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BANG FOR THE BITE
Washing one less load of laundry each month can save nearly 360 gallons of water per year.
COCKTAIL FACT
To conserve resources, astronauts on the International Space Station may only change their underwear every 3 or 4 days (fortunately, we don’t need to take it that far here on earth).
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home › tip library › Natural Laundry Detergent
Wanna hear a (not so) dirty little secret?
The Bite
Despite what those detergent ads want you to believe, most of us don’t need to wash our clothes after every wearing. Don’t wait for your jeans to stand up by themselves, but do wash ‘em only when they’re actually dirty.The Benefits
- Washing and drying less often keeps your duds looking newer, longer.
- Chemical “surfactants” in laundry detergents can harm fish and human health long after they go down the drain, so less is best.
- With less laundry to do, you’ll have more time and money for the activities you actually enjoy!
Personally Speaking
We like that "fresh from a meadow" scent as much as the next person, but in spite of Heather’s love of doing laundry, neither of us washes our clothes after every wear unless they really need it.Wanna Try?
- Put away "clean-enough" clothes right after wearing to keep them from rumpling and mixing with the truly un-wearable stuff.
- Hang already-worn items outside or near a window to air out, or in the bathroom while you shower to steam out light wrinkles.
- Sun and Earth or Sweet Wash – detergents that are phosphate-, petroleum-, and chlorine-free.
Nov 11,2005
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Not Your Grandmother’s Environmentalism
GreenFest last weekend (just what it sounds like - a big festival of greenness) was illuminating. After decades of crunch and kumba-ya, this green industry is booming as a biz. Hybrid cars and fantastic foods and great apparel abound... Whether you feel good or bad about this shift to green consumerism is somewhat irrelevant, because there is one thing that stood out more than any other: The guys at GreenFest were hot.
And I mean HOT. Hot, hot, hotties swinging by our Biter booth at all hours of the day. Sigh. Men of GreenFest, we salute you.
Speaking of hotties, we also salute Kiera Knightly, who was quoted (although I can't for the life of me find the source, so bear with me) saying that she doesn't wash her clothes often - only if they smell bad.-Heather... off to wash all her GreenFest clothes, because believe me, they all do smell bad...
Biter Comments...
I agree with this tip about not washing clothes unless they´re dirty. I live in Mexico and it´s not easy to buy "green" products. I don´t like using fabric softeners, so I use white vinegar (about 1 cup per rinse cycle). It cuts the soap scum that is left on clothes, even after rinsing, leaving my clothes really clean with nothing on them to attract more dirt. The vinegar smell dissipates when the clothes are drying.
I just found this site and love it!!
I just recently made my first load of homemade laundry detergent and it works great! Its only washing soda, borax, water and a bar of any type of soap. It took about an hour on a sat morning, but now I have detergent to last months.
I have been using vinager as a fabric softener for a while and it works great, no smell and soft clothes.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Diane Tilstra | November 16, 2005 at 07:20 AM