The 5 Best Natural Laundry Boosters

There are two things that are just about certain in my life everyday: dirty dishes and dirty laundry. And sometimes I’m not sure which are dirtier – the dishes or the laundry. With my kids, it often seems like what should have been left over on the dishes ends up all over their clothes.

My littles are super hard on their clothes. I used to spray each individual item with stain spray to make sure everything would come out of the laundry clean and stain-free. It was annoying and time consuming.

So, I went looking for alternatives. I wanted something quick and simple, that I could add right to the washer. And I wanted something that would actually make a difference, helping my laundry to come out cleaner than it would have otherwise.

Here are the five natural laundry boosters I’ve found work the best for my laundry routine. Keep in mind, we have very hard water and a front loading HE washing machine. You may have to do some tweaking with your laundry routine to fine what works best for you.

Green And Natural Laundry Boosters

1. Washing Soda

After lots and lots of trial and error over the years, washing soda has become my most preferred laundry booster. I add it to every load of laundry I do. Washing soda boosts the effectiveness of the detergent helping it to clean better. It’s also great for softening water, fighting stains, and is affordable. 

Washing soda is not the same thing as baking soda. You can find it in the laundry aisle, usually by the oxygen bleach and other laundry additives. I add between a half cup and a cup right into the washer drum with the clothes before I start the load.

2. Hydrogen Peroxide

I once bought a bottle of a conventional natural brand non-chlorine bleach because I had some tough stains and heavily soiled stuff. It did a fine job, but it was a little pricey and had a scent I disliked.

One day, I turned the bottle around to see if the ingredients were listed and was surprised to find that the main ingredients were hydrogen peroxide and water. I realized that I don’t need to pay a premium for natural non-chlorine bleach when I could just use the main ingredient itself. So I tried adding hydrogen peroxide to my laundry and was excited to find that it worked really well!

Hydrogen Peroxide is great for removing stains, especially from berries and blood, and helps the clothes come out cleaner and brighter. It does have natural bleaching properties, although I’ve used it on every type of colored clothing and laundry without any issue, you may want to test it yourself before adding to your laundry. You can spray hydrogen peroxide directly onto a stain, or add about a half a cup to the bleach dispenser of your washer to help clean the whole load. 

3. Lemon Juice

Lemon juice is a natural bleaching agent and disinfectant, it can be used to naturally whiten and brighten your white laundry. I use it for our white bed sheets, my husbands white undershirts, and in loads of our cleaning rags and wipes.

I recommend only using lemon juice with white laundry because it could bleach or fade colored laundry. You can spray a stain directly with lemon juice and let it sit out in the sun, then spray again and wash as usual. For all white loads, I also add about a half a cup of lemon juice to the bleach dispenser of my washer for cleaner, brighter whites.

4. Blue Dawn Dish Soap

I’m not really sure what’s so magic about using blue Dawn dish soap in the laundry, but I can tell you this: it is amazing at getting out stains and getting really dirty clothes nice and clean. I think the dish soap is great at cutting grease and removing food stains, which my kids are experts at making. And it just helps to boost the effectiveness of the detergent overall.

A little goes a long way, so I just add a squirt right into the washer drum with the dirty clothes. I add it to heavily soiled loads, loads with mostly kids clothes, and also loads of my cleaning rags and wipes.

5. White Vinegar

Some people claim that vinegar is a great stain remover and that it can also be used in place of fabric softener. You could definitely try it out for those things in your laundry, but I haven’t found either of those to be true for us. I don’t know if it’s because of our hard water, but I found that vinegar was leaving small spots on our clothes that looked like grease stains. They would come out in the next wash, but it was still annoying to have spots on our clothes.

So now, I just use vinegar to help remove odors from our laundry. When one of the kids has a bedtime accident, for loads of towels and cleaning rags and wipes, and for stinky gym clothes, I will add a half cup to a cup of vinegar straight to the washer drum. It helps to remove the odors from the laundry and rinses out clean so we don’t have any spots left over on our clean laundry.

Dirty laundry is a reality of life, especially life with little mess-makers and stain-creators, but using these five natural laundry boosters will help keep your family’s clothes and other other laundry clean and bright!

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