Our Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have been making and using my own laundry detergent, and I'm happy to report that it's working just great!!

Mix in old Ecover laundry container about 3/4 bottle Dr Bronner's liquid soap (I used the lavender) along with about 1/2 cup of baking soda and then fill container about 3/4 full of water. (There was nothing scientific about my measurements!) Then I add 1/2 capful (which amounts to about 2 tbsp) of the liquid with each load of wash. I add a bit of water for maybe a minute, put the soap in and then the clothing. I have heard some people have gotten bad results from putting Bronner's straight on clothing.

Laundry comes out smelling faintly like lavender and very clean!

I think next time I will use less Bronner's and more of the finished mix. Bronners I found out is very concentrated! You don't need much of it.

Cleaning Products

It is completely unbelievable how toxic most all cleaners are! Don’t they have to be that way to kill germs though? Absolutely not! There are numerous non-toxic cleaning agents that kill germs quite well, simple white vinegar and baking soda being two of them. Most of the ingredients in cleaning products are full of VOC’s and are carcinogens as well. And yes, this does include your laundry detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets. The latter two are simply chemical coatings (very carcinogenic) that are put on clothing to keep them soft, anti-static and less wrinkly.

http://www.scorecard.org/health-effects/chemicals.tcl?short_hazard_name=cancer&all_p=t This link will give you a list of 500 common ingredients that are carcinogenic.

Alternatives: This is one of the easiest, cheapest and most beneficial areas to change.

You can buy non-toxic commercial brands such as 7′th Generation, Ecover and many more, or you can use handy dandy google to find recipes for making your own, very inexpensive cleaning agents with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.

While your at it, check out this link for some more info on the harms of conventional cleaning products: http://www.health-report.co.uk/toxic_household_chemicals.htm