Laundry Day the Natural Way

I am very sensitive to fragrances of all kinds, but especially those that are used in detergents and softeners because I carry the smell around via the clothes on my body.  When we go on walks, I can smell whether someone is doing laundry when we walk by a house based on the fumes coming out of the dryer vent.  Since I started becoming responsible for my own laundry, I have become more aware of the plethora of products, fragrances, additives, dyes, etc. etc. that literally leave my head swimming when I walk down the cleaning aisle of the store.  Here are some ways I've been working on making my laundry day a little more natural:

Vinegar vs. Softener

One of the first changes I made in the laundry process was to eliminate softener in the washing machine by substituting vinegar.  I'm not completely certain, but I believe I picked up this tip from one of the greatest books I have ever come across, The Complete Tightwad Gazette.  I simply splash about an 1/8th of a cup into the softener dispenser in the washer.  (or this past summer when I used a washer that did not have a dispenser, I put vinegar in a Downy ball).  Softener actually adds chemicals to the fibers being washed to make them feel softer whereas vinegar dissolves residual detergent off of the fibers leaving materials softer and cleaner.  Also, I don't use any dryer sheets as the vinegar virtually eliminates any static.

Detergent

Until recently, I struggled to find a laundry detergent recipe that seemed feasible to me to make.  I faithfully clipped coupons for All Free & Clear to match with sales and was able to get detergent at what I considered a decent price.  I lacked motivation and just continued with what worked and was "convenient".  Then, I started having problems with my daughter's cloth diapers leaking.  The build up of the detergent I was using combined with our extremely hard water was keeping the inserts from getting clean and therefore cut down on absorbancy.  I researched natural, cloth diaper friendly laundry detergent and found the following recipe:

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Equal Parts:

Arm N Hammer Super Washing Soda

Baking Soda

Sun Oxygen Cleaner

The original author of the recipe goes into the science of why these ingredients work so I will spare you.  I initially tried using 1 cup of each product as a starter.  I mixed up the ingredients with a wire whisk and stored the finished product in an old ice cream bucket.  The recommendation is to use 2-3 Tablespoons per load, which is about the equivalent to the scoop size which came in the Sun Oxygen Cleaner bucket.  I made a little cheat sheet of the recipe and the amount to use per load and taped it to the top of the bucket as a quick reference for mixing up refills and for anyone doing substitute laundry duty (aka Steve). 

Although the original recipe was intended as a cloth diaper detergent, I have been using it on all of my laundry with satisfactory results.  I figure if the detergent is strong enough to clean all of the lovely residue off of diapers, it is surely good enough for all of my laundry.  This recipe is truly very simple to make.  And one of the best parts to me is that all of the ingredients cost less than $12 total!!  I estimated that the original containers of ingredients should last at least 6 months if I don't use them to clean anything else around the house.  I also feel pretty good about the ingredients that go into the detergent.  No dyes or perfumes or super nasty harmful chemicals.

Drying

My next step in simplifying/reducing the impact of my laundry process is to line dry more of my clothes.  I always line dry diaper shells, sweaters, and other no-dry items, but I have had ups and mostly downs with hanging other clothes to dry.  Honestly I think it's somewhat less stressful to line dry because I don't have to worry about clothes sitting in the dryer getting wrinkled until I remember to take them out (ahem... like right now).  Once clothes are dry on the awesome drying rack I got from IKEA, and I bother to do something about it, I can throw them in the dryer on air fluff/no heat if necessary to remove stiffness.  There is the sacrifice of floor space while drying unless it's a nice day outside and I can put the racks on the patio.  Also, I just love the idea of line drying as I mentioned in an earlier post about the prairie in my mind.  So I basically need to motivate myself to get back into the habit.

Guess I should go do something about those khakis that have been sitting around in the dryer for hours...

~Carla