Laundry
Waste less washing laundry:
- Cold water washes save energy but you may need a hot wash to remove certain stains especially if you are using cloth nappies (www.cleanclothnappies.com).
- Swap plastic pegs for stainless steel pegs.
- Swap a clothes dryer for drying racks and drying clothes outside on a line.
- Stained items can be salvaged with the appropriate treatment for the stain. Googling usually gives you plenty to try. You can make a general purpose stain remover out of 1 tbsp baking soda, 4 tbsp dish soap and 8 tbsp hydrogen peroxide.Sard Wondersoap is also a great old product for stain removal.
- Soaking stains in water as soon as possible is the prevention of choice.
- If you have shrunk woollens Soak in a sink of water to which you have added 1/3c hair conditioner. Lie out flat without rinsing and with just enough water wring so not dripping too much out to make but with stretch out while still wet and leave to dry.
- We use so many synthetic fabrics that plastic microfibres are washed into your greywater and the environment. Apart from buying natural fibres, you can wash more gently and less often. Filters like Guppyfriend bags and greywater filters have a limited life themselves and really only mean these go into the land rather than the sea.
- Use a reusable lint brush instead of a refillable lint brush.
- Consider whether you really need to use fabric softener or try ¼ cup of white vinegar added to your final rinse cycle instead.
Waste less cleaning:
- Swap out single use cloths and plastic microfibre ones for knitted cotton cloths or cloths made from used fabrics. Keep a store of these rags where you need them.
- Use bulk store cleaning product especially when these are refillable.
- Otherwise there are numerous substitutes for bought cleaning products. You can make easily, with internet recipies (eg Nancy Birtwhistle’s) and ingredients like baking soda, vinegar (white or make your own apple scrap vinegar) essential oils, lemons, citric acid, soaps or detergents. Keep these in clearly labelled, reuseable spray bottles,
- Remember the most effective and ingredient in cleaning products is often elbow grease!
- Baked on oven grease can be softened for easy removal by sealing trays and pans in a large plastic bag (rescued packaging of large items) for 24-48 hours with an open saucer of cloudy ammonia.
- Try unblocking drains with baking soda, vinegar then boiling water.