Add This To Your Cleaning Staples: Borax

If you're going for a green clean, then along with white vinegar, baking soda, lemons and salt you'll want to add a box of borax. But what is borax exactly and what can you use it for? We did a little research so you don't have to, as well as rounding up some ways to use it.

Like sel de mer, borax is a mineral crystal that is found in evaporated beds of seasonal lakes. A natural alternative to bleach, it can be used in the same way: to remove stains and whiten your laundry. It also boosts the cleaning power of your regular detergent. Use it instead of cleanser to clean the porcelain in your bathroom and your kitchen counters. Mix it with spices and sprinkle on your carpets to deodorize them. Add it to your dishwasher to eliminate spots and film. Sprinkle it around your kitchen's baseboards to get rid of bugs.

(Image: Flickr member Ben Sutherland)

Comments (6)

Borax works great but it's not the most ecological product: it releases boron which is toxic to plants in large quantities. But I imagine nobody uses 'large quantities' at home.
Also borax can cause respiratory or skin irritation...so handle it carefully.

I prefer to stick to vinegar, baking soda, tea tree oil and castille soap. To whiten laundry I used to like Sodium percarbonate but I never saw it in stores in the US. Oxy Clean contains 50-70% of sodium percarbonate but I have no idea what the other ingredients are.

Question: Why do I want to use Borax rather than washing soda, which I currently use as both a laundry booster and all-purpose cleaner ingredient?

What is the environmental impact of borax mining?

Frum, it says in the post that borax is found in "evaporated beds of seasonal lakes". Wikipedia has to say, "Borax occurs naturally in evaporite deposits produced by the repeated evaporation of seasonal lakes. The most commercially important deposits are found in Turkey, Boron, California, and Searles Lake, California. Also, it has been found at many other locations in the Southwestern United States, the Atacama desert in Chile, and in Tibet and Romania. Borax can also be produced synthetically from other boron compounds." I imagine these deposits are harvested quite like salt, and not like (metal) or deep mineral mining.

We have incredibly hard water in our area. I've used Borax on recommendation from a client for years. I find it leaves my clothing softer than w/o it. I don't use bleach, don't need to...keeps things white. Oxy Clean caused nasty skin reactions when I tried using it in my laundry. I don't use as much as recommended, only half a cup each S-M load. Read the box, it does a zillion other things, too. I'm a devotee.

Borax worked great to rid my kitchen of roaches! (That and doing dishes more regularly.)