Washing with washing powders is not suitable for everyone. For young children or people suffering from allergic diseases, it is necessary to look for alternative options.
Washing things with laundry soap can be a good replacement for chemical analogues. Read the article about whether and how to wash with laundry soap in an automatic washing machine and by hand.
Is it possible to wash it in a washing machine?
For washing in a washing machine, special detergents have been developed that foam little . In addition, they may contain special additives that soften water.
The soap contains organic fatty acids of animal and plant origin. Depending on their quantity, soap has different concentrations of fat content (from 40 to 80%).
The higher the concentration of fatty acids, the less it foams . Therefore, this product can be machine washed.
But with frequent use of bars, a greasy coating may form on the walls and internal parts of the machine.
In order for the machine to work without breakdowns, you need to regularly clean it of scale and greasy film. To do this, start the idle mode at a temperature of 90C with citric acid. When using laundry soap in an automatic machine, it is important to observe the dosage of the detergent and carry out preventive maintenance at least once a month .
Pros and cons of using
Soap contains fatty acids, which are obtained from animal fats and vegetable oils, and soda.
Thanks to this composition, it has the following qualities:
- Does not cause allergic reactions. Suitable for the delicate skin of newborns and allergy sufferers.
- Perfectly removes even the most difficult stains. If there is a dirty stain, you can just soap it, let it sit for 15-20 minutes and wash it. The stain will be removed.
- Does not destroy tissue. After washing, the fabric remains soft.
- Saving money. The cost of one soap bar is several times less than the cost of a standard pack of washing powder for an automatic machine.
The disadvantages include:
Silk and wool items cannot be washed.- It dissolves poorly in cold water and can form flakes that will settle on the walls of equipment.
- Requires some time to prepare. The bar needs to be grated or a gel prepared. When using liquid soap, you don’t have to waste time on preparation.
- Some housewives note a not very pleasant smell. But if you add a few drops of essential oil to the gel, the smell will become pleasant.
Natural powder ingredients
It contains inexpensive and environmentally friendly ingredients.
Those housewives who want to use natural detergents to wash their clothes should know more about their properties, as well as how to choose them correctly: the main component of natural detergents is soap. To make the powder yourself, any soap is suitable - laundry, baby or toilet soap. To make it as natural as possible, you need to use castile soap based on olive oil or solid glycerin soap. The ideal detergent for washing is ordinary dark laundry soap 72%
It has the greatest activity and softens fabric fibers, which is especially important for washing delicate children's clothes. You can use unnecessary pieces of soap, which are usually simply thrown away as unnecessary. This will create additional savings
Before preparing the crumbs, it is recommended to dry the soap a little first. To do this, you need to remove it from the package and put it in a dry place, next to a heating device or in the sun;
This will create additional savings. Before preparing the crumbs, it is recommended to dry the soap a little first. To do this, you need to remove it from the package and put it in a dry place, next to a heating device or in the sun;
Instead of the bleach and active ingredients that every laundry detergent contains, you can use baking soda. It is an excellent cleaning agent. You can buy it in any supermarket, and, as you know, it is quite inexpensive. Soda, which is part of the laundry detergent, cleans fabric fibers without damaging them, and also keeps laundry white and neutralizes odors;
It is advisable to add soda ash to the homemade powder. It has the same properties as food, only its concentration and activity are several times higher. Soda ash is part of Calgon, a widely advertised washing machine product. But you don't have to use it. In fact, you can do without Calgon, because it does not so much fight scale as soften the water. In fact, by buying it, a person is simply paying three times the price for regular soda ash;
a necessary component of natural powder is borax. This substance is sodium tetraborate or sodium boric salt, and also has a very strong cleaning and disinfecting effect. Thanks to these properties, it is actively used in the production of detergents for children's clothes. Borax can be purchased at hardware stores, pharmacies, and stores selling homemade cosmetics;
Borax (sodium tetraborate) has an antifungal and antibacterial effect, perfect for washing children's clothes
To make things smell nice after washing, you need to use essential oils. Natural aromatic substances not only give the fabric a pleasant smell, but also additionally disinfect the clothes. The beneficial components included in their composition partially remain in the fabric fibers and come into contact with the skin, thereby having a positive effect on the body. For example, tea tree oil has antifungal properties; it is recommended to add it when washing children's clothes. Citrus oils (sweet orange, bergamot, lemon) are excellent fat dissolvers. Eucalyptus and mint are recommended for use during colds. Chamomile and lavender oils have a calming and relaxing effect. The use of jasmine and rose oils gives clothes an exciting romantic scent.
Features of manual and machine processing
There are some features and differences for hand and machine washing using soap.
In the washing machine
Detergents with low foam formation have been specially developed for washing machines. Laundry soap meets these requirements. To use it in an automatic machine, the bar is crushed.
Features: fabrics of different composition produce different amounts of foam. Natural silk and wool fabrics foam the water more, so less detergent is used to wash them.
To wash a kilogram of dry laundry, add 2 tablespoons of shavings.
Manually
Hand washing will require more physical effort. It has some features:
Before starting the process, you need to sort things by color and wash colored items separately from white ones.- Heavily soiled laundry should be pre-soaked in soapy water for 30-60 minutes.
- If there are dirty spots, you must first wet them, rub them with soap and leave for 20-30 minutes. After this, rub with a brush or with your hands on a grater.
- You need to rinse the laundry several times until the foam is completely washed away.
It will be difficult to wash heavily soiled items by hand, because... Dirt washes off well in hot water. Your hands won't be able to withstand that temperature.
Recipe 3
This recipe is suitable for washing baby clothes.
We buy laundry soap against stains. We grate half the pack. Heat a saucepan with four liters of water. Pour the grated soap into hot water and mix well until it is completely dissolved. Pour three heaped tablespoons of soda ash in there. Cook until a homogeneous mass is formed, stirring constantly. When the solution has cooled completely, you can use a blender to obtain a more uniform structure. Or pour the cooled gel into a large container and whisk it thoroughly by hand with a whisk. Next, pour the prepared cleaning solution into the required bottle with a lid, which you will use constantly. It is advisable to fill the gel not to the very edge of the container. This is necessary so that it can be easily shaken before use.
Tip: If you want your gel to be thicker, when preparing it, use three liters of water rather than four.
To ensure that children's clothes with stubborn stains are removed, soak the laundry in the prepared solution before the main wash. Pour a little prepared gel and one tablespoon of ammonia into a bowl of warm water. For pure white things, we also add hydrogen peroxide. Soak the laundry for an hour or more, and then wash it in the washing machine.
IMPORTANT! When preparing gel, you should not mix different types of soap. Due to differences in composition, they may not mix and a homogeneous gel will not be obtained.
Light-colored items can be soaked in warm water with two tablespoons of boric acid added. Next, you should wash it as usual in a washing machine at a temperature of forty to sixty degrees.
And finally, I would like to add that this gel is universal. It is perfect for washing any items, especially delicate ones such as natural wool and silk.
Tip: To prevent your items made from natural wool from itching and to be softer and more pleasant to the touch, add one teaspoon of citric acid to the gel before washing. Or pour a little vinegar into the washing machine compartment.
Gel is a universal detergent that, unlike conventional washing powders, rinses perfectly and does not leave any marks or whitish stains even on black things. Now you know how easy it is to prepare it yourself, spending a little of your time and a minimum of money.
What fabrics can be washed?
The soap is suitable for washing items made from natural and synthetic fabrics such as cotton, linen, polyester,
You can wash woolen items with laundry soap, but only if you do it with your hands. When washing in a machine, wool quickly accumulates soap suds and pills . It is quite difficult to rinse foam out of wool.
When hand washing woolen items, first make a soap solution and only then immerse the item in it. Lathering wool is not recommended.
Natural silk fabrics also foam the soap solution well. Therefore, when machine washing, the dosage of soap is reduced.
Flaws
Users noted the following disadvantages:
- Compared to solid laundry soap, liquid soap is much more expensive; it is more economical to buy inexpensive powder;
- also, according to reviews, liquid laundry soap washes at low temperature, mainly only not very dirty laundry;
- There is no whitening effect at all;
- stains need to be washed off while they are fresh, and liquid soap does not cope well with stubborn stains;
- the product has a short shelf life;
- Washing machine experts do not recommend washing with liquid soap - this can harm household appliances.
Which is better to choose: liquid, solid, powder?
The action of soap is based on the fact that the fatty acids contained in its composition react with dirt and wash it out of the fabric fibers with the help of foam. Therefore, the more fatty acids in the bar, the more effective its action .
Depending on the percentage of fatty acids, the industry produces several types of solid soap:
- Category 1 , contains 70.5 – 72% fatty acids;
- category 2 , consisting of 65-69% FA;
- Category 3 , contains up to 64% of components.
Depending on the degree of concentration of fatty acids, the color of the bar changes. The more there are, the darker the piece.
Nowadays you can find laundry soap of different consistencies on sale:
- bar,
- liquid,
- powdery.
Soap powder is a crushed bar version . Soap is no different from bar soap, only crushed into crumbs. It is convenient to pour it into the drum or powder tray in the washing machine.
As for liquid soap, the situation is different. It is, of course, convenient to use for machine washing. As for the composition of this product, it has nothing in common with traditional soap.
If you read its composition indicated on the label, you can find surfactants, fragrances and other chemical components in it. Liquid soap has nothing in common with laundry soap.
The technology for the production of laundry soap and the substances included in its composition do not allow it to be produced in liquid form.
Cleaning products for children's clothes
Washing children's clothes is a crucial moment in caring for a newborn baby. The health of the baby depends on how high-quality the product is used to wash clothes. The protective barrier in children's skin is practically absent; aggressive substances penetrate into the body through it, which can cause an allergic reaction in the form of peeling skin, pimples, itching and redness.
Conventional household chemicals contain volatile components that can enter the respiratory tract after washing. If you use the wrong cleansers constantly, your child may develop respiratory allergies, weaken local immunity, and have other unpleasant consequences.
Main types of laundry detergents:
- Soap nuts.
- Special powders and gels.
- Laundry soap.
- Baby soap.
Baby soap
In the first months of a baby’s life, pediatricians advise washing his clothes with baby soap. This product does not contain fragrances, aggressive synthetic elements or dyes. Proper baby soap contains the following elements:
- Antibacterial components. They are represented by extracts of string, calendula and chamomile.
- Emollient ingredients. They can be in the form of oil, glycerin, boric acid or lanolin.
The cleansing properties of baby soap are based on its ability to form foam, which absorbs dirt and prevents it from reuniting with the surface of the laundry. Baby soap has many advantages, the main ones being:
- Easily washed out of fabric fibers.
- The soap is safe for the skin.
- Whitens clothes well.
In addition to the advantages, the product also has disadvantages:
- Low productivity in the fight against stubborn stains on children's clothes.
- In the first months of a baby's life, his discharge is odorless. They are easy to wash if you immediately soap and soak the item.
Some mothers do not use detergents on diapers that are only soiled by the newborn's urine. At what temperature to wash children's clothes does not really matter, the main thing is that the detergent is rinsed well after washing.
Laundry soap
How to wash clothes for newborns before the maternity hospital: it is recommended to use laundry soap. It contains alkali in an amount of 0.15 to 0.20%. Fatty acid level no more than 72%, pH=12. The product has an antibacterial effect.
You should not use laundry soap on a child’s skin, but it copes excellently with dirt on things. Laundry soap easily removes difficult stains, but the product has a drawback - it has a specific smell, so after washing the items must be rinsed thoroughly and the smell will disappear.
When purchasing laundry soap, you need to pay attention to its composition. A traditional bar of detergent contains only natural ingredients
But some manufacturers have added bleaching elements, flavors or dyes to it. This product is not suitable for washing children's clothes before the maternity hospital.
How to wash clothes automatically?
The soap bar does not dissolve well, so it must first be prepared for use in the car.
If the bar is in the form of jelly
Grate 100 grams of soap bar on a fine grater. Pour 1 liter of hot water over the shavings. Heat over low heat until completely dissolved.- Dissolve 3 tablespoons of soda ash in 3 liters of water.
- Mix both solutions together.
- To add a pleasant smell to the mixture after cooling, add 10-15 drops of any essential oil.
- Pour the solution into a convenient container. Wait until it cools completely (the solution should acquire a jelly-like consistency), after which it can be used.
For one cycle, 200 grams of jelly are added to the drum.
Shavings
Another easier way to use bar soap is in the form of shavings. It requires less time.
For this method, the piece is grated on a fine grater. It is then poured into a drum or powder container. The shavings are taken at the rate of 2 tbsp. l. for 1 kg of laundry.
To improve the quality of washing, you can add soda to the shavings (3 tablespoons per piece) . The mixture should be stored in a container with a tightly closed lid so that the soda does not absorb moisture.
The video will show you how to wash with laundry soap in a washing machine:
Solution
For better dissolution, before use, dissolve the shavings in hot water (a glass of water per 2 tablespoons of shavings). The solution is poured into the powder tray.
Preparing gel from laundry soap
You can use household raw materials for machine washing either in regular form or in the form of gel. For normal use, you need to grate the soap using a fine grater, but not the grater itself, and pour the contents into the drum. Some housewives dilute the grated soap with water and add soap with a pleasant aroma. For yourself, you can choose any option, but if you like gel-like, then it is recommended to use this recipe:
- Prepare soda in the amount of forty grams.
- Laundry soap - fifty grams.
- One liter of water.
It's easy to prepare the gel. Place soap in a glass of hot water. It must first be grated on a medium grater; you can also use a fine grater, this will allow the raw material to quickly come into contact with water and dissolve in it. Place the remaining water in a saucepan, put it on gas, add soda and soap solution to it. When the water boils, remove from the burner. Cool the resulting mass. Stir regularly during cooking. If you have soft water, then using such a concentrate is not effective, since the resulting mass is thick and it will be difficult to wash it out of the powder compartment in the machine. It is recommended to use more water during the preparation process and place the gel in the drum. To ensure that the resulting product is homogeneous, beat it with a mixer. At first the mass will be liquid, but then it will gradually become thick.
To prepare the gel, you need to grate the soap
Washing efficiency
A number of housewives doubt the effectiveness of washing using household raw materials. The product has its positive and negative sides. Negative points include:
- After washing, the walls of the drum remain in soap, it is poorly washed out and can ruin the machine.
- Items washed with laundry soap can harm the skin, as it destroys the fatty film that covers human skin.
- When using one type of soap, the washed clothes have an unpleasant aroma.
There is also a positive side to using laundry soap. In the first place is saving money. A number of powders and modern washable, cleaning products do not always justify their quality and cost a lot of money. The product removes stains well. For an improved effect, you can add salt. If you have severe contamination, then you can pre-soak the item by applying grated household raw materials or gel to it.
Laundry soap has a favorable price
Hand processing
Children's or delicate items are washed by hand. To do this, the soap is grated, dissolved in a bowl of warm water and washed. If the laundry is too dirty, then soak it in a soapy solution for 1-2 hours.
To wash stained items, proceed as follows:
moisten things with warm water;- lightly squeeze;
- I soap the dirty spot;
- soaped items are left to lie for 20-30 minutes without water;
- pour warm water, wash the stain with a soft brush.
After finishing washing, the laundry should be rinsed well 3-5 times.
Reasons why the whiteness of things disappears
If you wash colored items together with white items, this will give the whites a yellowish tint. Therefore, there is a rule: it is recommended to sort things before washing. A large number of washes negatively affect the condition of white clothes. Not only the snow-whiteness is lost, but also the structure of the fabric deteriorates. Some powders react with the salt in the water, turning things into an unsightly shade of gray. Linen and towels after such washings become dirty gray in color.
In addition, clothes that have been stored dirty for a long time will turn gray or become covered with yellow spots. If the laundry is damp, then in addition to the stains, mold fungi will appear.
Source
Prevention of breakdowns of household appliances
When using soap, a greasy film remains on the parts of the automatic machine. If you use it for a long time, it can lead to equipment breakdowns.
To reduce the likelihood of breakage, you need to include an additional rinse after each cycle.
In addition, 1-2 times a month you need to run a dry wash at maximum temperature using citric acid or soda ash . This will help dissolve fat deposits.
If laundry soap is not used constantly, but for children's clothes, then subsequent washing with ordinary powders will help wash off the plaque.
Is it possible to wash with soap in a washing machine, laundry and children's soap?
Situations often arise when things require washing with soap. For example, it is not recommended to wash baby clothes and diapers with synthetic detergents, as they can cause allergies in the baby. But for example, laundry or baby soap will definitely not cause such a reaction. Is it worth listening to the advice of experienced grandmothers who demand washing children’s clothes with grated soap, and is it possible to use this product in a washing machine? Or should you save your equipment and do tedious hand washing?
Why is it sometimes necessary to use soap for washing?
Many adults are allergic to synthetic detergents, resulting in redness and itching of the skin that has come into contact with laundry washed with powders.
Neonatologists note that almost half of infants react negatively to things that were washed even with the help of special children's detergents. Specialists in caring for newborns insist on using laundry or baby soap, which do not reveal allergies, but at the same time have good cleaning properties when washing children's clothes up to about six months.
How can soap harm a washing machine?
Synthetic powders are divided into products for manual and automatic washing. There is a significant difference between them, which does not allow the use of granules of the first type in machines - this is increased foaming, which can lead to equipment breakdown. Neither laundry nor baby soap have such properties, so there is no need to worry that they can harm the washing machine with excess foam.
But, interacting with the salts contained in hard water, soap forms a greasy, sticky layer on the surfaces of the washing machine. If your area has soft water, then you can not be afraid and calmly use soap.
If all surfaces in your bathroom have to be scrubbed clean of limescale, and horrifying build-up forms in the kettle, your water is hard. If it is impossible to use regular washing powders, you will need to take care of cleaning the machine from soap films.
In order to get rid of the deposits that have formed, you need to run an empty wash cycle with soda or special cleaning agents for machines at maximum temperature at least once every two weeks. If you use grated soap only for washing children's clothes, then the next use of an adult clothes machine with regular washing powder will remove this deposit.
How to use soap for washing in a machine?
Some mothers rub laundry soap directly into the drum of the washing machine, others pour shavings into the powder compartment.
Since soap shavings are larger in size and denser than grains of washing powder, before use you can pre-soak them in hot water and leave them for a while. The grated soap will gradually swell and partially dissolve in the liquid. After this, the resulting slurry must be placed in the powder tray. When choosing a machine wash mode, be sure to add an additional rinse, since such a soap solution is not always washed off well from the fabric.
If you are too lazy to bother with rubbing laundry or baby soap every time, you can prepare a homemade hypoallergenic laundry detergent for future use. A piece of laundry or baby soap should be grated and poured with 2 liters of boiling water. The shavings will quickly dissolve in hot water when stirred. Then you need to add 4 tablespoons of soda ash into the resulting solution. As it cools, the liquid will gradually thicken and turn into a kind of jelly. It can be poured into a convenient closed container and then used as needed, 200 grams per full load, placed directly into the drum of an automatic washing machine.
Reviews from people
There is no clear opinion about the quality of using laundry soap. Most consumers agree that it does not cause allergies . And this product is excellent for choosing when washing clothes for newborns and allergy sufferers.
The only downside is the not very pleasant smell of the items after washing. But to eliminate it, it is recommended to use essential oil or rinse things with the addition of apple cider vinegar or citric acid.
You can read reviews about using laundry soap here and here.
You will find maximum useful information about washing clothes and various fabric products here.
