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During a recent bathroom renovation project, my boyfriend had to disconnect his water softener, and it wreaked more havoc on our daily lives than we expected. Showering and washing clothes, in particular, were much more difficult, as hard water leads to the formation of “soap scum” that is difficult to rinse away. We opted for quick, unfulfilling showers with poor soap lathering, but what can be done to keep clothes soft and residue-free?
There are a few tricks to washing clothes if you don’t have a water softener, from combating crunchiness, to avoiding residue and staining.
Add vinegar to your hard water washing loads
Hard water is just water containing a higher amount of minerals—specifically dissolved calcium and magnesium. To keep your clothes feeling soft, you have to do what you can to neutralize those minerals, and that is where vinegar comes in.
Add a half cup to a cup of white, distilled vinegar to your final rinse, suggests Well + Good. To get rid of hard water deposits between washings, run an empty load with hot water and one to three cups of vinegar in it every few weeks, advises washing machine manufacturer Speed Queen. Our period without a water softener wasn’t long enough to cause long-term damage to clothing, but by adding a half cup of vinegar to our loads at that time, we did notice the items felt as soft and residue-free as they normally do when the softener is up and running.
While researching how to wash our clothes in hard water, we also came across suggestions to soak the fabrics in vinegar for a few hours before washing. Realistically, no one is doing that; adding a little to the rinse cycle is sufficient. However, if you’ve been washing your clothes in hard water for a long time, you may notice some pieces are dull or faded. If that’s the case, Well + Good says an overnight soak in a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar can help restore them to their former brightness.
(Per Speed Queen, if you don’t have vinegar, a half cup of laundry borax added to your load accomplish the same thing.)
Add washing soda
As an alternative to vinegar, try washing soda, which is a powder you can order online or make yourself. Preheat your oven to 425 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, spread two or three cups of baking soda on a baking sheet, and bake it for about an hour, stirring after 30 minutes. When the hour is up, your powder should look “flatter” or grainier than it was going in. Pour it into an airtight container. Add a half cup to your next laundry load to combat minerals in your water.
Pick your detergent wisely
Some laundry detergents are actually designed to be used with hard water. As noted by Better Homes and Gardens, you should look for one with a low pH. Bonus points if you find one with vinegar in the formula, like 9 Elements Liquid Laundry Detergent. In general, try to stick with liquid detergents instead of powdered ones, as they offer more resistance to hard water.
from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/jKta7ks
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