Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergent

As the Portuguese often say, “necessity sharpens ingenuity”. The perfect expression to go hand in hand with the never-ending chore of laundry washing. It is understandable that the thought of environmental harm, from common detergent, doesn’t even cross our minds. The truth is many of them contain over twenty-five toxic chemicals (here’s a list of 13 most dangerous ones and how to avoid them). To make matters slightly worse, the alluring packaging doesn’t help and not all chemicals get washed away - some of them remain on the clothing which, unfortunately, leads to accidental poisoning in children each year one way or another, or simply might cause allergic reactions/skin and eye irritation.

To avoid this and to help out the planet as much as we can, look for “eco-friendly”, “bio-based” and “natural” labeled detergents while keeping an eye open for “phosphate” based ones. This toxic ingredient gets into the waterways and removes all the oxygen suffocating marine life in the process.

That or we make our own Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergent! Before we start, it’s important to know that these kinds of recipes are only safe for standard and high-efficiency washing machines.

What you’ll need:

• 1 bar of soap (This can be your personal preference, so pick your favorite scent)

• 1 cup of washing soda

• 1 cup of borax

Instructions:

1. Rasp the bar of soap until it is completely ground, or simply chop it in a food processor for better results;
   
   
2. Mix it with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.
   
   
3. Store it in a sealed container.
   
   
4. Add 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup of soap per load of laundry
   
   
5. You now have your special homemade detergent ready to go, congratulations!

Besides being easy and inexpensive, it will only take you a couple of minutes to make! Additionally, we get to win a small battle against plastic as well, from saving on those pods and big bottles you bring from the store.

For more tips on Sustainable Household Cleaning, visit our friend's guide here!

As always, we hope you liked the suggestion as it is a win-win for us and the planet!

See you next week!