These are all chemicals that are in fabric softener. You’ll be astounded by what kind of damage they can do!

1. Alpha-Terpineol – This dangerous chemical can cause health problems like dizziness, headaches, memory loss and even numbness in your face and pain in your neck and back.

2. Benzyl acetate – A toxic chemical that has been linked to pancreatic cancer. The fumes can cause irritation to your eyes and your airways.

3. Benzyl alcohol – Benzyl alcohol can cause a big number of health problems, like central nervous system disorders, headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and extreme drops in blood pressure.

4. Chloroform – Chloroform is a powerful carcinogenic neurotoxin and can cause a lot of health problems like loss of consciousness, nausea, headaches, vomiting and/or dizziness, and drowsiness.

5. Linalool – This is a sedative that is known for causing respiratory problems and the loss of muscle coordination.

All of these nasty chemicals can be found in fabric softener! Not only that, but the stuff is also very expensive and very bad for the environment.

Of course, we understand you still want fresh and soft laundry. Luckily, there’s a very good, natural alternative…

Vinegar

So, we’ve established that you shouldn’t be using fabric softener anymore. But detergent on its own isn’t going to make your laundry smell as fresh and be super soft. So what’s a good alternative to the chemical-ridden softener? Well, it’s everyone’s favourite natural cleaning agent: vinegar! Vinegar is a true miracle product: you can use it for so many different things and it’s completely natural as well. Besides vinegar, you could choose to add a little ammonia as well.

Laundry

Add a cup of vinegar with a splash of ammonia to your laundry. Pour it into the fabric softener compartment of your washing machine and just pour your regular amount of laundry detergent into its own compartment. The ammonia will make sure that the laundry detergent won’t stick to the fabric of the clothes or towels, while the vinegar does the same thing but for the minerals. Together, these two ingredients will definitely make sure your laundry will come out perfectly soft and fresh-smelling. If you don’t want to use ammonia, you can also very easily just use the vinegar, without the ammonia added to it. Whatever you do, just don’t use fabric softener!