Lifestyle

12 Homemade Laundry Products That Are 100 Percent Chemical-Free

LifestylePublished Jun 27, 2016
By Caroline Olney
cooking toolslivesimply.me

Every time we're doing laundry, we're struck by just how many chemicals go into the whole process. We're not even talking about how our clothes are made in the first place -- just the routine of washing, softening, drying, and cleaning adds so many unnecessary chemicals and unnatural products to our daily lives, it's crazy. But we -- and the natural moms of Pinterest, bless them -- think that all these chemicals can be easily replaced with natural alternatives that the laundry industry doesn't want to tell us about.

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Have a little one who is allergic to everything? Or perhaps one is trying to lesson his or her impact on the environment? Well no matter what the reason, chemical-free laundry products might just be the answer to a whole plethora of our laundry problems. We did a little digging and found that we really can replace all of our laundry products with earth-, kid-, and stink-friendly natural recipes, if we're willing to do a little shaking and creating in our own kitchens. We've rounded up our favorite recipes and solutions, because honestly, the less chemicals we consume and wear, the better.

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Read on to see some our favorite DIY laundry products and give them a try next time a load needs to be done! 

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Chemical-Free Liquid Laundry Detergent-placeholder
Chemical-Free Liquid Laundry Detergent
dwellinginhappiness.com

Chemical-Free Liquid Laundry Detergent

Laundry detergent may be the biggest and baddest of the chemical-filled laundry room products, but Dwelling in Happiness has a surprisingly simple solution if you're in the liquid detergent crew: Chemical-Free Liquid Laundry Detergent. Her homemade recipe only has five ingredients, proving that the chemicals are so NOT necessary.

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Easy Powder Laundry Detergent-placeholder
Easy Powder Laundry Detergent
earlybirdmom.com

Easy Powder Laundry Detergent

"Okay," you say, "but I'm an all-powder, all-the-time kind of mom." No worries -- *Early Bird Mom* has your back. Her __Easy Homemade Powdered Laundry Detergent__ mixes up at a sweet 4 to 7 cents per load, and once you gather the ingredients, it'll take you five minutes to make. It's ACTUALLY easy and ACTUALLY cheap ... so yes, please.

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DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent Tabs-placeholder
DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent Tabs
onegoodthingbyjillee.com

DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent Tabs

Pod and tab-loving moms, you didn't think we'd forget you, did you? These DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent Tabs from One Good Thing by Jillee keep all the convenience and cuteness of pods while ditching the expense and the chemicals. Her recipe follows the bones of a traditional homemade detergent recipe, but adds a few easy steps to get these babies to keep their neat shape.

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Soap Nuts Instead of Detergent-placeholder
Soap Nuts Instead of Detergent
mongione/Shutterstock

Soap Nuts Instead of Detergent

If you're ready to take the plunge and ditch detergent altogether, soap nuts are the of-the-earth solution everyone's been raving about. If you're game to try, throw about five nuts into a small muslin or mesh bag and toss them in with your laundry. That's it. Really. You can reuse the same nuts up to eight times (here's how to tell when they're used up) and you'll get the same level of clean as you would with anything else. You can buy soap nuts at lots of grocery stores, green living retailers, and online (bless you, Amazon).

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Homemade Bleach Alternative-placeholder
Homemade Bleach Alternative
dontwastethecrumbs.com

Homemade Bleach Alternative

Bleach is the king of the nasty chems, and it's one most moms consider a must when knocking out the gross stuff from their laundry routine. But sadly, we can't deny our lust for gorgeous, just-bleached whites. If you're the same, you'll need *Don't Waste the Crumbs*'s __DIY All-Natural Homemade Bleach Alternative__. Every ingredient she uses has natural whitening power on its own, so the combo of the three will get you the dreamy whites you've been missing.

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Lemon to Whiten Whites-placeholder
Lemon to Whiten Whites
Joshua Resnick/Shutterstock

Lemon to Whiten Whites

If your whites are dingy to the point where in-washer bleach won't work, it might be time for an hour-long soak. But you still don't need the bleach. Lemons and hot water will do the trick -- just boil water, add lemon slices, and let your clothes sacrifice their stains at the feet of the acidity in the water.

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DIY Laundry Stain Remover-placeholder
DIY Laundry Stain Remover
dontwastethecrumbs.com

DIY Laundry Stain Remover

Alright, alright -- but what about when your stains aren't on white clothes? What then?? Don't Waste the Crumbs has a DIY Laundry Stain Remover that'll do its diligence on clothes of any color. The recipe pulls from ingredients you already have in your house, and it'll bust grease stains, food stains, blood stains -- whatever. Grab a toothbrush and get to it.

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Chemical-Free Washer Cleaner-placeholder
Chemical-Free Washer Cleaner
Rocksweeper/Shutterstock

Chemical-Free Washer Cleaner

Any appliance that cycles through dirt and water for a living is bound to get musty after a while, but that doesn't mean you need to resort to complicated cleaners to combat that. All it takes is the two magic home-cleaning ingredients: baking soda and vinegar. Send them for a whirl though the machine -- it'll be smelling like its old self in no time.

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Homemade Laundry Softener-placeholder
Homemade Laundry Softener
livesimply.me

Homemade Laundry Softener

There's nothing quite like the feeling of freshly fabric-softened clothes ... but there's also nothing like getting an instant headache from the cloying smells of store-bought softeners. *Live Simply* knows our pain, and she also knows how to ease it -- her __Homemade Laundry Softener__ uses coarse salt to beat out the stiffness in your clothes without doing any damage to the fabric. It also smells like heaven. Did we mention that?

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Tin Foil Dryer Sheets-placeholder
Tin Foil Dryer Sheets
D. Pimborough/Shutterstock

Tin Foil Dryer Sheets

The dryer poses a whole new set of issues for eliminating chemicals, the first of which is obviously dryer sheets. These little guys do their job well, but they're also expensive and have a lot of questionable ingredients. They're also totally unnecessary. A ball of tin foil will bounce around in your dryer drum and kick out any static electricity that's building up, saving you the shock at the end of the load ... and the money for dryer sheets. One ball will last you a lifetime (literally), so this one's kind of a no-brainer.

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Wool Dryer Balls-placeholder
Wool Dryer Balls
c12/Shutterstock

Wool Dryer Balls

Wool dryer balls handle the same business as the tinfoil does, just in a more attractive manner. You can make them from scratch for cheap, and if you're missing the scent your dryer sheets used to leave on your clothes, these guys will absorb the scent of a few drops of scented oil or essential oil and spread that love out to your clothes.

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Homemade Wrinkle Releaser-placeholder
Homemade Wrinkle Releaser
entirelyeventfulday.com

Homemade Wrinkle Releaser

Even if we're careful, pulling wrinkly clothes out of the dryer is still pretty much daily business for us. And since we can all agree ironing is a massive pain, we were looking for easy and chemical-free alternatives. That's when *Entirely Eventful Day*'s __Homemade Wrinkle Releaser__ came to us like a shining beacon of hope and wrinkle-free clothes -- it saves us the ironing, and if you swap out the store-bought fabric softener in her recipe for homemade, it's natural and safe on skin.

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