teresajuan0: Laundry: Being Green While Getting Clean!

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Laundry: Being Green While Getting Clean!

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This week, we asked our community to share some of their non-toxic laundry tips with us. We were so overwhelmed by the many blog submissions that we didn’t want to highlight onlyl one! Below is what our bloggers suggest when "going green" with laundry.

Micaela from Mindful Momma suggests safer ways to scent, soften & reduce static in your laundry.

Scent:

Toss a lavender sachet into your dryer. You can easily make your own or buy them on Etsy but I admit to buying them from Trader Joe's occasionally.
Put a few drops of your favorite essential oil on a reusable cloth in the dryer.

Soften:

Add 1/2 cup of baking soda in with your detergent in the wash cycle. Baking soda is a natural water softener.
Vinegar is also popular for softening laundry. About 1/2 cup in the fabric softener container should do the trick.
Soak a cotton cloth in your favorite eco-friendly fabric softener. Squeeze out any excess liquid and toss in the dryer.

Static:

Dry synthetic fabrics separately from natural fibers as synthetics tend to create more static cling.
Throw a dryer ball or a tennis ball into the dryer to help eliminate static. I love these handmade, wool dryer balls from Etsy!*
Add 1/2 cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle. Don't worry, your favorite shirt won't smell like a pickle - the vinegar smell dissipates in the wash!

Betsy from Eco-Novice shows us how to green our laundry in 10 easy steps, such as:

Use an eco-friendly laundry detergent. Use as little as possible to get the job done.
To remove stains or whiten fabrics, try using hydrogen peroxide, lemon juice, borax, vinegar, or an eco-friendly bleach-alternative instead of bleach.

Claire from MomsRising [http://www.momsrising.org/blog/top-5-safe-laundry-tips/] has some good tips on buying laundry supplies:

Skip the fragrances: Avoid laundry supplies with fragrances, which may be linked to toxic chemicals like phthalates. Washington Toxics Coalition recommends looking beyond products with Fragrance-Free labels, which may still contain fragrances, and choosing products that list all of their ingredients
What to look for: The Center for Environmental Health recommends choosing “vegetable-based laundry detergent (made from corn, palm kernel, or coconut oil) that is fragrance-free, dye-free, and does not contain optical brighteners.”
Look it up: Look up products using on-the-go tools like the Good Guide. Learn more about toxic chemicals in popular laundry brands, and cleaning supplies, with this fact sheet from Women’s Voices for the Earth.

Diane form Big Green Purse uses a clothes line to dry her laundry. Here’s what she looks for when buying one:

You can use a length of rope you already have, but make sure it’s thin enough to be able to clip a clothes pin to. Otherwise, you’ll have to throw things over the top of the line, which works unless a strong (i.e., fast-drying) breeze is about. You can find several clothes line options in the Big Green Purse store, or at your local hardware store. NOTE: Most lines stretch over time, so you may need to buy a line tightener to keep the line taut enough so that the clothes don’t end up dragging on the ground.
You can try a rotary line dryer. Hang the laundry, then use a hand crank to easily raise the whole load another 16 inches or so to catch the breeze and dry quickly. For something simpler, install a retractable clothes line in your bathroom or laundry room. These lines can’t accommodate a lot of laundry at once, but they’re great for socks and underwear.

Check out the full posts of these bloggers and more: