How I Line Dry My Clothes

Now that I'm sitting down to write this, this tip seems so ridiculously simple that it feels silly to share it. Except that I used the "I don't have a backyard" excuse for years before it finally dawned on me to do this, so in case others are in my position, this is how I line dry my clothes:


I line dry all of our shirts and pants indoors on hangers, either hanging on the shower curtain rod in the bathroom or in one of our three bedroom closets. I only line dry pants and shirts; I haven't advanced to underwear or towels yet, but if I do someday, I'll get one of these babies.

I started line drying my clothes this way when we first moved to Raleigh and lived in an apartment. Now that we're in a house, we do have a backyard where we could put a clothesline, but the yard is so small and I don't want to sacrifice space. Plus, my current method has the advantage that the clothes are already on hangers, so I don't have an extra step before putting them away.

Occasionally, I'm feeling pressed for time and end up tossing my clothes into the dryer. And every time, I wish I hadn't because after the clothes dry in the dryer, they still have to be hung up and put away. If I'm going to hang them up anyway, I might as well hang them wet!

Abbie commented yesterday, "We used to line-dry indoors, actually on a rack, near the air vent, but our humid summers here in NoVa, prevented our clothing from drying, and it started to smell bad. So we put them back in the dryer."

North Carolina is also hot and humid, but I haven't had that problem yet. Maybe because we use our air conditioning in the summer?

According to the Saving Electricity site, an average load of laundry costs $0.36 to dry in the dryer. If I'm line drying two loads a week, that comes out to a savings of $37.44 a year. If I advanced to line drying all nine of the loads I wash in a week (two of clothes, two of underwear, three of towels/sheets, and two of diapers), I would save $168.48 a year. If I could just get my toddler to start using the potty, that would save both time and money right there...

How do you line dry?

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You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays. Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook!

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Challengicious Monday: Save Energy When Washing Dishes and Laundry

Mondays are challengicious at The Conscious Shopper. Here's your next energy-related challenge:

Save Energy When Washing Dishes and Laundry

To complete this challenge, you can...

BABY STEPS

• Only wash full loads. Unless your dishwasher is full or you've got a full load of laundry, save it for the next load.
  

JOGGING STRIDE

• Air dry your dishes. Instead of using the "heated dry" setting on your dishwasher, open the door and let them air dry.
  

• Wash your clothes on cold. According to Progress Energy, each load that I wash in cold can saves me about $0.50.

MARATHON RUNNER

• Wash your clothes and dishes off-peak. Some newer models of dishwashers have a timer so you can run a load in the middle of the night when people generally use less energy. If possible, nighttime is also the best time to use your dryer - especially during the summer when your air-conditioner has to compete with the heat from your dryer.
  

• Line dry your clothes. Hang your clothes on a line and let the sun dry them. Along with your refrigerator, the dryer is your biggest energy hogging appliance.
  

If you've been holding back from line drying your clothes because of limited space or HOA rules, stay tuned. Later this week, I'll show you how I line dry some of my clothes.

Will you take the challenge?

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays. Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook!

• image by simplyla
  

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Recipes for Homemade Household Cleaners

:: Here are the recipes I use for glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, floor cleaner, and wood furniture duster from Better Basics for the Home. And here's the recipe I use for Febreze.

:: Care2 provides a step-by-step guide to creating your own non-toxic cleaning kit, including a creamy soft scrubber, window cleaner, oven cleaner, all-purpose spray, furniture polish, vinegar deodorizer, and mold killers.

:: You can find recipes for laundry detergent at The Simple Dollar and Make it From Scratch and homemade HE laundry detergent at Condo Blues.

:: At the Green Phone Booth, Greeen Sheeep has a recipe for dishwasher detergent.

Need a Reason to Care?




Who else cares about household cleaners?

:: The Environmental Working Group is the go-to source for information about chemicals, toxicity, and health.

:: If you believe in ingredient disclosure and toxic chemical policy reform, check out the Million Baby Crawl and push for the passage of the Kid Safe Chemicals Act.

:: Healthy Child, Healthy World is a great resource for information about kids and chemicals, such as this article on the The Top Ten Products You Don't Need.

:: Jennifer Taggart is the Smart Mama who writes about keeping your homes safe from harmful chemicals.

:: Fake Plastic Fish wrote an in-depth post about the many uses of baking soda.

:: Wisebread lists 254 uses for vinegar...and counting.

:: Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living is the definitive resource for homemade non-toxic cleaning supplies, beauty supplies, and more.

Why do you care?

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the latest challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays here.

Like what you see? Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook! You can also find me over at The Green Phone Booth.

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More on My Charlie's Soap Internal Debate

I received a response from Taylor Sutherland, president of Charlie's Soap, earlier this week (as I've said before, their terrific customer service is one of the reasons I've always liked this company). Here's what he had to say:

Howdy,

I've attached a note from Charlie that goes to the heart of why we're really hesitant to fully disclose all the workings of Charlie's Soap. Long story short, no one makes detergent this way. It was a breakthrough that has never occurred to the Big Boys so we just don't tell them. If they found out, we'd be out of business because they'd copy it and we wouldn't be able to compete. Butyl celosolve has been the subject of misinformation for years now. It rhymes with methyl and ethyl celosolve and those two are horrible to be around. The amount of Butyl that we use breaks down in the earth completely in a month (97.3% in 28 days) and is non-toxic based on a the recommendation by Duke University. The scale they use is that 50 parts per million in the air (a dense fog of pure Butyl celosolve) is the limit for being non-toxic. We use a tiny percentage in water. If you smell the product you're smelling a microscopic fraction of the 50 parts per million which is the non-toxic level.

On a personal note, we made Charlie's Soap to be safe not only on paper or for a government regulation, but because when it was created, we knew personally all the workers at the textile plant that were going to be using it. Being sued is bad enough, but being made a pariah because you made Mrs. Collins from down the street sick is MUCH worse. We made Charlie's Soap to such exacting standards of efficacy and safety for just that purpose. And 16 years (1976 to 1992) in industry work with no recordable safety incidents speaks volumes. These people were using it 25% strength all day long, hosing down machinery, scrubbing and rinsing. The were soaked head to toe all day long in Charlie's Soap. I personally was bathed in it as a young baby. My brother has MCS and actually makes the product getting raw ingredients all over himself and he's fine.

I hope this helps give you a better understanding just how safe Charlie's Soap is but also give you an idea of just how secretive we have to be, within the law, of course.

According to the document he had attached, here's what's in Charlie's Soap:

• The powdered laundry detergent (what I use) contains coconut oil based surfactants, sodium carbonate, sodium silicate, and soda ash.

• The liquid laundry detergent contains coconut oil based surfactants, sodium carbonate, soda ash, and water.

• The all-purpose cleaner contains coconut oil based surfactants, a natural solvent (this must be the butyl celosolve), sodium carbonate, soda ash, and water.

It also says that their products have been tested for toxicity by Duke University, for biodegradability by Japan Food Research Labs, and for effectiveness by SGS U.S. Testing Labs.

What I Think

I can totally see their point - as a small company, they're worried about losing market share to bigger companies if their formula is revealed. But from a consumer standpoint, how can I decide if a product is safe if I don't know what's in it? Because Duke University says it's safe? There are so many ingredients that companies claim are safe that independent researchers say are not. Think BPA. So how do I know who to trust?

The other problem is with the generic label "coconut based surfactants," which I see on all sorts of "all natural" products. I learned today from Jennifer the Smart Mama that sodium lauryl sulfate is a coconut based surfactant, and that's one of those ingredients that we're supposed to be avoiding. So it almost seems like companies are using the term "coconut based surfactant" to avoid admitting that they're using ingredients their customers might not be happy about.

What Now?

I'm always coming back to the same old questions about non-toxic cleaning products and beauty supplies. For now, there just don't seem to be products in those categories that meet all of my qualifications: non-toxic, affordable, and get the job done.

It's like with my whole shampoo dilemma: the non-toxic products that I tried left my hair a greasy mess, and I'm sorry but I'm no dirty hippy. But the Lush shampoo bar with sodium lauryl sulfate leaves my hair looking normal. And it's affordable and comes with zero packaging.

Or the makeup dilemma: the makeup brands that score really well on Skin Deep are way out of my price range. But I can find organic makeup in recycled paper packaging from my corner drugstore.

For now, does the answer have to be less toxic is good enough?

I'm interested to hear your opinions both on the Charlie's Soap issue and the wider non-toxic/less toxic dilemma!

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the latest challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays.

Like what you see? Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook! You can also find me over at The Green Phone Booth.

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I'm Tired, and I Need to Vent

Sometimes the purpose of having a blog is to vent, and today I feel like I need to vent...

I've been using Charlie's Soap laundry detergent for four years - ever since we switched to cloth diapers. I've always loved it: It's made by a small company here in North Carolina, and when I've contacted them, I've gotten quick responses from the president of the company. I've been happy with how well it gets my clothes clean - with no added fragrance to cover up any lingering smells. It's a really affordable product - $.10 per load if you buy it in bulk (which is the same cost as making my own laundry detergent and cheaper than Tide, the last time I checked), and I know they're working on getting stores to provide their product in bulk bins. And I thought I knew what was in it...

Then a couple days ago I read a review of Charlie's Soap on Kitchen Stewardship, and Katie mentioned that the Charlie's Soap all-purpose cleaner contains an ingredient called butylcelosolv. This ingredient is not listed on the Charlie's Soap bottle as far as I know, but Katie emailed the company to find out what was in the product because she noticed that it stinks. They claim that butylcelosolv is a safe, non-toxic ingredient, but when I googled the term, I found some not-too-pleasant results, including this one from The Good Human.

I don't use their all-purpose cleaner because I make my own, but finding out that their "non-toxic and biodegradable" cleaner contains an ingredient that might not be wonderful made me wonder if there's anything in the laundry detergent that I should be worried about. The packaging of the laundry detergent says it contains washing soda, sodium silicate, and coconut-derived detergents and also says that the product is non-toxic and biodegradable. Because I like the company, I accepted that. But have I been a victim of green-washing?

To be honest, I'm not sure I'd stop using Charlie's Soap either way. Even with the butylcelosolv in the all-purpose cleaner - the jury seems to be out on how bad of a chemical that is. I've always been happy with Charlie's Soap, I think they're a great company, and I'm not super strict about possibly toxic chemicals in my life at this point. There's still sodium lauryl sulfate in my Lush shampoo. My make-up is a mess. I color my hair. Let's face it - in this category, I'm falling really short right now (though I'm making progress at doing better).

What's bothering me is that I'm really really really tired of having to try so hard. Why do I have to read the label on every single product I buy? Even for the companies I thought I trusted? And besides that, I'm not a chemist. I don't know very much about chemicals or how they react with each other or what by-products are produced when they're made. And for goodness sake, I shouldn't have to!

I am so tired of not being able to trust any companies and feeling like the only answer is to do it myself. I don't want to have to make my own laundry detergent. I don't want to have to grow all my own food or make all my own clothes. And I don't want to have to be a chemist and a botanist and a farmer and a seamstress and a gourmet chef on top of all my other roles in life.

I just want to be able to go to the store and believe that when a product says non-toxic or recyclable or organic or fair trade, it really is.

I'm reminding myself that my word of the year is PATIENCE, but sometimes patience can make a person really really tired.

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Make Your Own: Homemade Febreze

I have a five-year-old bottle of Febreze that's starting to get on the low side. Obviously judging by how long I've had it, I don't use Febreze often. But let's face it. There are just some times when you need a quick and easy way to cover up a smell. (Like when your potty training child has an accident and you have guests coming over any minute. I know I'm not the only one who's been there...)

I decided to try making my own Febreze mainly because the ingredients list on the back of the bottle is awfully cryptic: water, alcohol, odor eliminator derived from corn, fragrance. "Odor eliminator derived from corn?" What does that mean? And what kind of fragrance? Natural? Synthetic? I have this thing about only using products when I can identify the ingredients.

I tried googling for homemade deodorizers, but most of the recipes I found involved fabric softener, which I haven't bought since back when I was battling Second Son's eczema (and we haven't missed it). I think you can probably find some eco-friendly fabric softeners, so if you're interested in that recipe, here's a link.

I think a greener solution would be this recipe from my favorite resource, Better Basics for the Home:

8 drops lavendar oil
4 drops each bergamot and clove oil
2 drops oil of peppermint
1/2 cup vodka
1/2 cup distilled water

Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle and shake well. Spritz into the air four or five times in areas you feel need freshening, being careful to avoid your eyes when spraying.

Other Resources

:: Best Green Home Tips uses the same recipe but with alternate essential oil combinations.

:: Darla Shine's Happy Housewives Club has a recipe with the simple combination of lemon juice, baking soda, and water.

:: About My Planet provides a number of suggestions for naturally eliminating odors, including making your own potpourri.


Photo by KitAy

This post was included in the Make It From Scratch Carnival on August 25 at It's Frugal Being Green.

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Laundry Day

I hate, hate, hate doing laundry. It is my least favorite of all chores because it is so mindlessly time-consuming. If I were ever to consider paying someone else to do my household work, laundry would be the first chore to go.

When my husband and I first got married, he was assigned to laundry duty, but he never did it the way I wanted (nothing ever got folded and put away), and since I am a control freak, I decided to do it myself.

Since laundry is such a time-consuming task and relates to three of my Baby Steps toward energy efficiency, I've thought a lot about laundry over the past month, so I wanted to share some thoughts and also get some feedback.

• Shift your load to off-peak times.
• I halfheartedly attempted to do this at first by waiting to toss a load into the washer until right before I went to bed. Then I got the bright idea of looking on my energy company's website to figure out when times are off-peak in my area. Turns out that you have to sign up for a Time of Use policy to get off-peak rates, and since I'm in an apartment, this isn't really an option for me. It's worth looking into in your area, though.

• Question: Even though I'm not saving money, I'm assuming it would still be saving energy to do loads at off-peak times, right? Is it worth the hassle? Update: Yes, it still saves energy to do loads at off-peak times. I've found though that I never remember to turn the dryer on at the end of the day because I'm tired.
  

• Wash clothes in cold water.
• I had long ago switched to doing some of my laundry in cold water. Our weekly laundry includes about three loads of colored clothes washed in cold; one load of white clothes (mostly underwear), two loads of towels and cleaning rags, and a load of sheets washed in warm; and two or three loads of diapers washed in hot. According to my energy company, by doing those three loads a week in cold, I'm saving $4.80 a month. If I were to wash the whites, towels, and sheets in cold, I would save an additional $6.40, for a total of $11.20 a month.

• Question: Is it safe to wash underwear, towels, and sheets in cold water? Seems like that wouldn't kill all the nasties. Update: I ultimately decided that it wasn't worth the health risk to me to wash underwear, towels/rags, and sheets in cold. My kids don't always wipe well, I use rags to clean the bathroom, and I have bad allergies. Lots of people do it though, so give it a try.
  

• Give the dryer a rest.
• I've been saying forever that I would line dry my clothes if only I had a yard. I decided it was time I stopped putting it off, so I've worked out a system where I can line dry all of our clothes and some diapers (excluding small things like underwear, socks, and cloth wet wipes) by hanging them on hangers over shower curtain rods and empty spots in the closet. I was worried this would end up making laundry time last even longer. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case, but I have had to spread laundry out over the week instead of doing it all on one day. Eventually, I'd like to get one of these so I can do towels and sheets and such too. (Luckily, my older sister does not read this blog, or at this point she'd be dying over my tackiness.)

• Tip: To keep your clothes from getting wrinkly while line drying, pop them in the dryer for about 10 minutes before hanging them up to dry. This seems to be working for us, and I've discovered something amazing: some poly/cotton blends are dry after only 10 minutes in the dryer!
  

Some Thoughts on Laundry Detergent
I've been using Charlie's Soap ever since I switched to cloth diapers because it's supposed to be good for people with sensitive skin. Yesterday, I went to Whole Foods to pick up some more and discovered that they've changed their packaging from paper bags to cloth bags. This seemed like an odd switch, so I emailed the company to find out more. Here's their response, which they posted on their website:

These new cloth bags were developed because many of our customers were having trouble with breakage. Too much money was being lost in soap spilled all over I40 and beyond from the back of UPS vans. These new bags are much more durable, and yet since they're natural cotton and contain no plastic, they can be thrown away and will go right back to nature. If you wish, you can use them for small item (glasses, credit cards, marbles?) storage. We'll even run a promotion for a free gift to the person with the best story of how they used them.

Then they emailed me this additional awesome response:

Above is what was posted online. To expound on that, the company that provided the paper bags for us has time and again shown themselves to be not worth doing business with. First they kep pushing their delivery dates back every time we asked for an update. Then when the finally did deliver, each time since the first order placed with them a few years back, the bags themselves got shoddier and shoddier. Since we could not find another domestic source for paper bags, we made the decision to step away from them altogether and go with something that would ultimately hold up better during shipping, be more pleasing to the eye, and yes, be reusable. Many other vendors are thinking of providing Charlie's Soap in buckets that their customers would come back and fill their bags from. This is something we're pursuing with Whole Foods.

The bags are honestly very cute (they're about the size of a one pound flour bag), and I have always had great success using Charlie's Soap on my clothes. Plus, anyone who reads my blog knows I'm a sucker for great customer service. So...

Last Question: Any ideas for how to reuse the Charlie's Soap laundry detergent bags? Update: These would make great produce bags, but I'm really hoping Whole Foods will start selling Charlie's Soap in bulk as mentioned in the second email.

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