For a bathtub, add 1/4 cup borax, 1/4 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup laundry detergent. Stir until all three dissolve completely. Submerge your "clean" towels or sheets in the mixture and soak until the water has cooled, which usually takes at least four hours.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup borax into the empty washer tub before adding the dirty laundry. Be sure there are no lumps in the borax powder if you are using cold water because they may not dissolve properly. Borax works as a water softener and deodorizer.
Add your clothes to the bucket, making sure that they are submerged in the water. You want the whole garment to be wet with the Borax and water mixture. Leave the laundry items to soak for about 30 minutes in the solution. For tougher stains, soak for 45 minutes to an hour.
Start a normal cycle. Let the washing machine run for one minute to combine the vinegar and Borax. When you mix borax and vinegar, they create a solution that helps to remove any mold or mildew that may be developing. Borax is also a natural deodorizer.
It is quite strongly alkaline, so it's probably best to wear gloves if you are putting it into washing up water or using it for cleaning surfaces. It's not very reactive which means that it can be safely combined with other cleaning products. Don't mix it with acids or store it with acids.
Borax acts as a buffer and raises the pH of the water to a slightly basic solution, right around a pH of 8. Don't use Borax at the same time as vinegar or you'll just create a nice little acid-base reaction and make salt.
Borax can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea if you ingest it by itself, and large amounts can lead to shock and kidney failure. It's banned in U.S. food products. It also can irritate your skin and eyes, and it can hurt your nose, throat, and lungs if you breathe it in.
Here's how to make the most of your washer. The first step is to heat the water itself so that it is most effective when paired with the Borax. Hot water helps to make the Borax more soluble so it works its way into the clothing and gets an even deeper clean.
Washing With Hard Water
Washing towels in water high in mineral content (aka hard water) and using too much detergent can leave them with residue that makes the fabric dingy, stiff, and scratchy. 1 Add a water conditioner, reduce the amount of detergent you use, and add distilled white vinegar to the rinse cycle.
Use baking soda.
This will help loosen up fibers and clean off any chemicals or grime, making your towels softer. Just mix half a cup of baking soda with your normal amount of detergent.
Since borax contains sodium4, adding one-half cup per load helps to soften the wash water, so your clothes come out looking great.
Adding up to 1/2 cup* of borax to every load of laundry—whites and colorfast items (check labels)—will do all kinds of wonderful things to keep your white things white, your laundry, and your washing machine odor-free. *The amount of borax depends on the hardness of your water.
Oxiclean powder is essentially washing soda with sodium percarbonate, which turns into hydrogen peroxide. It's color safe and works great to get rid of stains and keeps whites white and colors bright. It's also much safer / less toxic than Borax. Borax works well too, helps get rid of stains, and whitens clothes.
For a front-load washer, put 2 tablespoons of oxygen bleach or borax and 2 tablespoons of washing soda in the tub of the washing machine. For a top-loading machine, put 1/2 cup of each of the powders into the wash tub. Run the biggest cycle at the hottest temperature or use the “clean tub” setting on the washer.
Borax is most effective in hotter water, while washing soda is perfect for any temperature. When thinking about doing your own laundry detergent, consider that Borax is perfectly fine, but if you're having trouble getting things really clean then replacing borax with washing soda might be the way to go.
Boric acid is low in toxicity if eaten or if it contacts skin. However, in the form of borax, it can be corrosive to the eye. Borax can also be irritating to the skin. People who have eaten boric acid have had nausea, vomiting, stomach aches, and diarrhea.
It is an insecticide and kills them on contact. It also makes treated material unappealing for termites to eat. Borax is also a digestive poison and repellent that keeps termites away. Depending on the level of borate concentrate, the pesticide can poison the termite over an extended period.
Both baking soda and Borax are effective because they are alkaline and abrasive. But Borax has a higher PH than baking soda, making it a slightly harsher but arguably more effective cleaning agent.
Use borax as a DIY laundry detergent by following Julia's method: Use a food processor to shred 1 bar of Dr. Bronner's Castile soap into a fine powder. Using a spoon, mix together 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda. Add 1 tablespoon to a load of laundry.
Some delicate fabrics, whether white or colored, are labeled as cold-wash only. However, borax readily dissolves only in warm or hot water.