Baking soda for your clothes

Are you looking for ecological alternatives to chemicals used for washing clothes? This article will provide you with several useful ideas which will allow you either completely switch to an ecologically-friendly option for washing your clothes or at least to minimise the amount of a regular washing product. Of course, you will be able to save some money as well.

As the title of our article suggests, the product you can use for washing your clothes is baking soda.

Baking soda against unpleasant smells

You might have already come across a lot of recommendations for using baking soda as a powerful and cheap product against unpleasant smells. Indeed, baking soda has an amazing ability of fighting against odours. That is why it is recommended for cleaning both carpets after they are accidentally used by a pet as a toilet and fridges filled with the smell of spoilt food.

The same ability of baking soda can be adapted for washing clothes when you find it is impossible to get rid of nasty smells with regular washing. For example, a rather popular situation is clothes getting the smell of sweat which cannot be reduced even by a powerful washing powder. This happens since the material gets heavily populated with bacteria which normally live on skin. Soda is a powerful product when it comes to killing bacteria that is why it will also neutralise the toxins causing nasty smells.

How can you use baking soda for this purpose?

In case you want soda to help you to get rid of unpleasant smells, you should add half a glass of baking soda to laundry. Note it is recommended to add soda right inside the washing machine rather than to the washing powder container. You can also first add a glass of baking soda to a container of warm water and keep the clothes you want to make fresh overnight before washing it with regular washing products.

Refreshing the clothes which cannot be washed

Providing you happened to be an owner of some unique hand-made garment which should not be washed, you can still make it fresher with the help of baking soda. This time, your plan of action will be different.

How can you refresh the clothes which cannot be washed with baking soda?

For this purpose, just open a package of baking soda and put it into a container. Place your piece of clothes in the container next to the package of baking soda and close the container with a lid. Leave the container in such a way at least for a day.

Baking soda will be able to absorb all of the unpleasant smells even without a direct contact with the material.

Increase the effect of a bleach product

Sometimes bleach products turn out to be very helpful, however, you are certainly aware of the harm they are causing to the natural environment. Powerful bleach products also tend to be expensive while they are also harmful for clothes itself. On the one hand, they can make it cleaner than regular washing powder. On the other hand, the material washed tends to get damaged when it is treated with such harsh chemicals.

Fortunately, you can minimise the amount of a bleach product needed substituting a part of it with baking soda. This is especially recommended for too acidic or too alkali water which actually does not allow bleaching products to work efficiently. Baking soda can balance the pH of water.

How can you use baking soda with a bleaching product?

If you want to make your bleaching product more potent, it is recommended to add the same amount of baking soda with your laundry while a bleaching product itself should be added to a special container of your washing machine.