One of our My Green Mattress team members was talking about his weekend and mentioned that he spent the past Sunday with his parents watching football, eating his mom’s home cooking and getting his laundry done in the process. He said when he went to catch his first load of laundry in the washer during the rinse cycle he realized that he had forgot his fabric softener at home. When he asked his mother where they kept theirs, she said it was right in front of him. He reached up and grabbed an old plastic container that had a strange looking blueish liquid in it that reeked of vinegar. Sure that this couldn’t be it, he asked his mom to come over.
After she reassured him that this was it, she told him that she started making her own fabric softener from household vinegar, her favorite hair conditioner and some lavender oil. Skeptical he tried it out and was surprised when the clothes came out soft, unwrinkled and NOT smelling of vinegar but of the lavender.
We at My Green Mattress love hearing stories like this of families that come up with less-abrasive versions of household cleaners, or in this case laundry aids. There are so many chemicals in the products available in stores these days that it becomes difficult to isolate which ones may be harmful to our families, especially when a family member exhibits symptoms of a reaction to something around the home and we’re left to play detective. Using safe natural ingredients and pairing them with household products that we know are safer for our families, especially products that we’re already using with no adverse reactions, can be beneficial.
A lot of those household remedies are not always old wives tales. Another example that I tried recently was a natural homemade concoction to clear a clog in my bathroom sink drain. I made a mixture of kosher salt and baking soda, poured it down the drain and then followed it by some household vinegar (the uses for vinegar are endless!) and a pot of boiling hot water. The mixture bubbled and foamed and before you knew it the drain was clear and draining as it should. You never know until you try, as long as you’re safe of course!
