat or about 30 degrees Celsius) water is probably the best option.
Fabric softener: To make towels and cotton sheets soft and fluffy, add ½ a cup of baking soda (bicarbonate) to the washing water and 1 cup of vinegar to the final rinse. The baking soda and the vinegar will react within the clothing, and the resulting fizz will fluff up the fabric’s fibres. Alternatively, add vinegar to the final rinse. This will reduce the pH of the clothing – a must for any washing load containing urine-stained items (nappies and items from children who still wet the bed or have trouble holding on), as the vinegar neutralized the rash-causing ammonia in the urine.
Stain removers: Depending on the type of stain, clothing can be treated before washing with a range of natural stain removers. Vodka (or another strong alcohol), soap, lemon juice, glycerine, essential oil of eucalyptus and vinegar all have natural stain removal properties. Some swear by using half a cut potato as a”stain removal stick.”Stain removers: Depending on the type of stain, clothing can be treated before washing with a range of natural stain removers. Vodka (or another strong alcohol), soap, lemon juice, glycerine, essential oil of eucalyptus and vinegar all have natural stain removal properties. Some swear by using half a cut potato as a “stain removal stick.”
Anti-static treatments: You only need these if you use a clothes dryer, and you can eliminate the need for them if you switch to drying clothing on an outside washing line or a clothes horse.
Starch: If you like crisp, starched collars and cuffs, use the original laundry starch: good old cornflour. Mix about a teaspoon of cornflour (cornstarch) with water in a spray dispenser and squirt the item to be treated before ironing on low. Set the iron too high, and the cornstarch will burn and turn brown – but this is washable. Or give the item to be starched using the Mrs Tiggywinkle treatment – mix the starch mixture in a bowl and dip it into it to be ironed.
Linen spray: Instead of aerosols laden with artificial fragrances, make your own from distilled water and essential oil (about ten drops of oil to a pint of water). Lavender is a traditional scent to add to linen – it has moth-repellent properties – but experiment and blend to find your favourite. Any oil you love will do!
Smell removal: If you need to get vile smells out of clothing, baking soda is the best natural way, as this absorbs odours (it will do the same in your fridge and your sports shoes, although using baking soda as a natural alternative to cat litter is a bit too extravagant for most of us – use wood ash instead for this). Put about half a cup of baking soda in the washing machine during the rinse cycle.
Ironing Tip: While you’re ironing, while ordinary plain water will do to fill up the steam chamber, you can make ironing a little bit nicer, as well as putting a subtle scent into the clothes, by adding a drop or two of essential oil into the water. If you don’t have a steam compartment in the iron, you can get the benefits of steam for your laundry by spraying the thing to be ironed with water using one of those plant misters. You can add essential oil to this water, as well. Incidentally, ironing is a natural way of sterilizing cloth, if needed or if you’re concerned about germs.
Green Dying Alternatives
Now for the drying. Everyone should be able to fit a washing line somewhere around their home. Even if all you’ve got is an apartment, you should be able to put up a few strings somewhere. Alternatively, you can get one of those collapsible towel horses that packs away when not sitting on the balcony drying clothes. The real beauty of a collapsible towel horse is that you can move it inside if things are wet and rainy.
