Laundry Day

Recently, I attended a great Ditch & Switch class that was all about ditching household products that contain harmful chemicals and switching them out for chemical-free options.  There is a great app called Think Dirty that rates household products like deodorant, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc. It is SHOCKING what some of those brand name commercial products have in them.

For example:

Yikes!!  And the woman leading the class shared a story about laundry detergent and how for years she thought she was using a “safer” product by using a laundry detergent that was scent-free.  Until she found out that the companies actually have to add synthetic fragrance in order to make it scent-free because the chemicals used to make the product have a scent that has to be disguised in order for it to be “odorless”.  Umm….what?!?!?!  This blew my mind.  We think that by buying products that are fragrance free or dye free, we are somehow making a “greener” choice for our families, but that’s not the case.

In the class she provided both a DIY chemical-free option and a pre-made Young Living option, which is great since not everyone is into making their own cleaning products.  And she sent us home with our own samples of the DIY version to try!

Want to make your own?

Powder Laundry Detergent
2 bars of shaved bar soap( Dr. Bronner’s)
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
1/2 cup Baking Soda
10-15 drops Thieves Oil

Put the soap bars in the food processor or blender and process. Thoroughly stir all ingredients together. Add 10- 15 drop Thieves Oil. Store in a sealed container.
Use 1 Tbsp. per load (or 2-3 Tbsp. for large or heavily soiled loads) (approximately 64-128 loads depending on how much is used)

Not interested in going the DIY route, but still want to go chemical-free?

Along with switching out my laundry detergent, I also swapped out the liquid fabric softener and dryer sheets for Woolzies dryer balls.  I can put a few drops of my favorite essential oil on them and my dryer not only dries more efficiently with the balls but my laundry smells great – naturally!

I’ll share more about the dishwasher detergent switch in another post, so be sure to check back or subscribe to my newsletter to get notified of new posts.

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