You could be saving 800% on bleach by switching to a safer, nicer smelling, and equally effective alternative to chlorine bleach. It's only 0.77 a batch or $0.07 per use. I'm so glad that I have very little products that I can't store where my little ones can reach them. This cheaper bleach alternative can easily be stored in a lower cabinet. If a little one accidentally consumed it, they would taste a salty-sour mix and they might get a tummy ache if they drank a lot of it.
What is this dark magic, you ask? A natural bleach alternative that takes about 10 minutes to measure and shake together. It's so easy that your preschooler can take over the shaking step. Feel free to get access to the free printable version at the bottom of the post! Now all you have to do is measure out the ingredients.
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- 3/4 cup 3% hydrogen peroxide
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 10 drops lemon essential oil
- 3/4 cup baking soda
- 7 cups water
Combine all ingredients in a container capable of holding 1/2 gallon or more.
[caption id="attachment_1606" align="aligncenter" width="202"]
3/4 cup 3% hydrogen peroxide[/caption][caption id="attachment_1607" align="aligncenter" width="161"]
1/4 cup lemon juice[/caption][caption id="attachment_1608" align="aligncenter" width="173"]
10 drops lemon essential oil[/caption][caption id="attachment_1609" align="aligncenter" width="225"]
3/4 cup baking soda[/caption][caption id="attachment_1610" align="aligncenter" width="219"]
7 cups water, this will fill the jar to the collar.[/caption]Shake well. Cover the outside of the container with brown paper if it is see-through, this helps keep the hydrogen peroxide active. Store in the dark.
- hydrogen peroxide: $0.01
- lemon juice: $0.18
- lemon essential oil: $0.38
- baking soda: $0.20
Total cost for 1/2 gallon all-natural homemade bleach alternative is just $0.01 per oz vs $0.08 per oz for regular bleach on Amazon, or $0.77 per 1/2 gallon batch.
How to Use the Bleach Alternative
Soak dirty clothes in 1 cup of bleach alternative, and add enough water to cover them in a container overnight.
In the morning, put the clothes with the solution in the washer, add detergent, and wash with hottest water setting available in the morning. If available, line dry in the sunshine for maximum whitening.
That's It!
By switching to a safer, nicer smelling, and equally effective alternative to chlorine bleach, you could be saving 800% on bleach. This cheaper bleach alternative is safe around kids, unlike chlorine (regular) bleach and has a nice lemony smell. It takes about 10 minutes to measure and shake together and you are good for 8 uses!
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I'm going to try this. Thank you. I pinned it.
ReplyDeleteI like to make homemade items so will be trying your bleach alternative. Found you on Blogger's Pit Stop.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good idea, but what if you need to bleach a whole load of clothes that is too big to soak in one cup of liquid? I rarely have only one thing in a load that I need to bleach.
ReplyDeleteHey Barbara, I don't typically do a load of "whites" with just one item either. The load shown in the 2.5 gallon bucket above contains roughly 20 items, which is a typical load for our family.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify: you add one cup of the bleach alternative to each load and fill the soaking container with enough water to submerge the load. This saves on water and keeps the "bleach" more concentrated while soaking. I hope that helps!
Amazing! Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with The Clever Chicks!
ReplyDeleteKathy Shea Mormino
The Chicken Chick
I live in Louisiana, the mold capitol of the world. This is where mold grows mold. Wondering how well this works on tough mold that forms both outside and inside?
ReplyDeletePinned and shared, followed you from the Clever Chicks party.
Well, I must say that's pretty interesting, but I would have to go buy something to soak my load of white clothes in, and I could never lift it water/solution & all due to a bad back, but I shall pass this on to my daughter with four kids. I'm sure she'd love to hear about it. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHello Marie!! Thank you for your comment. I love when people show such an interest in what I write, and can give feedback. Such thinking allows us to expand our minds and come up with solutions. I thought about your critiques and was able to come up with a couple of potential solutions that you could pick up, or get you started on thinking of further solutions that help your particular case. Its imperative in my blog to help people save as much money as possible. I would recommend getting a container for free if at all possible. I actually got my container for free by asking for a 5-gallon bucket at the Bakery from the grocery I frequent. They gave me four 2.5 gallon buckets instead and I use 1 bucket for my homemade laundry detergent and 1 bucket for soaking laundry. You could just reuse a mop bucket or another container you have available. You can often find free buckets on Craiglist or Freecycle, or by asking around.
ReplyDeleteI was able to come up with four solutions for your soaking problem if you are stumped. 1. Simply soak your whites directly in your washing machine, if your machine has that feature. 2. For a top-loading washing machine: You can place the empty container on top of your dryer and then add the clothing, bleach alternative, and water to soak. Then just knock or tip it over into the washing machine.
3. For a front loading washing machine: You could get the top of the soaking bucket leveled just above the bottom of the washing machine opening by propping the bucket up with a stool or stack of books, etc. Then fill the soaking bucket and shove the contents into the washing machine in the morning, similarly to the top-loading machine idea above. 4. For a free solution, you can just soak in your bathtub. I would imagine that wouldn't be easy on your back though.
These solutions aren't perfect, or a one-size fits all solution, but I hope they can get you thinking about what would work best for your circumstances. The idea behind the Eco-Friendly Saver blog isn't that every solution will be used and work for everyone, but that by giving examples and ideas my family has used, currently uses, will use, or may use when our situation changes, people can learn how to save money by trying new ways of doing things. One of the key parts of frugality is learning how to think outside of the box on how to spend less money or workarounds for DIY.
Joyce, I haven't tried this on mold yet, as it's very dry here. That being said, you are welcome to try it. I understand that hydrogen peroxide (one of the bleach alternative's ingredients) can work on mold, but the most effective solution I've heard for mold is tea tree oil. According to this article, you mix 10 drops of tea tree oil with 1 cup of water and spray the moldy area. Leave it overnight, and scrub it off with baking soda. If I were fighting off mold, I would also use a dehumidifier. I hope that helps!
ReplyDelete