Hey there! I’m so excited to bring you a few of my easy & quick laundry room DIYs to help you ditch and switch all those nasty chemicals out of your laundry room. Head over to my previous blog post all about “Airing Out your Dirty Laundry” to learn more about why it is so important to be aware of what’s in your laundry products.
But today, I’m going to make it super easy on you and teach you how to make a fabric softener, a stain stick and wool dryer ball Spritz to get those clothes smell and yummy, without all those yucky fragrances. Make sure to read until the end because I have a super fun surprise for you to make your DIY bottles Oh. So. Cute!
The other day I had to tackle cleaning up our laundry room. It’s been on my do-to list for WEEKS but it finally got moved up to top priority when my son and I were in there putting a load in that morning and ants started crawling all over our legs. (insert eww emoji!)
While I was spending my time cleaning out our laundry room and finding of the source of attraction for the ants (turns out it was the old half eaten granola bars in our beach bag, oops) I got to thinking I how many laundry products are on the market that mess with our bodies.
Watch the video below to learn more about how to ditch and switch your laundry products or keep reading!
Here’s the thing, unless you live in a nudist colony, laundry is a part of life. And even if you do live in a nudist colony you probably still have sheets and towels to wash! So, here's the thing, there’s a lot of junk in commercial laundry products. A lot of the “big name” brands have stuff that you will be shocked to learn is in their products. And this is why I always felt so important to buy from a company that you trust, a company with integrity, a company with your health and wellness in mind.
Here’s a BIG tell if what you’re using in your laundry is suspect to have a bunch of hidden junk in it… can you smell your laundry going outside? Does your laundry hold on to that “fresh laundry” smell for days after it has been washed… taking words from Jeff Foxworthy… then you might have toxic chemical laden laundry products.
Let's talk a little government stuff. Many of us would think that our government would not allow these companies to put harmful chemicals in our consumer products, but the fact is the U.S. government has no regulations over what what the companies are able to use in their products they also take it a step further, they don't even require them to disclose all of the ingredients in their products. Like WHAT???
Full discloser and transparency is important to me! That is why I only buy all of my laundry and cleaning products from one company because they tell me EVERYTHING that in their products. If you are scared to tell me everything that’s in your product, that’s a big red flag, in my mind.
Now you may be thinking, well the washer rinses all of those chemicals out anyhow right, so why be concerned? Well two reasons… 1. All of those yucky chemicals are being washed right into our eco system creating harm for ourselves and the planet and 2. The commercial laundry detergents have chemical binders that keep them locked onto the fabric of whatever it is you’re washing.
Alright, so let's talk about some of the chemicals.
- 1-4 Dioxin
dioxin is a known carcinogen. Remember I wrote earlier that the government doesn't require all these companies to disclose all the ingredients in their products. You probably won't see this on the ingredient list, but it's there. There was a study conducted by a woman at the University of Washington. If you Google, University of Washington toxics toxic laundry detergent, study, it'll pop right up. So go do your own research, don't just trust me. Do your own research. 1-4 dioxin is a known carcinogen. That means, it can lead to cancer. Yep, I said it… the “c word”
- Fragrance
Remember I wrote about how a lot of commercial laundry products have very strong smells? Those are all fragrances. Here’s the thnk about fragrance…. That is listed as a ‘trade secrete” so companies do not have to disclose what makes the fragrance. So basically, what they can do is shove all of the chemicals that don't want us to know about under this fragrance umbrella. Lesson here: if you pick up a product and it has “fragrance” listed under the ingredients, Please put it down, walk away, I don't care how good you think it smells. Not worth, your health is your health is worth caring about what's in your products and you know what it's really not hard, because you know, I have the answers for you. You know I have great suggestions and you know I'm going to save you tons of money, because that's what I love to do.
- Chlorine
Chlorine is found in many laundry products especially bleaching products. We want to stay far away from chlorine because it messes with our hormone function. If you want to get science-y with me, chlorine attaches to the binding sites on our thyroid and pituitary glands. So many of us suffer from hormone issues and making sure to cut out the chlorine is important!
If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and need a little help with what chemicals to stay away from download my “Ditch the Chemical Dirty Dozen Guide” for a reference to keep on hand while shopping.
Please feel free to share this blog post because this is “need to know” information for all of us! I’m here to help educate; when we know more, we do better!
Also if you watched the video above I spoke about how I use Young Living’s Thieves products for all of my laundry and cleaning. Young Living is a company of integrity, transparency, and they care for my family’s health and wellbeing as much as I do. If you’d like more information and my guide to the Thieves line send me an email Mallory@MalloryRiess.com
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