Over the past 13 years, I have tried every detergent, fabric softener, and scent booster known to man. I was spending unnecessary amounts of money to keep our clothes looking clean and smelling lavender fields fresh.
For many years I made my own powdered laundry detergent, in bulk, using incredibly basic ingredients. Pinterest has great recipes for these. We chose one that did not contain borax.
Eventually, I got tired of grating Castile soap bars and the mess that powdered detergent makes when children are learning how to do laundry.
This next busy period in our lives pushed us to transition back to a store-bought detergent. With a bit of research, we settled on Better Life laundry detergent (HERE). It has limited basic ingredients as well as being people and planet safe. This detergent is also made using a concentrated formula so you get over 60 loads of laundry in one bottle using only a tiny capful. We purchased it from amazon and were spending about $13 a month (or $150 a year) to keep our laundry clean and at that time I was ok with that!
Then came a period where we had to tighten our budget. At about the same time I stumbled upon laundry balls (HERE).
These almost magic laundry balls contain ceramic beads that claim to change the PH of the water, cleaning your clothes without the use of any detergents. Their ridged outer shell agitates with your clothes knocking off dirt particles. I loved them immediately! Just toss them into your wash and press start.
They are incredibly low maintenance. Once a month I take a day and “recharge” my balls in full sun, out on a table in the backyard. This is said to ensure your balls are working at peak performance.
We’ve using been laundry balls since 2020 and while my clothes don’t come out smelling like lavender fields anymore, they are just as clean as when we were using homemade and/or commercial detergents.
They were only a $16 investment and claim to last over 1000 washes! We do approximately 2 loads of laundry per day X 365 days= 730 loads. For one $16 price tag, you really can’t beat over a year’s worth of clean laundry! We replace our balls every spring.
In the spring of 2020, our dryer started making a knocking noise. We had no time or money in the budget to get it repaired or replaced. Out of necessity, I developed a joy for spending time in my backyard hanging our clothes to dry. Not only does it save us money on electricity but, during our hot summer months our clothes dry faster and we don’t have to heat up the house to have clean dry clothes.
We ended up purchasing a new outdoor umbrella drying rack (HERE). This drying rack boasts 210 feet of drying space. With all that space we can dry 3-5 loads at the same time. That is amazing considering our dryer always takes longer than our washer. We also get the added bonus of the UV rays killing any odor-causing bacteria. (This is great for stinky dog blankets!)
Now that our dryer is working properly again I still find myself still heading out back with my basket to hang our laundry. However, when we do actually use our dryer you will always find a couple of wool dryer balls (HERE) to help reduce drying time as well as eliminate static.
No matter what stage of life you’re in having safe, effective, affordable and even zero-waste laundry products is obtainable.
