Stop limescale build-up in your iron by using Nancy Birtwhistle's homemade, all-natural distilled ironing water
Using regular water in your iron can lead to limescale buildup and stain your clothes. This solution will stop that from happening
Something as simple as the water you put in your iron probably doesn't cross your mind; however, if you want to avoid limescale build-up and stains on your clothing, you may want to consider it.
With daily cleaning habits and weekly home deep cleans, smaller household issues like the water you use in your iron can easily fall by the wayside. If you've ever cleaned your iron properly, you've probably noticed it builds up limescale pretty easily, especially if you live in a hard water area and use tap water to fill your iron.
And while there are specialist ironing waters to purchase, this feels like a real waste of money and plastic bottles when you can follow this easy method from Nancy Birtwhistle for free homemade ironing water.
With so many cleaning and household solutions to make from scratch, having some of these bottles to hand is really helpful and will stop you from making so much plastic waste in your home.
So you don't have to add your iron to the list of household items that you need to clean more regularly; using the appropriate type of water will prevent limescale buildup in the first place.
"If you live in a hard water area like me and you use tap water to fill your iron, what will happen eventually is that limescale will build up inside. And then what you'll find one day when you do your ironing, instead of the steam coming out of here, you'll get all this brown gungy stuff that'll stain your laundry," says Nancy.
"You can buy distilled perfumed ironing water - I've just had a look at the price of it. Minimum £1 a litre in a plastic bottle, which we don't like; I saw some going for £4 a litre in a plastic bottle," she adds.
"But on a day like today, we can get the ingredients for free," Nancy points out.
If you're using clever garden solutions for collecting rainwater, this part will be super simple; if not, you may have to wait for a rainy day to collect straight from your gutter pipes.
You'll need to collect a litre of rainwater in a jug and some fresh lavender for perfume; it can be rose petals or citrus slices too. Then give the flowers a squeeze to release their fragrance, and put the mixture into a pan.
Boil it for a minute, then leave it to cool and infuse in the pot. Then it'll need straining and pouring into a reusable glass bottle to use when you're next ironing.
While it's not a luxury cleaning product, this is a free way of ensuring your iron doesn't become clogged up with stubborn limescale.
If you want some more of Nancy's all-natural cleaning solutions, then we'd recommend you try her 'dry cleaning foam', which makes quick work of stubborn yellow stains on bedding.
