Green laundry: a wash load of savings!

If you are looking to save money while creating a healthier environment for your home, you are in luck today.

One group of cleaning products offers not only savings to consumers but a way to remove harmful substances from your family and the environment.

Laundry detergent, stain removers and bleach constitute irritants and harmful substances we continuously encounter. Greener products from Bio-Kleen, Seventh Generation and Ecover perform as well or better than more toxic brands and can cost up to nine cents less per load than familiar name brands like Tide or Gain.

Laundry Product *Cost/Load
Bio-Kleen $0.15
Ecover $0.18
Gain $0.20
Tide $0.24
Baking Soda $0.25
Seventh Generation $0.27
Trader Joe's $0.09 - 0.18

*Based on loads advertised per fluid oz or dry oz.

Even better, you can double your savings by using half the detergent you normally use per wash load. Add a fourth cup of baking soda to boost the cleaning power.

By adding a half cup of white vinegar or a few tablespoons of borax to rinse water you can brighten your wash and keep chlorine bleach out of the environment.

Chlorine is harmful to the immune and reproductive systems and is implicated as a possible carcinogen.

If every household removed just one 64 oz. bottle of bleach from their laundry rooms, 10.9 m pounds of chlorine could be held from entering the environment.[1]

TIP: Add a fourth cup of baking soda to rinse water to make clothes feel soft and look and smell like they’ve been flapping in fresh air and sunshine.

Consult with the Green Heloise of cleaning products, Annie Berthold-Bond, in Better Basics for the Home by Pocket Books for great tips on saving money. I bought her book recently and love it. This woman has researched every conceivable savings and health-related green strategy for items from drain cleaners to facial cleansers.

Check out the Washington Toxics Coalition http://www.watoxics.org/ for reliable information on risks and substitutions for many new products.

Since the EPA estimates that the average home has 150 cleaning products, we could all be sitting atop a hazardous waste site - our homes! That headache or rash could be something off-gassing from you carpet, paint or synthetic product.

Armed with gentler laundry products, gallon of white vinegar and baking soda, you can save hundreds of dollars each year, create a much healthier environment for your family and keep the planet green, too.

[1] Seventh Generation