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Sometimes making the switch to natural can be hard. Sometimes you just don’t know where to start!
Take for instance that laundry room. You know it’s full of chemicals, you know it can use a lot of energy, but you also probably do not give it much thought because well… who likes to think about laundry?
Today I’m going to share 10 very easy ways that you can make your laundry experience a bit more natural!
10 Ways to Go Natural in the Laundry Room
Use a Natural Detergent
If you haven’t switched to a natural detergent then no is the time! Don’t worry, natural detergents have come a long way and it’s easy to find one that works well.
Here is my crunchy cheat sheet that has a few great natural detergents just in case you don’t want to do any researching. There are of course, many great natural detergents out there but I do find it’s always good to read labels and do a double check just to make sure you aren’t buying a “green washed” products.
If you truly want cleaners that are as natural as you can get then you’ll need to make them yourself! Don’t worry, making your own detergent or stain remover isn’t difficult. It just takes a bit of time. Here’s how I make a detergent out of soap nuts!
Ditch the Dryer Sheets
Dryer sheets are anything but natural. Dryer sheets contain many chemicals and unnatural ingredients such as ethanol, benzyl acetate, and chloroform.
Those ingredients coat your clothing and you are then walking around with nasty chemicals on you! Not to mention that smell they make during the whole drying process makes you inhale harmful fumes. No thank!
If you still want something to soften up your clothes and help reduce static then give wool dryer balls a try. They do a marvelous job at softening laundry, reducing static and they even cut down on drying time! Or you can try making your own dryer sheets will give your laundry a nice scent without all the toxins.
Wash in Cold
You can wash all your laundry in cold water just as effectively as in warm or hot water. I know, we’ve been taught that hot water will kill everything but sadly that’s not true.
Most washing machines can’t even get to the 120 degrees that is needed to start killing germs and bacteria. So save yourself the money and be more eco-friendly by washing in cold water. I use cold water only for all my laundry and it works great.
Skip the Softeners
Much like dryer sheets, fabric softener is full of nasty chemicals. You do not really need softener anyway.
Try a load with no softener and see how it goes. Odds are you won’t notice a difference.
If you do feel like you need something then try adding some vinegar to the rinse cycle. Vinegar is a great natural softener and I promise, your clothes will not smell like pickles.
Line Dry
It might not be practically all the time but when you hang your clothes to dry you will save money and energy. As a bonus, line drying your clothes helps them last longer.
If the weather doesn’t permit line drying outside, you can hang clothes to dry indoors. There are plenty of clothing racks out there that work for such a task!
Wash Less
I know this goes against habits but you do not need to wash your laundry after each wear. Believe it or not you can usually wear an item of clothing 2-3 times before it really needs to be washed. Same goes for bath towels!
Now if there is obvious dirt on the clothing then it will need washing but if it looks clean, you can wear it 2-3 times before washing it. Doing this will result in less laundry for you and save money and energy!
Stop Separating
We’ve all been taught to separate the white laundry from the colored laundry so we don’t end up with those infamous pink undies.
That was before detergents could wash laundry in cold water! Wash your laundry in cold water (even warm doesn’t usually ruin things) and you will not need to separate your laundry.
Wash Full Loads
It takes a lot of energy to wash laundry. Shave off a bit of the cost on your pocket book and the cost on the environment by only washing full loads.
You won’t have to do as many loads of laundry as a bonus! If you just can’t wait until you have enough laundry for a full load then make sure to turn that knob down to the correct size load! Don’t waste all that water and energy for a full load if you only have a small load of clothing to wash.
Say Bye to the Bleach
Chlorine bleach is hard on the environment and bad for your health. Skip the bleach. If you really do need something to make those whites their whitest then opt for non-chlorine bleach or just toss in some hydrogen peroxide!
Hydrogen peroxide doesn't seem to work well in my experience to whiten my clothes; any other suggestions to accomplish this?
Hello Sean,
Sorry I'm just getting back to you…for some reason you were able to comment via my old commenting method and thus I didn't see it.
Yes, I've not had much luck with peroxide either… the next more natural choice would be oxygen bleach…. or sunning.
great post…I already do most of these…used to do the cold water, need to get back to it…would love to line dry, but hard to do right now, and nothing seems to dry in our cold basement…but all the others I essentially do 🙂
So many great tips. I didn’t know about the hydrogen peroxide.
One great washing whightner especially for hard water is ammonia, just shy of the same amount. But the biggie I wanted to comment on is safety pens….. yes on my dryer balls.. I have 6 dryer balls. One or more go with a basket all the time. I put about ten safety pins on 3 of the 6 dryer balls the static is dramaticly reduced. Just so you all know what I have found out.