I spent more time than I care to admit searching the internet for homemade car wash recipes. What I learned quickly is that there is quite the debate on what ingredients to use. Most people say to use dish soap, recommending Dawn (which I know some of you with MCS can safely use, but it doesn't work for me,) because dish soap lathers and scrubs very effectively. Everyone else says that dish soap is a terrible choice because it's designed to cut grease, and that same action can strip wax off your car. I checked my Biokleen Fragrance Free dish soap to if it had ingredients in harsher soaps that would strip wax, and found naturally derived sodium laurel sulfate, which is designed to scrub and strip whatever it's washing. So I opted against dish soap.
Instead, I decided to go with what the least amount of bloggers recommended: a mix of plant-based powdered laundry soap with white vinegar. White vinegar, because it's an acid, is fantastic at loosening dead bugs and glued on grime, as well as cleaning windows. I happened to have some Seventh Generation Fragrance Free laundry powder soap, so I went with that.
(Tangent: I know that many people refuse to support Seventh Generation because they do use pesticides, which get into their products. In my opinion, they're so much cleaner and less toxic than all other mainstream brands that can be found at Target and Walmart that I see more harm in boycotting them. I'd rather keep the brand popular enough to continue being sold at places like Target and Walmart. Wouldn't you rather people buy something with a minor amount of potentially toxic ingredients than Tide, All, Downy, Gain, and the other very popular and very toxic soaps? Tide gives me rashes, and the scent gives me pounding headaches and aches, which fatigues me so much I can hardly focus on anything else. Seventh Generation is "good enough" for me, but I typically do buy other brands.)
My recipe was this:
- White vinegar: fill a bucket about an 8th full
- Laundry Powder: A heaping scoop added to the bucket
- Water
...And most importantly:
- Pressure Washer
I don't own a pressure washer. My plan was to use my garden hose with a decent spray nozzle. I can't tell you if that would have worked well, because I didn't get to try it. If my car wasn't THIS dirty, I'm sure it would have worked well. My father-in-law, who is an incredibly self-sufficient and very well supplied man who never ever ceases to amaze me, does own a pressure washer, and invited us to come over and use it for the car wash. Since I'm sure the vast majority of my readers don't have access to a pressure washer, I'll pass on advice from other blogs: go to a self-serve car wash with a hose. Apparently most of them do allow you to use your own soap, so all you're paying for is the use of their pressure washing hose and water. For people with MCS, this could be a problem because you'd likely smell the soap from the other stalls.
The pressure washer got the majority of the dirt off of my truck before adding in the soap. It was the most necessary ingredient! We then added in the soap. It lathered really well, didn't smell (well, the vinegar smelled a little), and was doing its job. My husband then scrubbed down my truck while the soap was on it, then we rinsed, then we dried with camel leather (I'm not kidding when I say my father-in-law is well supplied.)
As it turns out, my truck is actually black! ;)
The soap worked. It didn't leave any new scratches, it got tons of dead bugs off my hood, my windows looked cleaner than ever, and my truck was shining in the sunlight again! It needs a wax job pretty badly, but it looked way cleaner than it's ever been after going through a drive through car wash!
The best part? The soap won't kill your grass or flowers. Or you. It's safe to let it wash off into gravel or your street drain. Have you ever read the warning labels on a bottle of store-bought car wash? They make it clear not to let the soapy water get into your lawn.
Before:
After:
I hope that this post encourages you to think twice about what products you use and WHY you use them. Do you really need to buy car wash, or can you safely and effectively use ingredients you already have? Sure, chemists will claim that car wash is a special formulation that is a highly effective cleaner without stripping wax or scratching your paint... whatever. I'm sure it's true, but that doesn't mean that natural, eco-friendly, people-friendly, non-toxic ingredients don't do the same thing. Not only that, but think about how that car wash affects the water supply, plant life, and animal life. Natural, safe ingredients won't cause the same degree of harm.
I'm considering making homemade car wax next. That gets more challenging, as the wax needs to be strong enough to stick to the car and truly coat it. I've seen many recipes, but how often do you have to wax? How effective is it? Will it come off on your hands every time you touch the car? We'll see if I take this on. :)
Note:
Many bloggers and posts on forums recommended pure castile soap, such as Dr. Bronner's Sal's Suds. I did have a couple bottles of his soap, but this would have been the more expensive option. I also wasn't comfortable running it through a pressure washer in case it would have clogged it up. I plan to try using this at home with my bucket and garden hose next time.
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