If you’ve struggled to make natural cleaning products work in your home and your body, your water might be the culprit! I recently asked my audience what the most challenging aspect of toxin-free living has been so far. Unsurprisingly, many people have had a hard time embracing clean products because they simply don’t work with their home’s hard water. 

Drawing from my experience helping hundreds of students transition to toxin-free living, I share honest feedback about which products work best with hard water. Don’t let it derail your journey to a toxin-free home. I’m sharing all my tried-and-true tips, including discount codes for recommended products and my personal laundry stripping recipe.

Whether you’re just starting your toxin-free journey or struggling to make natural products work, this episode will help you navigate the challenges of hard water while maintaining your commitment to cleaner living.

Today, I’m breaking down:

• What hard water is and why it matters
• Why natural products might not be working as well as you hoped
• Four solutions for common challenges
• My personal recommendations for brands that work better

What is Hard Water?

Hard water just means that the water in your house has higher levels of minerals like calcium or magnesium. These minerals interact with soap-based products, and unfortunately, things that are clean, toxin-free, all-natural, or plant-based are typically made with more gentle products. They interact with those minerals, and they don’t work so well. 

Some of the things you’ll see when you have hard water are:

• Leftover soap scum
• Film on your clothes
• Your hair still feels oily after washing
• Your dishes don’t feel completely clean

These things can happen when you have hard water and you’ve switched to a natural product that doesn’t contain more cleaning power surfactant. 

Solutions for Hard Water

If you have hard water, you can still live toxin-free by following these simple solutions.

Get a water softener. 

Invest in a whole-house water filter and a water softener to change the game. The filter will work throughout your whole house—the shower, dishwasher, laundry machine, etc. Everything comes out cleaner and washes better, soaps work better, and your skin and hair will feel amazing. 

Use vinegar.

Vinegar softens water. When you’re doing laundry, you can put half water and half cleaning vinegar in the rinse portion of your washing machine, which helps reduce the effects of hard water. You can also do that in the rinse cycle area of your dishwasher to help it wash away the soap. 

Laundry stripping.

If you are transitioning to clean laundry detergents anyway, I recommend laundry stripping. Dryer sheets deposit a waterproof waxy barrier that melts onto your clothing. When you feel laundry coming out of the dryer with dryer sheets, you’re not feeling soft clothes. You’re feeling the wax that has melted on top of the clothes, the toxins with fragrance. That builds up in your dryer and will actually break it earlier, but it also builds up on your clothes. 

One of the first things I tell people to do when they switch is solid laundry stripping. You can do it in four to six hours (I do it overnight). It is a super hot water bath, so make sure you only do this to clothes that can withstand hot water. It is a mix of washing soda and borax. I use Thieves Cleaner and some essential oils to help break up whatever coating is in the clothing and the fibers. You soak it, move it around, and gyrate it. 

It’s an overnight situation, and by the end of soaking, your tub will be so gross. The things that will come out of your clothing that you have no idea are living in the fibers of your clothing are wild. A lot of that is because our washing machines are not very good at actually washing. Those rinse cycles are not strong enough. I do this at least once a year and use all clean products. It’s just a good idea to do a good deep clean occasionally. 

Laundry Strip Recipe:

1. Fill a bathtub (or large tub) with hot water.
2. Add your clothes or linens to the water. Make sure they aren’t delicate.
3. Add the following ingredients:
   • 1 cup of Washing Soda
   • 1 cup of Borax (can sub with Baking Soda)
   • 1 capful of Thieves Laundry Soap (or any non toxic laundry detergent)
   • 1 capful of Thieves Household Cleaner (optional: but really help!)
4. Stir the mixture well to ensure everything is evenly distributed.
5. Let soak for 4 – 6 hours, stirring the clothes every hour to help agitate the solution.
6. Drain the water and move clothes to your washing machine.
7. Run a full wash cycle with just water—do not add more detergent.

That’s it! As your clothes soak, you’ll see the water change color as it pulls out all the residues and gunk. Happy stripping!

Don’t give up. 

Don’t think that just because you have hard water, you can’t swap. You can. You just have to be pickier about the products that you choose. Look for products with some surfactant that is stronger than the glucosides that come from coconuts and are stronger than soap. You just need something a little bit more oomph in it to cut through those minerals in your water.

I hope this episode was helpful. Check out the products I recommend as well as some discounts you can get.

• Whole House Water Filter (code WENDYKATHRYN)
• Evolvh Haircare (code WENDYKATHRYN for 15% off)
• Truly Free Laundry Detergent (code WENDY30 for 30% off)
• Thieves Laundry Soap (code SHAREYL for 10% off)

If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please:

• Leave a positive review or rating wherever you listen
• Shop toxin free products on my Toxin Free Shopping Guide
• Download your free 25 Toxins to Avoid
• Post a screenshot, share what you loved, and tag me on Instagram @wendy_toxinfreeish
• Want to ask me a question to get answered on the podcast? Leave me a voice message here.

Related Episodes:

Episode 4: Are Toxins in Your Tap Water? Here’s How to Find Out.

Episode 12: Spring Cleaning: Why You Should Detox Your Toxic Laundry Detergent

Episode 13: Spring Cleaning: Why You Should Ditch the Toxic Dryer Sheets