While borax is a great sidekick to detergent in small amounts, it can be used to loosen stains and brighten up clothing on its own. If you have them, adding a few other ingredients to borax will make it much more effective in the wash.
In your washing machine, borax helps absorb dirt. In your kitchen and bathroom, it's great for cleaning rust, grout, and even mold and mildew. Borax helps laundry smell better and is also extremely effective at fighting pet urine odor because it combats the ammonia.
So, forget the “popular” homemade “detergent” recipe and just use the Ecothrifty laundry cleaner — a 50/50 mix of washing soda and borax. If your clothes look a little extra dirty, let them soak before washing. If they're a little extra stinky, add a bit more washing soda.
Use Laundry Borax or Baking Soda
If you have no detergent at all, use one cup of borax or baking soda for a normal load. The clothing will be cleaner than you imagine thanks to the action of the cleaning agents, water, and the agitation from the washer.
While the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies borax as being noncarcinogenic, it does pose some risks, including: skin, eye, and respiratory irritation. digestive problems. infertility.
Borax is usually insoluble in cold water but hot water helps in its solubility.
Some delicate fabrics, whether white or colored, are labeled as cold-wash only. However, borax readily dissolves only in warm or hot water.
Baking soda won't strip your laundry as well as borax or washing soda (more on that shortly), but it's also gentler on fabrics, and you're more likely to have it on hand! When used one after another (or together, in certain situations), baking soda and vinegar can be useful for cleaning.
Borax (sodium tetraborate) and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) aren't the same thing. They're both salts, and they're both popular as “green” household cleaning agents, but borax has a pH of 9.5, compared to baking soda's pH of 8. This makes borax considerably more alkaline than baking soda.
Yes, your whites are going to be extra white, fresh and soft. This is because the water in borax converts water into hydrogen peroxide, a natural whitening agent. No more will your white clothing have that horrible grey tone to them, and no more will you have to rely on bleach to whiten your clothes.
Washing soda (sodium carbonate) has a very high pH level, making it an extreme alkaline compound that is very effective as a cleaning agent. Borax (sodium tetraborate) pH levels aren't as high as washing soda, and it doesn't have the same cleaning power as washing soda.
Amongst many other advantages, Borax assists in the saponification of any organic oils and fats that may be soiling the linen weave. Oxiclean on the other hand is a fully built Hydrogen Peroxide producing, colour-safe bleach additive which can be used as a soaker or as a detergent additive.
If you're looking for a substitute fabric softener, all you need to do is add ½ cup of distilled vinegar onto the rinse cycle. In case you're looking to neutralize odors and whiten your clothes, then add ½ cup of Borax and ½ of vinegar.
Using warm water helps the Borax dissolve the stains more easily. Just remember that the more clothes and the more water you use, the more Borax you'll need to add.
In the case of Borax, the compound is dissolved in hot water. As with most minerals and solids, Borax becomes less soluble the lower the temperature of the water.
In other words, more Borax may be dissolved in hot water than cold water. So if a hot, saturated mixture is cooled, there's more Borax than can be contained by the colder water, and so Borax may fall out of the mixture, forming crystals. Borax, also called 20-Mule Team household cleaner.
Dilute a ½ cup of Borax into 12 ounces of warm water until no clumps remain. Then pour the mixture to a squirt bottle for application. Be sure to label your squirt bottle and always turn it to the off position after use. It should be stored out of reach of children and pets, as with all household cleaning products.
Very hot water can hold much more dissolved borax than cold water. Hot water molecules are moving very fast and are spread way out which makes space available for more borax to dissolve into it. As the mixture cools, the water molecules slow down and move closer together.
Dissolve 1 cup of borax in 1 gallon of warm water. To clean mildew stains, pour the mixture into a spray bottle, spray onto bathroom tile, then let sit for ½ hour. Wipe away with a damp rag. To prevent mildew buildup, spray the formula on tile and let dry.
In the UK and EU, borax is no longer sold for household use. Sodium sesquicarbonate, marketed under the name "Borax Substitute," is a non-toxic mineral compound with similar pH to borax, making it ideal for cleaning and laundry. It is more potent than baking soda.
Borax is illegal to sell in the UK – it is no longer available to the general public in the UK, the EU, America and an increasing number of other countries globally. On the 18th of June 2010, borax was classified as a “substance of very high concern (SVHC)” by the European Chemicals Agency.
Borax Banned In The UK & EU
Back in 2010, the EU decided that the 'Borate' group of chemicals – the group that Borax belongs to – may be potentially hazardous to health. Borax was therefore banned from sale in the EU.