Laundry How To - Alternatives to Laundry Soap and Printable

My boyfriend is TERRRRRRIBLE at doing laundry. He forgets to do it often, but I think it is more that he doesn’t like to do it. He will only buckle down and do laundry if I nag him enough or if he ran out of clothes (and I haven’t done them already). We decided to make a chore chart to keep track of who did what chore in the week. I also made a laundry how to, so he will never be lost at what to add to the load (or have an excuse for not doing it!). Laundry doodles were drawn by me in Illustrator.

This chart is pretty specific to how we do laundry. We dry our blacks in low heat because my boyfriend wears cotton shirts and doesn’t want them to shrink. However, if you’d like the chart for your own laundry room, it is free to download from here or the printables page.

We have been trying to cut our expenses, and laundry soap can get pretty expensive, especially if we buy soap, bleach, fabric softener, and dryer sheets. Not to mention it is better for our bodies and the environment if we use alternatives to the laundry supplies that have chemicals and dyes.

When I do but laundry soap I buy the free and clean kind for sensitive skin. I usually buy the packets because there is less plastic waste than a big liquid container. 

When I don’t use store bought laundry soap, I use baking soda. I have read many recipes about homemade laundry soap, but honestly, I just pour in ¼ cup baking soda lol I figure my clothes (especially work clothes) don’t get very dirty, so they don’t need heavy duty washing or much soap anyways. I have read that mixing baking soda and vinegar don’t work well as a cleaner, so when I use one in the wash, I usually leave the other out.

I use bleach because it is inexpensive and effective for our towels and whites. I DO NOT use bleach if I am using vinegar in the load. I read that the two shouldn’t be mixed, so I figure better safe than sorry.

Instead of fabric softener, I use vinegar. It is very inexpensive and useful for cleaning around the house. I use the same amount of vinegar as I would’ve fabric softener. If you use a lot of fabric softener, you might want to dilute the vinegar with water to a 50/50 mix. Once the clothes have dried, they don’t smell like vinegar at all. If you want a scent you can add a few drops of essential oils (I like to use lavender, but you could add rose, orange, etc) or you can use a homemade scented vinegar.

Image from The Nerdy Farm Wife

A great thing to try in your laundry is lemon, lime, or lavender (there are many more kinds too!) vinegar. I made some for cleaning, but haven't tried it on my clothes just yet. Since lemon can be used as a bleaching agent, I would use it on whites, but not your colored clothes!

The Nerdy Farm Wife has a great post called Five Uses for Lavender Vinegar. She also has some great ideas for other kinds of vinegars you can make.