You no longer have detergent in stock? It’s time to opt for homemade products. Laundry detergent is one of the easiest household products to make. Above all, homemade laundry detergent and store-bought laundry detergent are not at all the same price. Among the detergents made at home, there are some that really cost nothing: this is the case of ash detergent, because it is free. Indeed, ash is present in large numbers in the wood stove or fireplace so why deprive yourself of it? Our grandparents already used this recipe decades ago. This time, it is proposed by the influencer Ophélie Bel, from the Instagram account @minimal.dailyin his book My minimalist daily life.
How to do laundry with ashes?
This recipe is extremely simple and really practical. “This laundry ash is very soft and does not attack the fibers: on the contrary, it allows effective and gentle maintenance of your laundry“, indicates Ophélie Bel in her book. For 1 liter of water, you need 150 g of wood ashes. You will need a closed bottle, a saucepan, a salad bowl, a funnel, gloves, a sieve, a strainer and a clean cloth.
To succeed perfectly, you must follow the steps in order and above all, always use gloves when handling this mixture.
- Sift the ashes at least twice.to remove most of the impurities“. You can do it a little more if you want.
- Heat water over low heat then mix the ash in it before letting it cool.
- Leave to macerate for at least a day. Make sure to mix your preparation regularly, at least 5 times.
- Once the time has elapsed, filter the preparation using a strainer or a mat with very fine holes.
- Then put the preparation in a bottle. “We will then see the ash which will descend and settle at the bottom of the bottle.“, indicates Ophélie Bel.
- Once all the ash has gone down, you need to filter it again but differently. “Using a cloth that is placed inside a funnel“, says the author. Don’t forget to put a container underneath.
- At this point, your mixture should have changed color and be turned yellow. When this is the case, it means that everything has been sufficiently filtered.
How to store and use this detergent?
To keep it, you can put your message in a tightly closed bottle. Be careful to leave it in the shade and away from humidity. When using it, you should take 100 ml of detergent for a 5 kg machine.
Moreover, “You just have to be careful not to use this detergent alone on a complete machine of white laundry as it will tend to gray them. To avoid this inconvenience, consider adding a tablespoon of sodium percarbonate in the detergent tank when you spin one“, concludes Ophélie Bel.