One thing I didn’t care for when I started making my own laundry soap was that it didn’t really have much of a smell. Not that it was a bad thing, but from using chemical laden laundry detergent I was use to my clothing smelling what was “thought to be clean”. Fabric softeners can be full of cancer-causing chemicals and neurotoxins such as toluene and styrene. The three main ingredients found in fabric softeners are surfactants (used in detergents), fragrance, and undenatured ethyl alcohol. The later is suspected of causing many health problems, from being a liver toxicant to an endocrine disrupter.
Line drying is a great way for your clothing to have such a wonderful smell (unless you live close to a paper mill that is).
Using essential oils mixed in with your laundry detergent is another way to give your laundry a boost. You can also add a few drops of essential oil to a cloth to add to your dryer with your wet cloths to allow the smell to filter in while your clothing dry.
You can also make these cute little lavender or peppermint dryer sachets to give your clothing a natural, fresh smell! Fill the bag with lavender or dried peppermint and add 2-3 drops of essential oil. Simply give the bag a few squeezes to release the fragrance, and then toss it into the dryer with your laundry. You can reuse it many times over before replacing the lavender!
Click here to catch up on the other “Green Your Cleaning” Series posts. The final green cleaning giveaway will also be up tomorrow, so be sure to check back to enter!