According to the American Lung Association, “Breathing VOCs can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, can cause difficulty breathing and nausea, and can damage the central nervous system as well as other organs. Some VOCs can cause cancer.” In addition, diethyl phthalate (DEP)—a dispersant, or common element that spreads these fragrances—is a likely endocrine disruptor; that means that it may disturb hormone functions and could damage reproductive and developmental processes.
Detergents can also include dangerous phenols—corrosive and toxic acids. Easily absorbed by our skin, phenols can cause serious health problems, including chemical blisters and burns, organ damage, even death. In addition, some detergents include toxic surfactants (a fancy word for detergents), which may cause water pollution and affect aquatic organisms.
Studying all the gobbledygook chemical names and their toxicity can lead you down a bottomless research hole. Here’s what you really need to know: First, many big-name manufacturers use dangerous chemicals. Second, by law, they don’t have to divulge every chemical used in their ingredient lists. And third, you can help protect yourself and your loved ones, not to mention the environment, by switching to soaps or detergents made with plant-and mineral-based ingredients, essential oils, and floral extracts.
The soap flakes I created and make available in my store, for example, are based on a two-hundred-year-old recipe from a New Zealander woolier. They use sunflower oil, food-grade lye, and coconut oil. That’s it—just three ingredients. And none of them negatively affects your health or creates irritating manufactured smells. (I’ve never understood why our clothes have to smell like the tropics, or “twilight,” or avocado; I like my cotton shirts to smell like, well, cotton.) These soap flakes work best when added right into your washer—top load or front load—with your clothes; don’t place flakes in your washer’s dispenser. In fact, I recommend doing the same with a safe, plant-based, liquid laundry soap, too.
You can find other safe, high-quality detergents out there as well. Check packages for such words as nontoxic, biodegradable, allergen free, bleach free, petroleum free, phosphate free, and phthalate free. And check for a shorter list of ingredients that you recognize. Then you’ll know you’re on the right track. As a bonus, most of these better detergents require far less product—much like washing your hair with an expensive shampoo versus a discount shampoo. For example, while a big-name brand may call for a quarter cup or even a half cup of detergent per load, higher-quality laundry soap may require only a single tablespoon.
Moreover, it’s not the soap that truly gets your clothes clean—it’s the water. The soap just lowers the viscosity of the water molecules, or in other words, it makes the water wetter. This allows the water to slide right through your clothes, removing dirt, oil, and more. This is yet another reason we don’t need big-name detergents with their long lists of chemical ingredients. Instead, use far less of a high-quality soap, and not only will your clothes look and feel better, so will you.
The Big White Lie
I’ve already mentioned that you should put the kibosh on using chlorine bleach, or sodium hypochlorite, for its inherent health risks. But I’m guessing you might not be convinced. After all, you want white whites—glowing T-shirts, radiant button-downs, I-need-my-sunglasses towels. But what if I told you that your chlorine bleach is actually causing your whites to yellow? Well, it’s true.
When you buy amazingly white textiles, it’s because they’ve been treated with optic white dye. That is not the natural color of cotton. So the first time you add chlorine bleach to a load of towels, for example, the towels won’t show much fading. But the second time you wash them with added bleach, you’re actually starting to bleach away that white color, turning the cotton back to its original ecru color. The third time you wash with bleach, you’ve just kissed that white goodbye. And now you’re probably adding extra bleach, thinking that will solve the problem—but it’s only making it worse.
So how do you keep your whites white? First, don’t ever wash with chlorine bleach. Second, to maintain your textiles’ white dye, wash your whites with a gentle soap and a tablespoon of chlorine-free oxygen bleach. This nontoxic, biodegradable bleach alternative, also known as sodium percarbonate, will whiten your clothes safely and beautifully. One caveat: Don’t use it for washing silks or woolens.
Washing Whites One Hundred Years Ago
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At the turn of the last century, students learning about laundering at the Teachers College of Columbia University were taught by Lydia Ray Balderston, arguably the foremost laundering expert at the time. This professor wrote several volumes on the subject, including Housekeeping Workbook, Housewifery, and Laundry Manual. From her book entitled Laundering, published in 1914, she offered the below thirteen steps to caring for white clothes. This list makes me grateful for technology.
Soaking
Washing
Rinsing
Boiling
Rinsing (again)
Bluing
Starching
Hanging
Drying
Sprinkling
Stretching
Ironing
Folding
All Washed Up
When it comes to washing, we also need to consider our washing machines and how we use them. As I mentioned before, washing machine technology has advanced impressively over the years. Have you checked out the control panel of a high-tech washing machine lately? There are enough dials, buttons, and lights to rival an airplane dashboard. Despite that, most of us continue to wash our textiles the same way we did before these fancy new machines. More’s the pity. After all, we don’t still use iceboxes and telephone party lines.
Actually, the telephone makes a great analogy. At the turn of the last century, switchboard operators connected neighbors to one another via party lines. (And nothing but a clear conscience stopped busybodies from listening in on one another’s conversations.) Eventually, individual lines offered improved privacy. And technology continued to move forward with the dial phone, the push-button phone, the cordless phone, and then a series of mobile phones: the “brick,” dubbed for its weight and size; the “bag,” nicknamed for its carrying case; the razor; the beloved flip (I still miss mine); the ever-smaller and thinner mobile; and, finally, the computer in our pockets—most especially, the iPhone and the Android. Who knows what telephonic advance will be next?
With each improvement, we’ve had to pick up new skills—how to place a phone call, how to take photos, how to text, how to use apps, etc. And if Apple or Verizon didn’t teach us, a member of the younger set was only too happy to explain better, faster ways of doing things.
But this could not be further from our experience with washing machines. While the technology has advanced ever forward, no one has taught us how to get the most out of our machines. That is, until now.
In actuality, most of the technology is built right into your washing machine. In other words, you rarely need to use all the bells and whistles that your machine settings boast. Nope, for nearly every single wash, you’ll need to do just two things.
First, wash everything—and I do mean everything—on warm. Yes, your darks. Yes, even your delicates. But what if I use a detergent designed for cold water? you ask. It doesn’t matter—warm, warm, warm.
The thing is, even cold-water detergents are designed to work in water that’s 58 to 62 degrees Fahrenheit; manufacturers define this as cold. Unfortunately, cold water in our homes is likely just 53 or so degrees. And that means our cold-water setting isn’t warm enough to dissolve our detergents—which means they’re not activating and our clothes aren’t getting clean.
Want proof? Find an item you’ve recently washed in cold water and throw it into truly warm water—it will suds right up. That’s because the soap is still in your clothing. And I hate to say it, but that means all the dirt and sweat and who knows what else is, as well. Ew. So crank up the warm. (Do your towels smell sour despite being washed? Cold wat
er is likely why. Most Laundry Campers who’ve been using cold-water detergents and settings tell me that a pile of towels is the first load they’ll be washing in warm when they get home.)
And don’t worry—warm water will not fade or shrink your clothes. Most wash cycles include four steps: the wash, the rest, the rinse, and the spin. Only the wash stage uses warm water, meaning that your clothes will only be in warm water for eight or so minutes, just long enough to get them clean but never so long as to do them harm.
Which leads me to the second thing you’ll be doing with each wash: You’re going to wash everything on the express cycle, sometimes called the fast, quick, or super-speed cycle. Running for a total of roughly twenty-eight minutes, depending on your machine, the express cycle takes your clothes through an eight-minute wash and an eight-minute rinse (plus the rest and the spin)—plenty of time to get your clothes clean.
This short cycle is much kinder to your clothes than a full cycle, helping them last longer since we’re no longer prolonging the time they’re exposed to soap, water, and other clothes. After all, most of us are not cleaning sewers, mining coal, or having paintball fights. We’re just living our lives and getting the odd bit of mustard or drip of Diet Coke on our shirts now and then (or every day, in my case). The express wash delivers great results—and saves you lots of time and water.
Most important, I highly encourage washing all of your textiles in a single day, preferably the same day each week. Doing so will mean that you’ll have all of your clothing ready and available to you the other six days of the week. Getting all the wash done in a single day also feels great—you won’t constantly feel like you have to throw in another load of wash. This experience can be revelatory: imagine not feeling a daily pressure to clean your clothes, knowing that your laundry can wait for its assigned day of the week. (Imagine, too, if we treated our work in the same way—not letting it spill into our days off—how awesome would that be?)
Understanding the Bells and Whistles
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While the express wash is always my first choice, let’s get to know the pros and cons of your washing machine’s other cycles:
Delicates (or Handwashing) generally uses cold water, which, as you now know, isn’t likely to clean your garments. In addition, this cycle uses a slow spin, which means more abrasion (even in mesh bags), more lint, and less-than-ideal cleaning results.
Permanent Press, one of the newer wash cycles, historically, is meant to minimize wrinkles. It uses a warm wash and a cold rinse—both good features—but a slower spin than I prefer. If you can select the length of the wash on this one, go for the eight-minute cycle. If you can’t, stick with the express wash. One more thing to consider: Your clothes emerge a little wetter in this cycle than in others; the idea is that when you then throw these items in the dryer, more steam will be generated for fewer wrinkles.
Cottons (or Normal) uses warm water and a cold rinse. The drawback of this cycle is that it runs too long. Your clothes just don’t need to become that familiar with the inside of your washing machine.
The idea behind Whitest Whites is to beat the devil out of your towels. It’s a really long setting, it uses hot water, and its action is extra aggressive. Thank you but no, no, and no.
Meant for kids’ clothes or undergarments, Sanitary (or Sport) is about the same as Whitest Whites but uses extra hot water to kill bacteria. Your clothes just don’t need this, though. When we wash our hands with soap and warm water, we know they’re clean. There’s no need to scald our hands to kill germs. The same holds true for our clothes.
If you’re using the right amount of soap, you don’t need the Extra Rinse; it also causes more abrasion. That said, if you use a pod, you can never use the Extra Rinse enough (think Hoover Dam).
Now, remember those five piles of wash you prepared? It’s time to get down to it. But before you do, here are a few last-but-not-least tips:
Select High Spin for each of your loads; you want your textiles to be as dry as possible to shorten their time spent in your dryer and on your drying racks.
If you have a stain you want to treat, skip ahead to Chapter 7 for the lowdown on stains before throwing that garment in the washing machine.
If you really, really want to wash your towels in hot water, it’s not my preference, but it’s OK. Fabrics that can stand up to hot water are made of plant-based fibers, including cotton, linen, bamboo, and hemp. (Note: The threads holding your cotton towels together are likely polyester, so all that hot water isn’t good for them.)
If you’ve got a beaded item or one with sequins, be sure to turn it inside out and place it in a mesh bag so it doesn’t snag other items.
Consider adding a dye-trapping laundry sheet to each wash. This handy small sheet helps soak up stains, any microbleeding, and hard-water minerals during the wash cycle. Best of all, you don’t need a full sheet. Simply rip a full one in half and toss half in.
If you have a front-loading machine, don’t worry about putting in an extra-large load. This can’t be said for a top-loading machine, which generally has a higher tendency to become unbalanced and deliver an error message.
If you have a load of really, really dirty clothes—for example, clothes you’ve worn hiking or gardening—add a quarter cup of washing soda, poured right on top of your clothes, to boost the cleaning power of the wash. The washing soda, or sodium carbonate (often sold in grocery stores—although it’s not food safe), softens the water, allowing the detergent both to remove dirt from your textiles and keep the soil in the water, rather than redepositing it on the clothes.
Washing Your Washing Machine— and Your Dryer
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Now that you’re using better—and far less—soap, your washing machine will experience little product buildup and require less-frequent cleanings. That’s especially true if you remember to leave your washing machine’s door open whenever it’s not in use. However, when your machine begins to smell, it’s time to get cleaning. Simply pour one pound of Borax directly into your empty washing machine; turn on your hottest, longest cycle; and then pour a gallon of white vinegar in your dispenser. Done! Periodically, I also scrub the dispenser drawer with a fifty-fifty mixture of vinegar and water. As for cleaning your dryer, once it’s cool, spray the inside with your fifty-fifty mixture of vinegar and water, and then wipe down with a clean, white terry washcloth.
One More Option: Handwashing
There are times when you may want to consider washing your garments by hand. Perhaps you’ve got just an item or two to wash of one category (e.g., whites or activewear)—not nearly enough for a full load. Or maybe you’re sick and don’t want to spread your germs among others, so a trip to the Laundromat is out of the question. Handwashing is a perfectly acceptable option, and it can get your clothes just as clean as machine washing as long as you follow the steps below.
To begin, I recommend using your kitchen sink; its generous size will accommodate a few items at a time yet not require the amount of water needed to fill, say, a bathtub for handwashing. First, clean your sink. Then fill it with warm water and add a smidgen of soap flakes, a few pumps of foaming hand soap, or a capful of mild shampoo. Don’t use dish soap, as that’s far too harsh, and laundry detergent isn’t recommended, either, because it’s so challenging to manually rinse out of clothes.
Next, add your clothes (be sure to maintain your categories—that is, whites, blacks, etc.) and gently manipulate them in the water with your fingers (don’t wring or twist) every three to four minutes. After a total of twenty minutes, let the water drain, fill the sink with cool water, and then swish the clothes through the fresh water. Repeat this step one more time, letting the water drain, refilling with cool water, and moving the clothes through the water one more time. By now, the water should be nearly clear and your items should be clean. Briefly roll up the wet clothes in a towel to remove excess moisture or fling out excess water with a quick twirl in a clean sala
d spinner. Then hang up the items to dry on plastic hangers or a drying rack.
But what if you need to sanitize your clothing? Again, you’re home sick, you’re caring for someone who is, or perhaps someone in your family has a job that has contact with pathogens. While a washing machine uses heat to sanitize, in handwashing it’s the lipids in the soap that glom on to germs and take them right down the drain with the water. So the handwashing method described above is all you need. That said, if you want to ensure your clothes are fully sanitized, you can steam them after washing with a steamer or a steam-generating iron; the steam well exceeds the 167 degrees Fahrenheit required to kill off flu viruses.
Got the Blues?
Some things you just can’t improve on. Ever since the 1880s, Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing has been made right here in my adopted state of Minnesota. It’s awesome, inexpensive, nontoxic, and biodegradable—made mostly of blue pigment and water. You can purchase bluing online or at a grocery or discount store.
Traditionally, homemakers would dribble a couple drops of bluing into their wash water to bring back the original color in their white garments, sheets, and towels. That’s because adding microscopic blue particles to white fabric causes it to reflect more light and look whiter. And we all love bright whites.
What’s changed today is our washing machines. Most of us use high-efficiency, or HE, washing machines that use much less water than back in the day, which means that bluing is much less diluted. That’s why I can’t recommend using bluing except in a handwashing scenario—whether you want to whiten a special shirt, an heirloom tablecloth, or perhaps a vintage item you’ve just purchased.
Here’s what you do: After washing or handwashing an item, add a few drops of bluing to a sink or washtub filled with tepid water. The water should look baby blue. Swish the item three or four times in the bluish water, and then let dry. To get the effect you want, you may need to repeat the process two or three times. Do not add more bluing to the water to try to get it done faster. Once you’ve successfully used bluing on a particular garment, you can wash it normally three or four times before needing to repeat the bluing process.
Laundry Love Page 4