It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an empty hamper in possession of no dirty clothes, must be in want of a good case of the stomach flu.
Please forgive the horrible parody on the opening lines to Pride and Prejudice. Sometimes I can’t help myself. It’s leftover from my English major days. Nonetheless, it’s true that nothing brings on the laundry quite like spending a week under “house arrest” with both kids home with a tandem case of the flu. Been there, done that. Last week.
Illness notwithstanding, laundry is a ubiquitous presence in my daily life. From grimy socks left balled up in corners of bedrooms, to dress-up clothes hanging over the backs of chairs, to towels and jammies crumpled up and strewn across the bathroom floor—I seldom see the bottom of our hampers. When I do, inevitably someone vomits (like last week) or gets a nosebleed all over their sheets (like this past Monday morning). And then there’s another mountain of laundry. There are days when I threaten to move us all to a nudist colony just so I can cut down on washing clothes! But then I think of all the sunscreen I’d need to purchase and that thought goes right out the window…
Over the years, I’ve tried dozens of different laundry products, always searching for products that are natural and safe for my daughter’s eczema, yet effective, and affordable. It’s a bit like finding the holy grail when you find items that fit ALL three criteria. However, I’ve rounded up 6 laundry essentials that I use on a daily basis that actually meet all three parameters and which I truly couldn’t live without.
Ecoegg Laundry Egg
This laundry detergent is relatively new to my household—we’ve only been using the Ecoegg Laundry Egg for about 8 months, but it has entirely changed my laundry life and saved me a ton of money. This one little egg will do 720 loads of laundry and costs roughly $30-35 on Amazon. That comes to $.04-.05 per load. My previous detergent, another all natural laundry detergent which I also loved, was costing me about $.18 a load. That’s more than 3 times the cost!!!!
The best part about the ecoegg is that it is completely natural. According to the Ecoegg website, the egg uses natural mineral pellets (no SLS, parabens, chemicals, etc.) to lift dirt away from clothes without fading colors or leaving any chemical residue. It was developed in 2008 by a U.K. company and has won numerous allergy awards over the past decade. For myself and my youngest daughter, we both suffer from eczema, and this has been a godsend.
I was skeptical at first regarding its effectiveness—it doesn’t suds or anything, but it does a phenomenal job. It cleans incredibly well with both hot or cold water. My only note of caution is that because it contains no chemicals, if you leave the laundry in the washer for more than a couple hours in the summer, you definitely get a musty-mildew odor. Adding a few drops of Tea Tree oil to to the wash helps with this!
Oxygen Bleach
About 10 years ago, I stopped using chlorine bleach for my laundry. I had been finding that yes, it made the whites whiter, but it also made them wear out faster and the odor was overwhelming. (One time, after using chlorine bleach I actually lost my sense of smell for an entire day. That was my wake-up call that something needed to change. ) I used to put everything through an entire extra wash cycle just to make the smell bearable. I was relieved to stop using chlorine bleach. But sometimes, the clothes or towels get pretty nasty and really do need an extra boost. How do I fix that? Enter oxygen bleach.
Oxygen bleach, otherwise known as Sodium Percarbonate, is truly amazing. When mixed with water, it breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate (soda ash). Because it doesn’t contain any phosphorous or nitrogen, it’s a milder, safer, more environmentally friendly choice to use as a bleach for laundry. It’s a great stain remover and sanitizer, and doesn’t fade colors. During flu season, I find myself adding a tablespoon of oxygen bleach to almost every load of laundry I do, just to get everything sanitized. And oxygen bleach was a total lifesaver when I was cloth diapering each of my daughters.
I’ve tried several brands over the years, but my favorite is BioKleen Oxygen Bleach Plus. It doesn’t have any of the fillers that so many of the other brands contain (I’m still trying to figure out what those blue specks are in Oxyclean) and it’s very affordable on Amazon—I get two 32-oz containers for less than $18. That amount lasts me about 8 weeks, unless I decide to use it in other areas of the house as well. (It’s phenomenal for removing baked-on-grime off my baking dishes or disinfecting the toilet—it definitely has a multitude of uses!)
Puracy Stain Remover
I can honestly and unequivocally say that the Puracy Natural Stain Remover has made me a better mom. I yell significantly less at the kids since I started using this product. That’s because I’m not stressed when they come home with grass stains on their Sunday best, or mud smeared on their school clothes, or when they accidentally dump their pasta in their lap during dinner or grape juice down their white t-shirt, or when they drop their blueberries and sit on them, or use their sleeve to wipe chocolate off their faces or get a nosebleed all over their pajamas. This stuff is pure magic.
Spray it on the stain. Leave it on for at least 5 minutes, and then wash it in the warmest water the fabric can take and run it through an extra rinse cycle for good measure. Voila! 99 times out of 100, the stain is entirely eradicated. And, Puracy Natural Stain Remover is, as its name suggests, all natural, to boot! It uses 6 plant enzymes to remove the stains. I buy this on a recurring subscribe-and-save order from Amazon. It currently costs me around $10 per bottle, and I use about one bottle every two months.
Wool Dryer Balls
I love wool dryer balls. They are great way to naturally reduce drying time, soften clothes, and eliminate static electricity. And in a pinch, they’re really fun for kids and cats to play with! I probably have more than a dozen of these wool dryer balls around the house. I believe the kids are currently using a few of them for bowling down the hallway, and the cats are playing hockey with a few under my sofa. Wool dryer balls used to be nearly impossible to find in stores and they were quite expensive (about $10 per ball). Now I can buy them cheaply on Amazon, or Target or even T.J.Maxx. I bought the above pictured set of 6 on Amazon for about $7.50 total! That’s $1.25 per wool dryer ball. Kind of hard to beat!
A couple tips: if I find that my laundry is particularly static-y, I will dampen one or two of the dryer balls with water and put the load back in the dryer for 5 minutes on the lowest heat setting. It does wonders for naturally removing static! Also, I like to put a couple drops of lavender essential oil on the dryer balls. It makes the laundry smell divine! And lavender is great for keeping bugs away, so I figure if my kids smell like lavender they’re less likely to pick up lice from other kids. That may be a little paranoid on my part, but hey, if it relieves my mind, it’s worth it! But honestly, you could use almost any essential oil you want and custom make your own laundry scent.
Eucalan Wool Wash
I got hooked on Eucalan all-natural wool wash when I was cloth diapering the girls and using wool diaper covers. (When lanolized properly, wool covers are very effective at keeping moisture in the diaper and not on your furniture). Eucalan is a great brand that is extremely gentle on wool. Along with the soap, it contains a small percentage of lanolin (the oil naturally produced by sheep that is found in their wool). By adding lanolin back into your woolens, it protects the wool and makes it softer and last longer. I love how soft it makes my wool leggings and shirts!
Now that the kids aren’t in cloth diapers anymore, I don’t use Eucalan quite as often. However, I’ve found that it’s fantastic for gently washing my hubby’s “dry-clean-only” wool dress pants that he wears to work daily. I turn the pants inside-out, use Eucalan on the cold setting of the gentle cycle and then toss them in the dryer on air dry (no heat) with several dryer balls. They come out as good as new and save me a ton of time and money on dry cleaning.
Essential Oils
I’ve mentioned essential oils several times throughout this post. I love to add essentials oils to my laundry process. Tea Tree oil is supposedly a natural antiseptic and anti-fungal, so I like to add it to my wash cycle just to keep things extra clean. And, as I mentioned, I add a couple drops of Lavender essential oil to the wool dryer balls to make everything smell divine and keep bugs away. But feel free to experiment with your own blends! Just avoid using any that might stain the clothes (several citrus essential oils come to mind—they are usually a dark amber color and can easily stain clothes). My favorite brand of essential oils for laundry is made by NOW Foods. Their products are high quality, affordable and easily available on Amazon.
Laundry Is Always With You
Well, this post has dragged on long enough. I need to get back to my laundry! There are about 3 loads currently waiting to be folded and put away. I love the quote that is currently circulating around Pinterest: “Sometimes you might feel like no one’s there for you, but you know who’s always there for you? Laundry. Laundry will always be there for you.”
And lest you think I’m one of those people who claims that their laundry is out of control, but then shows you this nice, neat Istagram-worthy picture of a laundry basket with everything pristine and folded, here’s a picture of what my laundry actually looks like. Can’t forget that extra layer of cat hair on all the “clean” laundry! It’s added warmth for the winter, right?
