• hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net
    1·
    3 hours ago

    Collect some horse chestnuts, smash 4 with a hammer and put them in an old sock. Throw the sock and nuts in the wash. It’s a free replacement for unscented detergent.

    You can also make detergent from English Ivy and a bunch of other plants.

  • millie@slrpnk.net
    1·
    12 hours ago

    I literally have to check every machine I use for fabric softener left in the little cup thingies and thoroughly wipe out the drier I use or it will burn my skin until I wash it all out of my clothes.

  • fraxi@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2·
    23 hours ago

    for everything but wool, I use soft soap instead of washing powder. Just straight out of the bottle. Softener is pointless. I add a table spoon of ättiksprit (I think it’s “spirit vinegar” in English) instead of softener.

  • Nyssa@slrpnk.net
    14·
    2 days ago

    It’s also ridiculous how many products are just trucking water around from one place to another with a little big of active solution mixed in. We need more ‘just add water’ products available.

  • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
    9·
    3 days ago

    The homemade laundry detergent is so fucking good, though. No joke. My clothes have never felt cleaner. But can someone explain, if washing soda is just baked baking soda, why can’t you just use the baking soda directly? If it’s just to remove the moisture as they say in the pic, why bother doing it, since you’re dumping it into water?

    Also, get yourself a downy ball if your washing doesn’t have the fabric softner section, and use vinegar. I love the way our laundry feels once we switched to vinegar.

    • budget_biochemist@slrpnk.netEnglish
      3·
      20 hours ago

      Baking soda is NaHCO3 , Washing soda is Na2CO3

      Baking soda is (incorrectly) called “Bicarb” because there is twice as much Carbonate (CO3) per Sodium (Na). Heating it causes some to be released as water and carbon dioxide:

      2 NaHCO3 → Na2CO3 + H2O + CO2

      • budget_biochemist@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2·
        20 hours ago

        Also the “extra” carbonate group is dislodged as carbon dioxide:

        2 NaHCO3 (baking soda) → Na2CO3 (washing soda) + H2O + CO2

      • budget_biochemist@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2·
        20 hours ago

        You probably could, but IMO that’s an excessive amount of borax in the recipe. Most washing mixes only use a tiny amount of borax, it’s mostly soap/detergent and sodium carbonate (washing soda)

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
        6·
        3 days ago

        In my experience, yes. HOWEVER, I’m one of those “welcome to the laundry gauntlet” type people. I do not care for my clothes the way I should. Everything just get washed with little regard, unless it’s something hand made crochet or knit. But I’ve never noticed any bleaching or white spots.

      • GentriFriedRice@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 days ago

        My understanding of the washing soda is to raise the pH for saponification of fats and other non-polar compounds to dissolve in water. Saponification works best with more basic solutions which is why lye is used in soap making. By reducing the pH by adding vinegar you’re neutralizing the washing soda to a degree because it reacts to create water with carbon dioxide and sodium acetate which overall makes a less effective detergent

        • budget_biochemist@slrpnk.netEnglish
          1·
          20 hours ago

          Raising the pH helps with the detergent action, also the washing soda “softens” the water - calcium and magnesium in the water form carbonates, replacing the sodium in the washing soda.

        • DigitalDruid@lemmy.sdf.org
          11·
          2 days ago

          i don’t use washing soda i use some cheap arm and hammer liquid rn cuz i’m lazy, too.

          i do laundry for a whole family and our clothes are very clean and smell great!

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      2·
      1 day ago

      i used it until i learned that it’s basically just perfume liquid that dissolves your clothes slightly

      miss me with that shit

  • B-TR3E@feddit.org
    51·
    3 days ago

    Is it just me, my browser or Tesseract? I can’t for the love of Bob get a readable resolution of the screenshot. In other news, you won’t believe how many household chemicals (in the broadest sense) you can replace with standard chemicals (like natron, table salt, citric acid or vinegar). The differences are that the “magic” household chemicals might contain colorants, perfume and filler and a retail unit of them will cost about as much as a metric ton of the active ingredients.