Oh what to do! A whinge follows

G'day all!

DH has kindly passed his cold to me, though I am still fighting it off. No dripping faucet for me quite yet. Still I am not exactly bright and perky.

In the meantime, I need to scour my fleeces. I have about six left to do. Unfortunately the new scour at the guild is extremely alkaline and it tends to burn the tips of the fleece (which are usually damaged anyway). I'm a bit grumpy cos I bought two bottles of it and it is crappy. The old scour was about ph6. It didn't burn the fleeces (or make my hands go all dry and chapped). I need a neutralish detergent that is nice to my hands and therefore nice to my fleeces.

Some people use Amway's LOC but I don't know any Amway distributors and am not exactly willing to get on an Amway distributor's list. I suspect it is not cheap either. I could use shampoo but the old scour was quite concentrated and only cost me $4.60 for a litre. I don't know where I can get a good, plain, unscented shampoo that is anywhere near that cost effective. Most of them reek of perfumes.

I've tried emailing and ringing a couple of chemical companies but they are clueless. All I want is a neutral/slightly acidic detergent that is biodegradable. You would not think it that hard! But it is!

Gosh I am feeling so disgruntled with the whole thing. Surely I can get some blasted decent, not smelly and CHEAP detergent! I can get stuff that costs over $10 a litre but I'll need at least two more litres and you know my financial state at the moment.

I wonder if I can adjust the ph of the new yucky horrid steenky (it smells like rancid lemon, if that is possible) detergent? Or should I give up and go buy some more of the stuff I've been shampooing with, which was $11 a litre and try that? (I've almost run out of it)

Grumble. Whine. Any suggestions (apart from don't whinge)?

anon!

Comments

  1. Anonymous10:20 pm

    I've switched dishwashing liquids recently as I'm sure my original brand's greywater was killing more of my plants than it was aiding.

    Here's some interesting tables and product lists showing sodium, phosphate, etc levels, but it also lists liquid detergents with ph levels <8

    http://www.lanfaxlabs.com.au/greywater.htm

    The dishwashing liquid I now use, btw, is dirt cheap, and it doesn't become a bowl of slimey glop (as do the 'leading' brands) after you leave it overnight to cool before flinging it over the plants. Might be worth investigating for use as a scourer, or would its cleaning properties be too weak?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4:10 am

    Umm, I'm actually an Amway rep, so could get you some LOC if you wanted some. I've used their dishwashing liquid and their wool wash for skeins, and both have been very successful. I've been transferring all my washing machine water with the liquid detergent, straight on to the garden and haven't had any problems. The plants are thriving.

    ReplyDelete
  3. dreamcatcher11:37 am

    Ecover might be worth looking at if you have it there?

    ReplyDelete
  4. chocolatetrudi4:41 pm

    Auroma. I've only been to their Hawthorn shop.

    I used to buy their shampoo base, which was about the only shampoo that didn't upset my scalp. They have an additive free and sulphate/PEG free versions. It's $8/12.95 for a litre, and $22.50/36.45 for 5 litres. Dunno if that's cheap enough. You'd probably want to buy one of their 250ml bottles to check the ph first.

    ReplyDelete
  5. chocolatetrudi4:44 pm

    Oh, and there's a dishwashing detergent @ $7.25 per litre. This is what they say on their home page:

    "The Ecol range is specially designed to include only products that are totally bio-degradable and environmentally friendly, produced from palm and coconut oils, and not tested on animals. Ecol products- Contain no animal products, phosphates or inorganic builders that contribute to eutrophication, contain no benzene sulphonates (petroleum detergents) or animal derived products, are extremely bio-degradable and degrades 10 times faster than common detergents and contain no skin irritants, dyes or artificial additives and leaves no toxic residue."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chris9:09 pm

    Can you find horse shampoo? Here it's called Orvus Paste and it's just straight shampoo. No scent at all.

    Hope you feel better soon.

    ReplyDelete

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