Natural bleach alternative (noun) – Various concoctions that are said to whiten and brighten clothes, but rarely work in real life. See also: Laundry unicorns.
If that’s how you feel after trying a few bleach alternative recipes, I get it. I’ve tested everything from citric acid and lemon juice to vinegar and peroxide to whiten my clothes. Peroxide alone worked beautifully for awhile . . . and then it didn’t. When we moved to a homestead with spring water a few years ago, all my whites started to become dingy. Now, I adore all the lovely minerals in my water – I just don’t want them creating a yellow buildup on my sheets!
So was I tempted to cave and treat them with bleach? NO! Yes . . yes I was. Here’s the deal, though: As mentioned in this article from certified Building Biology practitioner Andrea Fabry, a study conducted at the University of Leuven in Belgium – which included 9,000 children – concluded that:
I could seriously go on, but the bottom line is this: There are a number of reasons to be concerned about the use of bleach, both in how it affects individuals and the environment. In contrast, the recipe I’m sharing with you contains only three simple ingredients:
Alright, back to my predicament with the yellow sheets. After a little research on homemade bleach alternatives, I discovered that the two active ingredients in store-bought oxygen bleaches are nothing more than sodium percarbonate (powdered hydrogen peroxide) and washing soda. Yep, that’s it!
I was already using washing soda in my homemade laundry detergent along with the occasional addition of peroxide, but in order to really have an effect on my whites I found I needed to increase the concentration significantly. This week, while I’m washing sheets, I decided to grab two pillow cases from my attic to show you how well it works. Here’s what they looked like before I put one in a bucket with this homemade bleach alternative – both pretty dingy!
Here’s how different they were after:
Now, it’s not magic fairy dust. Your whites will not be so bright that they practically glow in the dark and you may need to treat them more than once, but I have had great results with this recipe.