We all love shining bright white, soft, and freshly scented clothes but do we really have to harm the environment while doing laundry? Here is how to wash your clothes sustainably and lighten your load on the planet!

Who wants to wear dulled-out clothes that were once white? Nothing looks less appealing than drab - not quite gray but definitely not white - clothes. Whites should appear crisp and fresh, and pure as a summer’s day. Unfortunately, hard water and age can turn whites cloudy-colored or not-so-pretty yellow.

Plus whites actually seem to attract stains. It seems like you only spill coffee or red wine down your front on the days when you’re wearing a pure white. Fortunately, you have several green cleaning products at home that will help brighten whites and remove stains naturally. And going eco-love on laundry will stop you from staining the environment and leave your clothes softer and smelling better. So it’s a win-win!

Find out how

To keep the whites white

Whitening agents such as baking soda, vinegar, borax, lemon juice, and hydrogen peroxide whiten naturally. Add ½ cup of any of these cleaners to each wash cycle to keep your clothes bone white. For double duty, mix in ½ cup vinegar and ½ cup borax to your white loads. Both ingredients will help brighten whites, and the vinegar will soften clothes.

To restore the whites

Presoak dingy whites in a mixture of one-gallon hot water and ½ cup of washing soda, a powdered mineral soap that helps brighten clothes. Then launder your clothes as usual. For clothes that haven’t been white for quite a while, try this method. Fill a pot with water and add several lemon slices. Bring the water to a boil. Fill a tub with the mixture and soak white linens, socks, and non-delicate items until the water cools. Then wash clothes as usual. Finally hang clothes to dry in the sun, the least expensive all-natural whitener out there. The sun will naturally bleach the garments, without setting stains like a dryer.

Natural stain removal

Depending on the severity of the stain, try a combination of these natural tricks to get your whites sparkling clean.

Keep them smelling fresh!

Now, who doesn’t like a load of laundry that smells good? When your fabric softener gets over this time, don’t be in a hurry to buy a new bottle. Try pouring a little bit of essential oil in the last cycle of the washing load and see how wonderfully it works.

The added bonus is that you don’t have to select from the same 4 to 5 fragrance options. Rather, you can explore fragrances like lemon, eucalyptus, tea tree, etc.

Since we can’t really live without having a fresh set of clothes, we can at least think of solutions to make it more sustainable.