Soft laundry without using fabric softener? Find out how to do it

Putting softener in the washing machine is an an unconscious action when you start a load of laundry. Most of us don't think twice: we take a bottle of our favorite softener - perhaps even different ones depending on the type of laundry to be done - and pour it into the dispenser. The laundry always emerges, smelling very fragrant (even if not always as soft as we would like).

There can be various causes behind an unsatisfactory result, and one of them is the use of too much fabric softener (especially if we are over-generous with the detergent too). But there are alternative ways of doing the laundry without using softener, which have become very popular (and still produces soft garments).

Creativo

There are remedies that dissolve the soap residue left in fibers of fabrics from previous washes (and which tends to harden our clothes). In particular, these are substances characterized by a certain acidity, such as vinegar (white vinegar, alcohol, apple, rice and similar) or citric acid.

• Citric acid: this can be mixed with distilled water, so as to prevent another factor that hardens garments, i.e. limescale in the water. You can use 150 grams of citric acid dissolved in half a liter of very hot, distilled water. When it cools, pour the mix into a bottle and keep it ready to use as a normal detergent at the time of washing. Citric acid has a citrus scent, but you can also supplement it with a few drops of a lemon essential oil, or combine it with a little mint or lavender essential oil instead.
• White vinegar: used by itself, or even together with baking soda. In the first case, you need to pour a glass of vinegar directly into the drum or into the dispenser compartment. In the second case, pour half a glass of baking soda into the drum, and the vinegar into the dispenser.
• Delicate bleach, which is an oxygen bleach, without chlorine: this can be used by itself, in the pre-wash phase, by keeping the garments immersed in hot water and bleach for an hour; or it can be used directly in the washing machine. In this second case, there are those who add it to detergent and fabric softener, and those who replace it with fabric softener - and perhaps this second use better avoids the risk of soap accumulation between the fibers of the garments.

Do you have a favorite, alternative fabric softener?