How to prepare laundry detergents without waste and in an environmentally friendly way? Here are the recipes!
Liquid detergent for delicate items
To make laundry detergent you need:
> 400 grams of ecological Marseille soap
> 2 liters of water.
The soap is already purchased in flakes or alternatively you can grate (by hand or using a food processor) ecological or self-produced soap with only olive oil. You can increase the doses to get more liquid soap while maintaining the proportions.
Fill a pot with water, add the soap and let it melt over low heat, stirring with a spoon. Remove from heat, let cool and then decant into a glass or plastic bottle.
About 200/250 ml of the obtained soap gel will be used for a full load washing.
To avoid that the metals present in the water bind to the fats contained in the soap by making them go rancid (with a consequent bad smell on the clothes), a sequestering agent is necessary; for this purpose, add a teaspoon of Sodium Citrate powder directly into the drum of the washing machine before washing.
Powder detergent for white garments
To prepare a kilo of environmentally friendly powder detergent suitable for resistant fabrics and white garments, you need:
> 300 grams of Marseille soap in flakes
> 300 grams of laundry soda
> 250 grams of sodium bicarbonate
> 100 grams of sodium percarbonate
> 50 grams of powdered sodium citrate.
Mix all the ingredients and add four tablespoons of detergent directly into the basket for each load.
Laundry soda and baking soda can be bought at the supermarket, while sodium percarbonate and sodium citrate can be found in stores that sell ecological and organic products or on the Internet.
Adjuvant for difficult stains
Difficult stains on delicate fabrics can be pre-treated in an ecological way with Marseille soap, vinegar, lemon juice and bicarbonate, depending on the type of stain and fabric.
For white and resistant garments one or two tablespoons of sodium percarbonate are used, to be added directly to the washing machine drum, to whiten and remove stains from the fabrics.
Ecological softener
The ecological softener is prepared simply by adding 150 grams of anhydrous citric acid to one liter of distilled water; just dissolve and add 100 ml of solution in the softener compartment.
It is suitable for all types of fabrics and can be purchased in eco-organic or online stores .
Perfume the laundry
If you want to perfume laundry in an environmentally friendly way, you will need essential oils. However, if added at the time of washing, they will tend to fade because they are very volatile.
The most effective method is to make linen chalks to be inserted in drawers and cabinets .
In the same way you can put some very fragrant soap or even dried spices, flowers and aromatic herbs in a small tulle or cotton sack between the linen: cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds and lavender flowers tend to smell very long; in addition, lavender keeps moths away.
