Detox Your Home: The Laundry

You don’t have to revert to the laundry mangle to go green in the laundry. It’s really easy to switch to greener products that don’t have as much impact on your or the environment, and as a bonus will save you money, too.

Clothes washing detergents and fabric softener

One of the worst allergic reactions I’ve ever had was to a laundry powder. My mother in law very kindly did my washing for me, and I broke out in a rash all over. I couldn’t for the life of me work out what it was, and of course it cleared up when I did my own washing again. The next time she did my washing for me, I broke out again and finally put two and two together.

I’ve been using natural laundry powders for years, and never have any problem with staining. Unless my laundry is really really stained, I use half the recommended amount and have absolutely no complaints. Eco friendly laundry powders really do work!

They’re not only gentler on your skin, they’re better for the environment, too, and are quite often better on your clothes as well.

Skip anything with optical brighteners, which cause algal blooms that choke off aquatic life. Make sure it’s biodegradable, grey water safe, and if you choose concentrated or powdered versions, you’ll save on packaging as well.

My favourite brand is ecostore, but I’ve also used and loved ecover, and BEE.

Stain removers

Hang clothes in the sun to bleach naturally. You’ll be amazed at how well it works. To help it along, you can dilute some white vinegar in water and spray a little on to the stain while the clothes are still wet.

Go with an oxygen whitener, rather than bleach. The chlorine in bleach is a respiratory irritant, and a reproductive toxin. Try the ecostore oxygen whitener, which you can use as a soak, or just pop a little in with your wash. I’ve used this for on my husband’s office shirts and the children’s martial arts uniforms.

Get a clothes line or a clothes horse

Clothes dryers can cost you hundreds of dollars a year to run, not to mention the hundreds of kilos of carbon emissions. Line drying, on the other hand, costs nothing to either you or the planet. Air dried clothes never go static. And there is absolutely nothing better than the smell of air dried laundry!

If you absolutely must run your towels through the dryer to soften them up (personally, I like a rough towel!), line dry them first, then just give them a couple of minutes hit in the dryer.

Here in Melbourne, I have a couple of handy clothes horses that I put into a corner of the garage or the rumpus room when the weather is too wet to hang clothes on the line.

Use common scents

I’ll admit that there are times (especially during a damp Melbourne winter) that you need to use a dryer. But I will not admit that you need a dryer fabric softener or scented dryer sheets!

The chemicals used in these are suspected carcinogens, and it’s so easy to avoid these products. Add half a cup of vinegar to the final rinse cycle of your wash to soften your clothes. The bonus with this is that it also gets rid of that musty smell when you’ve left the wet laundry in the machine for too long). You can add a few drops of essential oils like lavender, lemon, or my favouite, rose geranium oil to the rinse can help make things smell fresh and lovely.

Instead of dryer sheets, you could try felted wool dryer balls that I’ve seen on etsy, or you could do my trick and throw an old hand towel into the dryer, with a few drops of essential oil on them.

Ditch the Dry Cleaner

Most drycleaners use a chemical called perchloroethylene, which has been linked to cancer and fertility issues. Some eco-friendly dry cleaners now use silicone solvent-based or liquid CO2 cleaning methods, which are healthier alternatives.

Or ever better: skip the dry cleaner altogether.Try gentle handwashing in a delicates laundry liquid, which will also prolong the life of those delicate fabrics.

Shop smarter and buy fabrics that don’t require dry cleaning. If you absolutely have to dry clean something, take it out of the plastic and hang it outside for as long as you can before you hang it in your wardrobe or wear it. At least four hours, or better still, a few days.

Links and further reading:

NSW EPA: http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/waste/drycleaningwaste.htm

Cancer.org: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/otherca…

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