Sunday, April 22, 2012

Soap Nuts and Dryer Balls

It's Earth Day.
I like the earth.
But to be honest, I'm not the best at being earth friendly.
I am trying really, really hard to change that though.

Want another confession?
I have an easier time doing the things that don't just benefit the earth but also save me money.
Am I a terrible person?
Oh well.
I 'm trying and if a little ulterior motivation is what it takes, than so be it!

Quite the intro to my save the earth/save some money post, huh?!

This one is all about laundry.
And has a whole background story to boot!

It all began when I began using cloth diapers (a story for another day).
The thing with cloth diapers is that you can't wash them with just any ol' detergent.
Thus began my search for the detergent that worked best for us.

To make a long story short, I came across EcoNuts on Baby Half Off and loved how well they worked for washing cloth diapers.
Fast forward to this winter as I was preparing for the arrival of a new baby.
I am generally a little majorly paranoid about chemicals being on my baby's skin.
I figured usng EcoNuts was the best option for washing the new baby's clothes.
But why stop there?
I began washing all our laundry with the EcoNuts.
Clean clothes, no headache inducing scents, no paranoia!



Here's how they work:




And in terms of cost effectiveness, check out this chart!
Yes, yes - they're eco-friendly, too!
You can simply throw those used EcoNuts into your compost...if you do that kinda thing...

In the meantime, I'd been looking into a cost effective way to control all the static.
I have to buy the hypoallergenic, scent-free ones since the smelly ones give me awful headaches.
Of course, they are the most expensive ones!

My search lead me to dyer balls.
But dryer balls are usually about $10 apiece and to work effectively you need 6 or so.
Granted, they last forever but I just couldn't bring myself to fork out $60 for the things!

Enter my good friend Andrea.
She was there with loads of info when I entered the world of cloth diapering and shares many of my domestic interests.
Anyhow, without me even mentioning that I'd been looking into dryer balls she had gone and made me a few!
That's right - she made them!
Here are some pics she took of the process:

Materials: an old wool sweater, wool yarn, pantyhose


Cut sweater into scrap pieces.
Twist into ball.
Wrap the ball tightly with yarn.
Tie tightly and separately into leg of pantyhose.
Wash on hot.
Dry completely.




And voila!

Goodbye dryer sheets, hello dryer balls!



You can read more about the process here and here!

They work wonderfully and are about as earth friendly as you can get!
Give them a try!
They are well worth the effort!

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

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