Save Money on Environmentally Friendly Laundry Detergent – Money Saving Mondays
May 25, 2009 Cleaning Products, Money Saving Mondays
I made the switch recently to using Country Save HE Laundry Detergent
Then I found out how much of an advantage there is to buying laundry detergent online through Amazon.com.
There’s a trick to it, you see. If you subscribe to the product
It amazed me just how much that came out to with my Country Save. They ship in it a box of 4 – 10 lb. boxes of detergent. It works in HE and regular washing machines and is very popular with people who are cloth diapering.
I’ve been using it a while now, to see how it works, rather than reviewing it after just one round. You don’t really know a detergent after the first load unless it’s an utter disaster, after all. But I started out pleased and remain pleased. So far as I can tell it is cleaning as well as any other detergent I’ve used.
And I love that it uses such a small amount. The scoop is so tiny! You’re supposed to only use a quarter scoop for cloth diapers, otherwise follow the instructions for your machine.
There are a lot of products you can subscribe to
Tags: laundry, laundry detergent
How to Make Using a Clothesline Easier
Apr 28, 2009 Eco Friendly Home, Environmentally Friendly
I love using my clothesline to dry my laundry. It’s not for everyone, but it certainly works for me. I dry as much laundry as possible on there, at least part of the way. It’s hard to say how much energy I’m saving, but it’s probably pretty significant.
These are some of the things that make it easier for me:
1. State of Mind
It would be harder to use my clothesline if I really hated it. That’s pretty much obvious, I’d say.
A part of what I do is look at it as a chance to get a bit of exercise, which can otherwise be hard to get with 3 young children in the house. There’s a lot of lifting, and holding wet laundry to the line to clip it, then repeating over and over certainly gives the arms a bit of a workout. It’s not as much fun as lifting my baby of course.
2. Know How Long to Leave Clothes on the Line
My husband hates the feel of towels and jeans dried completely on the line. I do too. But what he doesn’t realize is that I dry all laundry at least part of the way on the line when the weather is nice. Jeans, towels and anything else that will feel kind of crunchy after I take down before they’re dry and toss into the dryer. Just doing the last little bit of drying by machine takes the crunch out.
3. Recognize the Benefits
I love knowing that I’m saving money drying my laundry this way. I also enjoy seeing how much better white items look after drying in the sun. It’s most obvious with my baby’s cloth diaper inserts, which often still have some yellow to them after washing. By the time they’re dried by the sun, the yellow is gone. The dryer can’t do that.
4. Have Enough Clothesline Available
I still need my husband to hang a second line for me. I may end up doing it myself if he doesn’t get to it soon. It’s not that hard, but I’d need a time when the baby doesn’t need me. On the plus side, it would do my son good to see that Mommy can do that kind of work too. Same for my older daughter, but I think I would probably try it while she was at school. Just the time of day I’m most likely to do these things.
Not having enough space for more than a load at the time makes using a clothesline harder on days that aren’t hot enough to dry everything quickly. That especially goes for if I’m doing general laundry and cloth diapers on the same day. Those inserts can take forever to dry! They are absorbent, after all.
5. Plenty of Clothespins
You can save on clothespins and clothesline space if you clip two pieces of clothes together, side by side, but that only goes so far. Running out of clothespins just before you run out of laundry in a load can be quite frustrating.
6. Hat and Sunglasses
One of my peeves with a clothesline is looking into the sun as I try to hang the clothes. Wearing a hat and sunglasses can really help. I don’t feel so blinded.
What tips do you have for drying clothes on a clothesline?
Tags: clothesline, laundry
Tweaking My Clothesline Usage
Sep 18, 2008 Budget Environmentalism, Eco Friendly Home
I had to do a ton of laundry yesterday. Much of the time right now I’ve been having to do a load a day. Pretty standard routine when you have a child who isn’t quite perfect about not wetting the bed. It’s easy to make up a full load when you have bed sheets to start it off and young children who love to play with dirt.
We had been just drying the sheets and mattress protector outside, but I’ve found that if I try I can fit a whole load on there, even with the sheets taking a lot of room, so that’s what we’re doing now.
It’s really not that hard to do, even if the weather out is 90+ degrees still. A little time consuming, but I’ve already warned my husband that I probably want a second line hung soon.
But eventually the time comes that you have to do ALL the laundry. The bed stays dry for several nights and things just pile up.
When you have just one clothesline
This worked pretty well.
You really don’t want to fully dry denim or towels on a clothesline; they tend to end up really crunchy feeling. But a half hour on the line cut their time in the dryer about in half, and they came out quite nicely.
The challenge is that this is a full extra step in the laundry. I’ve been trying to cut our power bill, so I really don’t mind that much, but I could definitely see that it was adding to the time the task took.
On the plus side, it’s a bit of exercise for the arms.
Tags: laundry
Enjoying My Clothesline More and More
Sep 5, 2008 Eco Friendly Home, Going Green
The weather has continued here so warm, and my energy level has been picking up some again. Add in the nightly bed wetting phase my son is going through right now, and my clothesline is really getting some use at last.
We had been just drying the sheets and mattress protector outside, but I’ve found that if I try I can fit a whole load on there, even with the sheets taking a lot of room, so that’s what we’re doing now.
It’s really not that hard to do, even if the weather out is 90+ degrees still. A little time consuming, but I’ve already warned my husband that I probably want a second line hung soon. It’s southern California, after all, which means the weather is perfect for drying clothes outside much of the time.
I also figure this will help to ensure that smells have a hard time building up. Washing does quite well, but I trust the sun quite a bit.
I had to smile when my daughter asked me when I’d gotten the laundry basket. It’s been sitting unused in the garage since we moved in here, a relic of when my husband and I lived in an apartment and had to carry loads to the laundry room. I don’t bother with one when I can just pick up anything I drop.
Going outside makes the laundry basket make sense again. Don’t want my clean clothes on those dratted wood chips. Bad enough getting splinters in my feet. Don’t need them elsewhere.
My husband has been teasing me that I could just start using the bathtub and the antique wash board we got from my grandma. He knows I have no interest in adding that much labor to the job, although I gather it’s quite the arm workout. Still not going to happen. Fun to not take everything seriously in life.
Tags: clothesline, laundry
Cleaned Your Lint Trap Lately?
Jul 24, 2008 Budget Environmentalism, Eco Friendly Home
While it’s summer around here and the clothesline is getting some good use, I do still use the dryer some. Being pregnant has left me a little low on energy sometimes for hanging a full load out to dry, especially on really hot days.
I’m good about cleaning the lint trap out each and every load. My husband not so much. How well do you do?
Cleaning out your lint trap saves a lot of energy that your dryer would otherwise use. The dryer vent should be checked regularly too. Excessive lint build up can cause a fire.
Especially if you use dryer sheets (I don’t and my clothes feel and smell fine, thanks), you will want to scrub your lint trap’s screen periodically. Dryer sheets cause buildup on the screen, which make your dryer less efficient.
