All Natural Laundry Detergent

Use Safe, All Natural Laundry Detergent to Protect your Family- and the Planet

Modern laundry detergents are very effective – they work.

Sadly, they’re also dangerous.

When you wash your clothes, you send the used water into the sewage system, from where it eventually ends up in our waterways. The chemicals cause grave hazards for fish and marine life (and then we eat those fish!).

Most of the chemicals used come from petroleum, such as NPE (which is banned in Canada and Europe), napthas and phenols which cause liver and hormone damage and even death to marine life. Then there’s SLS, dioxane, NPE, phosphates, not to mention the brighteners and fragrance – chemically-based, many people are allergic to them.

Do your clothes smell of detergent after washing? If so, just how much detergent are you wearing next to your skin?

It makes sense to avoid the toxic chemicals and instead use safe, all natural laundry detergent in your home.  Here’s how.

1.  Start with the Main Ingredients

There are 3 main choices for the main ingredient of your all natural laundry detergent.

• The most commonly-used natural laundry detergent is Washing Soda or Sodium Carbonate.
• Or use Soap Nuts (aka soap berries) which are now much more widely available. They’ve been used for a long time in Asia and elsewhere, and have natural anti-microbial properties. (Just make sure you’re not buying soap nuts with additives – they may SAY it’s natural but…..).
• Alternatively, Castille Soap is perennially popular and easy and safe to use, again be sure to buy the pure product.

2. Optional Extras for Your All natural laundry Detergent

• Add essential oil for fragrance if you wish.
• Add Stearic Acid if desired to remove grease stains. It also softens the water.

3. Add Stain Removers for Difficult Stains

The main ingredients of your all natural laundry detergent will clean your clothes, but if you have difficult stains, you might consider adding these extras:

• Add lemon or vinegar to your detergent as great all-purpose stain removers. They will remove food stains, blood and sweat.
• For oil stains, use vinegar mixed with baking soda.
• For chocolate stains add borax to the all natural laundry detergent

Summary

An all natural laundry detergent is easy to make – in most cases it’s only made of one ingredient. You can add the extras if you wish but you don’t need to for normal washing.

All natural laundry detergent is safe – for you AND the planet.

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