It is necessary to raise the question of how to replace ordinary laundry detergent. But for starters, it is worth remembering two conditions for successful and efficient washing.
Firstly, it is not necessary to save a pile of dirty laundry, it is much easier to wash off if it does not lie in the laundry basket for days, but gets into the basin immediately after contamination.
The second pledge of light washing is soft water. A simple experiment will help you to distinguish soft water from hard water: you need to put some soap shavings into a glass of hot water and look at the reaction. If the chips completely dissolve in water, and after cooling, the solution will be clear, and then the water is soft. And if it is rolled up like flakes, a precipitate falls out or a soap film appears on the surface, then the water is hard. Thanks to ordinary baking or washing soda, it is possible to soften the water of any hardness. To do this, add 2-3 tablespoons of soda in a bowl of water before you soak the dirty clothes, going to wash or rinse it.
By the way, the issue with soaking clothes before washing is very relevant. Today, with the advent of automatic washing machines, the hostesses have forgotten that this greatly simplifies the washing process and helps to treat any fabrics more carefully, preserving their color and structure for longer. At the same time, white linen should be soaked in warm water for 10-12 hours, and colored – in cold water only for 2-3 hours. Easy and quick to wipe the handkerchiefs will help you soak them in very salty warm water. And white socks and socks to return them to the previous whiteness before washing can be soaked for 1-2 hours in water, after having dissolved 1-2 tablespoons of boric acid in it.
Here is some homemade laundry detergent for cloth diapers.
- Laundry soap
The ideal laundry soap for weakly and heavily soiled natural fabrics is ordinary laundry soap. It is best to use soap of the first category, which contains 72% of fatty acids, it is the most active. In addition to washing, laundry soap softens the fibres of fabrics, which is very important for children’s clothes (diapers, sliders) and diapers. For washing in a typewriter, the machine is a suitable mixture: 25-50 grams of rubbed soap 1 teaspoon of soda for hand washing per 10 litters of warm water: 50 grams of laundry soap 3 tablespoons of soda no need to add.
- Soda ash (sodium carbonate)
Soda ash is ideal for washing cotton and linen products; it creates an alkaline environment, so it perfectly washes even dense and coarse linen fabric. At the same time, it is necessary to observe the condition of high water temperature – about 50-70 degrees Celsius. You should not use soda ash for wool and silk – clothes will become tough and will wear out faster.
- Salt (sodium chloride)
Ordinary table salt, which I am accustomed to use in the kitchen as a seasoning, turns out to be a great help in washing chintz and flax. At the same time, colour fabrics do not lose their brightness at all even after repeated washes.
This is how many alternatives I have found to the laundry detergent, which is usual for a city dweller, which is sold in hardware stores. But life was before the development of scientific and technological progress, and it was no worse than it is now.
