Detoxing My Charleston Home Week No. 2 | Laundry Detergent
Fun Fact: I’m part of a strange species that LOVES doing laundry. I probably do 5-7 loads of laundry each week. I’m obsessed with keeping the laundry basket empty, and climbing into my bed with fresh clean sheets. (I also desperately aim to make sure our home doesn’t smell like we have two dogs so their beds are also washed often).
Laundry detergent was one of my top priorities for switching to clean, non-toxic and/or fragrance-free in my home because, think about it: we essentially live in what we wash our clothes in, every single day.
Then we sleep in it, too.
Fragrance-free, Phosphate-free, or Phthalate-free are the big things to look for when it comes to laundry detergent. Per this article, “Environmental Working Group (EWG) researchers found more than 75 percent of products listing the ingredient “fragrance” contained phthalates which have been shown to disrupt hormone activity, reduce sperm counts, and cause reproductive malformation, and have been linked to liver and breast cancer, diabetes, and obesity. Additionally, studies by Dr. Philip J. Landrigan of the Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center, link fetal exposure with autism, ADHD, and neurological disorders.” That’s certainly enough for me to spend a couple extra bucks on what I wash my laundry with!
So, I turned to the EWG to find a new laundry detergent.
I sorted by only those with an A rating and then looked though just about all of those to find the best one with the least amount of B or C rated ingredients. I landed on Whole Foods’ 365 brand. Thankfully I have a Whole Foods less than 10 minutes away from my house but if you don’t, you can order it on Amazon.
Yes, it’s unscented, which kind of ruins half the fun of that “clean laundry” smell. BUT, instead, I just add a couple drops of pure essential oils to the laundry detergent for a little fresh scent without the chemicals. Boom.
Next I searched for a dryer sheet. Some people are fine without them but I hate static so I prefer a dryer sheet with every load of wash.
I searched the EWG website and unfortunately there are not many great options (at least per their list; I don’t think they have every single product that is available, on their site). The “best” one is a wet dryer sheet with a B rating. They’re a little different from normal dryer sheets since they’re wet, but they are reusable (2x) and for smaller loads, you can use half a sheet. They’re called Grab Green Natural Wet Dryer Sheets, and I’ve only been able to find them on Amazon, with free one-day shipping with Prime. They are a little pricier than, say, store brand dryer sheets, but again, to me it’s worth a couple extra bucks. The ones I was used had an F rating!
This has been a pretty easy switch for me, and you can easily do it too. It’s such a small change that affects a very large part of lives.
Stay tuned for Week No. 3!