Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Quick Laundry Tip: Waste Not Want Not

     Hopefully, you have made the switch from America's favorite laundry detergent brands to something more eco-friendly, something not formulated with dyes, petrochemicals and fake fragrances that irritate skin, mucous membranes and the environment. In Kitty's laundry dungeon, current favorites include all the products manufactured by Seventh Generation, ECOS detergent, and dryer balls.
     One of the quickest ways to maximize laundry product efficacy and frugality is to drastically reduce the amount of soap you use. In my front loader, regardless of the product I may be using at any given time, I only add a drop of detergent the size of a quarter. When I bought my Maytag Neptune a few years ago, the salesperson told me I could continue to use my regular (not HE) Tide as long as I added this small amount. I have noticed even the HE formulations only require this tiny amount as well.
     My clothes are just as clean with this small amount of soap and cold water, and I am spending a whole lot less on products. The hours spent toiling in the dungeon, however, have not been curtailed. I still do over 10 loads/week!

5 comments:

  1. Laundry dungeon - that so brings back memories of one of my previous houses. I literally expected to find skeletons down there. Do you have any recommendations on nice-smelling products that don't irritate the skin?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sanity: I love your new icon! Seventh Generation and ECOS are my favorites. Method has lovely smelling products, but my research shows they're not quite as green as I once thought. If you can handle synthetic fragrances (see organic orgy), you might like them. I've been adding a few drops of essential oils into the softener dispenser. Coupled with fragrance free detergent, I'm getting very nice results! Thanks for coming over!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your comments on my blog; I'm glad to have found yours too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks for checking in on my blog!

    laundry never ends, does it? i'll try your tip.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bagnatic, I know -right?!? I'm headed up there to start folding and ironing now! xo kitty

    ReplyDelete