Why You Should Consider Changing Up How You Do Laundry

According to EWG’s evaluation, widely used products like Tide pods and Gain liquid detergent, pose significant risk, both for the environment and developmentally. Beyond detergents, the biggest offenders are fabric softeners and dryer sheets, even unscented ones.

• Certain fabric softeners contain an artificial violet color linked to cancer.
• Dryer sheets are coated in chemicals. Depending on the brand, these chemicals, such as phthalates, are harmful to the reproductive system and accumulate in our body over time.

Before learning about all of this, I used really fragrant laundry detergent, bleach, stain removers, anti-wrinkle sprays, fabric softener and dryer sheets- pretty much drenching my clothes in anything with a fresh, ‘clean scent' that I believed I needed to maintain my clothes. Since switching my laundry to non-toxic products, that once beloved clean clothes smell has become an overpowering false sense of cleanliness. Instead of buying a list of unnecessary toxic products, I now use at most 3 products when doing my laundry.  My clothes still get completely clean, dry efficiently with few wrinkles, and smell good without exposing me to harmful chemicals.

To find non-toxic products for your laundry, you can use the EWG app to scan products you own or type in products you are thinking of purchasing. If research isn't your thing and you just want a list of products that are safe and work, I also have my current favorite Amazon finds listed below.

*Bonus Green Tip: After you find the non-toxic products you like, Wash your clothes in cold water! It doesn't make a ton of difference from hot water and is a super easy way to help out the environment and cut down on energy usage. Save rinsing items in hot water cycles for those that really need extra disinfecting.