The best unscented dishsoap I’ve come across is by Seventh Generation. Their Free & Clear Natural Dish Liquid is truly unscented and cleans very well. However, because it does have surfactants in it, I still am unable to use it. (I can be in the room while other members of my family use it though.) So when it’s my turn to do the dishes, I use either Original Mineral Soap by Nature Rich, or just plain hot water. This depends on whether I need a lot of bubbles or not.
Homemade Dishwasher Detergent
If you have soft water, a good home-made automatic dishwasher soap is 1/2 borax and 1/2 baking soda. Get a large clean jar or metal tin (you can use a yogurt container, but it’s plastic and you’re trying to get that out of your house, remember?) and put 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of baking soda in it. Mix well and label as dishwasher soap. Use as you would powdered dishwasher detergent. Put straight white vinegar in the rinse aid compartment of your dishwasher. Your dishes will be sparkling clean and absolutely scent-free! If you have hard water, the only thing I’ve found that works is Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwashing Detergent.
Laundry Tips
When you can’t use the products from the grocery store, or even the natural foods store, how are you supposed to get your clothes clean? Here’s what I do, and it works well for me. Perhaps it will put you on the right track for figuring out what to do for yourself.
In the area of chemical sensitivites, everyone is different, so what works great for one may not help another. Let me know if this method works for you. For my clothes, I can’t use anything, not even unscented All, not even my own homemade soap, not even vinegar and baking soda. Why? I haven’t a clue. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but it is a fact. I can wash my self and my hair with my homemade soap, but if I wash my clothes with it, they will make me itch. All I can figure is there is enough leftover soap that sticks in the fabric that when it comes into contact with my skin for hours on end, it will eventually annoy it. I can’t use Borax or Washing Soda either. I don’t know why. So, if you are anything like me (For your sake, I truly hope you are not!) then you are desperate to figure out how to get your clothes clean.
What I do is this: Sort clothes according to color like always. Don’t overload the machine so that there is plenty of water to swish your clothes in. To each load add either 1 cup baking soda or 1 cup vinegar. You can mix them in the washer and get a homemade form of Washing Soda, and if your skin can tolerate this, then wonderful! I wish mine could!!! Don’t mix them outside the washer or they will foam crazily. A nice science experiment but not recommended in the laundry room. I keep a gallon jug of white vinegar by the washer and a 1 cup glass pyrex measuring cup. Put your washer on the longest setting (mine is a 30 minute cycle with 2 soaks). Let it go. Set a timer so that you are back at the washer for the first rinse. To the rinse water add another cup of vinegar. Then let it fill up and rinse a second time with just plain water. This works surprisingly well on average soil levels. For difficult items, I take a toothbrush (set aside for a laundry scrub brush, of course). Rub it on your homemade bar of soap, then on the tough spot and scrub a little. This will usually take care of ground-in dirt and most stains.
By the way, I wash and rinse in cold water only. I wash towels and washcloths the same way I do my own clothes, because the same set of limitations applies. Every now and then I can add a smidgen of Clorox if they need it. But be very careful with Clorox—hold your breath, it is very strong!
Everyone else in my family can get along with the unscented All from the grocery store. However, I can’t use it too often or else it will bother me, simply by being in the house. (During a spring cleaning binge I once washed all my curtains in unscented All and got a dandy headache.) So I save All for the really, really tough-to-clean items. I use it very sparingly (like hardly ever). For most of the routine laundry, this method works well for me: Sort everyone’s clothes as usual. To each load add 1/2 cup borax. Whites also get 1/2 cup washing soda. Add 1/4 cup shredded homemade soap to each load (I keep a regular cheese shredder by the washer. If you use a flat one, you can also toss it in the washer with the clothes to clean it, if you’d like. Or you can be civilized and put it in the dishwasher, or leave it soapy!). Use the longest soak cycle and add 1 cup vinegar to the first rinse, the second rinse can be plain water. Mediums and darks get the 1/2 cup borax and 1/4 cup shredded home-made soap. This works on most everything around my house, and we have lots of dirt (from the earth) and manure (from the cows). Occasionally, my son will get grease or oil on his jeans, and this requires the All. I hold my breath, and, well, use it! And open the windows and go outside for awhile. Also, on men’s white dress shirts, I can’t seem to get the necks clean any other way than to use All. I hope these tips will bring you a reasonable amount of success in the laundry room. If you have some ideas of your own, please email me as I’d love to hear about it!
Cleaning Ideas
Bathroom: For cleaning the bathroom, I’ve had great success using baking soda and regular table salt. Just sprinkle a tablespoon or so of baking soda in your bathroom sink, then sprinkle a little salt over it. Scrub as usual and be amazed at the results. Best of all, no scent! This also works well for the toilet. Even though those chlorine tablets do a great job of keeping your toilet bowl clean and sanitized, it does put out a certain amount of chlorine into the air, which is not a good idea if you are chemically sensitive. So you should avoid using those. If you like a scent in your bathroom, you can try dropping a few drops of essential oil on the back of the toilet.
Bedroom: If you or someone in your family is allergic to airborne allergens, like house dust, it will help you breathe much better if you will wash all the surfaces in your sleeping area. This is not a simple task, but once you try it you will see just how much difference it really makes. To make the job easier, keep items put away that tend to collect on top of dressers and desks. You can designate the top drawer for these items. Vacuum the room first, then wash walls and furniture with plain water.
Kitchen: Baking soda and salt also works well to scrub your kitchen sink, or you can use Borax. Use a 1/4 cup of vinegar to a bucket of warm water for mopping your floor. This solution also works well for cleaning windows. Seventh Generation makes a good hand dishwashing liquid, as well as a powdered dishwasher detergent. It is available in most grocery stores or you can buy it online through Amazon.
Vacuuming: If you are sensitive to house dust, or have allergies, the best vacuum you can buy is a Rainbow. It uses water in a reservoir, so the dust you vacuum up goes straight into a water bath, which keeps it from going back into the air. I’ve been using one for years and would absolutely never go back to any other type of vacuum. If you haven’t tried one of these yet, you need to! You can find used ones on E-bay or visit the above link to find the nearest dealer.
