OS Alternative to Spray Starch

Uniscots97

I like using spray starch on my work shirts, but am finding it becomming very expensive to buy. Does anyone have an OS alternative?

ChocClare

You can buy a box of Robin laundry starch (or just "laundry starch" for that matter. Boots used to sell their own brand, but as it's probably - gulp - 20 years since I bought a box there I can't guarantee that they still do :rotfl:

Spot the girl who power-dressed in the eighties!

It costs about a couple of quid for a box but that will last ages. You can usually find it in ironmongers. Southbourne Discount Stores sells it - I am sure you know the sort of shop I mean and that you've probably got a shop like that near you.

Anyway, you can use it to starch your clothes as described on the label - though make it FAR weaker than it suggests unless you want cardboard shirts - or you can make it up and put it in a spray bottle. It doesn't have the silicone in it which makes ironing so much easier with spray starch but, on the other hand, you won't be sliding all over your carpet as the spray lands on the floor

Don't make up too much in one go as it will not keep.

tigerfeet2006

Pretty sure I have seen laundary Starch in Wilko's.

Uniscots97

We have a Wilko's here and a discount type store will have a little look. Thank you all!

Larumbelle

You don't need to buy, it is so easy and cheap to make your own!

Add 1tbsp cornflour to 1 pint boiling water. Mix like mad. Allow to cool, add a few drops of essential oil if you have any (eucalyptus is good, it repels dust mites and moth larvae) and put in a spray bottle.

And away you go. Just give the bottle a little shake each time before you use it.

Uniscots97

Larumbelle wrote: »

You don't need to buy, it is so easy and cheap to make your own!

Add 1tbsp cornflour to 1 pint boiling water. Mix like mad. Allow to cool, add a few drops of essential oil if you have any (eucalyptus is good, it repels dust mites and moth larvae) and put in a spray bottle.

And away you go. Just give the bottle a little shake each time before you use it.

Thats great! How long will it last for being going off?

BitterAndTwisted

I'd say about a week or less depending on the temperature. Fungus and mould love carbohydrates/starches so it might an idea to only make up half a pint or less at a time. Still, cornstarch is that cheap it won't cost an enormous amount to chuck away what you haven't used in one go but I suppose that depends on how many times a week you do your ironing.

To be honest, I've never used cornstarch in a spray-bottle I've just used in in the last rinse when I've hand-washed things. Dunno how cornstarch would fare in a washing-machine but I'd be wary of doing that for the fungus/mould risk-reason.

Larumbelle

Well, I just went and had a look, the last lot I made was in late January and it looks okay, at a guess it's the oil inhibiting the mould maybe?