Years ago, I wrote a blog post about the importance of clean and nontoxic household cleaning products. In that post, I touched upon detergent, but I don’t think I gave detergent its due. For that matter, it’s also not just about detergent. There are also dryer sheets, fabric softeners, and spot cleaners that are all a part of the laundry process. Each one of them all deserve to be discussed since you wear all of these household items every time you get dressed.
So, here we go.
What’s the issue with all of these everyday household items?
There are numerous issues with these everyday household items. Many of the ingredients in detergents, fabric softeners and the like are hormone disruptors, and they increase the risk of autoimmune disorders, reproductive issues, cancers, and other terrible diseases. Also, most of these detergents, fabric softeners, and dryer sheets have added fragrance, such as lavender, citrus, and rose and other floral scents. Most of these scents are artificial and contain petrochemicals. Petrochemicals are made up of petroleum and natural gas. These chemicals are extremely toxic, and it can be fatal to your fur babies and human babies.
The scariest part about unclean, toxic detergents and fabric softeners are that the toxic ingredients, chemicals and artificial fragrances envelop your clothes, towels, sheets, and everything in between. Your kitchen towels that you wash your dishes with are covered in whatever is in your detergent and fabric softener. Your pillow you rest your head on every night is also covered in the same ingredients. Your fur babies blanket and toys that he or she chews on are also covered in the same ingredients. Your human baby’s onesie that he put in his mouth is also covered in those ingredients and so on and so forth. You get the point. The ingredients are all over you all of the time and in some cases, you probably are ingesting them, like when you wash your dishes with those towels, or like I said when your baby chews on his clothes. Additionally, your skin can absorb up to 60% of the things it comes into contact with daily.
So, what ingredients should you avoid in these items?
Those would be phosphates, brighteners, fragrances, formaldehyde, dyes, 2-Butoxyethanol, Quaternium-15, Methylisothiazolinone, and chlorine bleach. Try to buy detergent, fabric softeners, and spot cleaners that don’t include these items. For me, I stay entirely clear of scents. I only use unscented detergent, and I don’t even use fabric softeners or dryer sheets. I really don’t think those items are necessary, and in most cases they are hard to replicate in a nontoxic way. My tried-and-true detergent is Seventh Generation’s unscented detergent, because it is fragrance free, dye-free, and free of artificial brighteners.
Just because I don’t use dryer sheets or fabric softeners, doesn’t mean you don’t have to, and if you still want to use those products, there are some nontoxic alternatives you can use that can potentially achieve the same effect. Those are reusable wool dryer balls, spraying white vinegar on a washcloth and adding it to your dryer load, or air drying your clothes.
And, if your husband is like mine, you still need to use spot cleaners. So, what sort of spot cleaners can you use? Seventh Generation has a non-chlorine bleach that you can use, and E-Cover has a stain remover that’s pretty good. The ingredients aren’t perfect, but it’s better than the conventional spot cleaners out there, such as Shout. I am hoping that a better non-toxic spot cleaner will be out on the market soon. Then, all of my issues around laundry will be solved. At least you know that the plus side of making these changes is that you will lessen the amount of chemicals you and your loved one’s consum and absorb on a regular basis. That’s a win in my book.
Here’s to being well preserved.
Always,
Taylor
