Laundry: Simple Style

OK, now I will admit that if I didn't have to do laundry or dishes ever again, I'd probably be o.k. with that.

That being said, I've tried to find things that make those daily jobs (yes, for this family of 5 with an in-home daycare and kids that swim on a almost daily basis, laundry is daily. And of course, dishes are daily. Sometimes dishes are twice a day. But I digress . . . ) slightly less dreary. Oh, and as natural as possible too. Well, within reason. I am not quite to the point that I'm going to be washing my clothes in the bathtub. Or even in washer like this. Although, honestly, I think it is pretty cool actually.

But here are a couple of things that I do with laundry: There are 6 laundry hampers - one for Super, one for me, one for Mr. Simple, one for the girls, one for towels, and one for whites. I separate the whites from everyone's dirty clothes so that there is a full load of whites. That way, the colored clothes are already sorted per person and so when the clothes have been washed and dried, they can just go into that person's clean clothes basket. Also, each person is responsible for bringing their dirty clothes hamper and clean clothes basket to the laundry area and for taking it back to their area and putting their clothes away.

I generally use the dryer, but I do dry outside in the summer, when I can. Technically, it is against our home owners association here, but since it is now "cooler" to be doing green things, the association is overlooking clotheslines as long as they aren't permanently mounted in the ground.

In the past, I had used handmade laundry soap, but since we got a new front loading washing machine, I was concerned about using it, and so instead I used about a tablespoon of Seventh Generation (or something similar) liquid laundry soap. When I have a stain, I wet the area and rub a Fels Naptha laundry bar over it.

BUT

I have recently discovered my new SUPER favorite laundry thing. It is called SoapNuts.

I love, love love, them. It gets the laundry so clean and it is completely natural AND I can use it in my front loader. It also makes it so you don't need to use anything to get rid of static cling in the dryer.

I also love them because they are non-allergenic, antimicrobial, and harvested in a sustainable way. You usually can't say all those things about laundry soap.

(Opinions all my own. I was not compensated by anybody for this post LOL)