Aright, I know it’s been literally ages since I added to this blog.
Real quick explanation: Time.
Yep. That old point I kept harping on when I began this journey-that one major blocker from working Zero Waste practices into one’s life rhythm - time. I had worked out that if you could give at least one and a half hours a day, or at least one hour a day to working on food prep and zero waste tasks, you can stay on top of it for the most part.
See, when I was working part time outside the home at an office and then part time at home with kiddos, I found I could carve out that hour daily and experience no issues with having the time needed, and then being able to blog about it.
But months back, I took on a new full time role with a great company- and now I am really struggling with keeping pace for the zero waste tasks at hand.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve definitely learned from my tips and research- I prep as much as I can on the weekend for the week ahead, and use Blue Apron during the week! But it is hard, especially hard, when that one hour is usually the 9pm hour, after kids are in bed, when I am knock-out tired.
Anyhow, progress was still made! Yes, I researched a bunch back in January on how I can zero waste- if my laundry process. Originally, I thought I would end up making my own laundry detergent and also making my own cling free static cling sheets… and then I found out about something better! And the solution came in a 3-d shape- a ball. Several types of balls to be exact!
Let me explain.
Laundry detergent/soap:
As I began to research, making organic zero waste soap is a massive, hours long, many ingredient, undertaking. So that was a deterrent. And furthermore, people I spoke with that do it said they had mixed results. Many saying smells did not dissipate well ( umm, eww. I don’t do bad smells ).
But then, I found about about these laundry balls- hard non toxic plastic porous balls that had natural minerals inside them. You toss them in on top of the laundry before you add water into the machine, and they act as the cleaning agent. And… they are reusable- up to 1000 loads! You recharge them… wait for it… in the sun! Once every two weeks, you let them sit on a sunny spot for a couple hours and they are good to ‘roll’ :-).
I was super skeptical. But as I researched, people raved about them. The most convincing pieces were Youtube videos where people threw in dirty mildewy towels and they came out smelling super clean and looking clean. I mean, I guess the Youtuber could be lying when she sniffed the wet laundry- but then they are pretty good fibbers because a bad smell like that would make your nose wrinkle at least a smidge, as well as eyes water.
I chose to purchase Crystal Wash balls on Amazon due to the great reviews and they money back promise.
Now, I cloth napkin, I use dish towels not sponges for dishes, and I cloth diaper… so I would be the super challenge test case. I did a cycle with my dirtiest of diapers, one load with my smelliest dish towels and one load of dirty cloth napkins. I threw them in the wash machine, and dropped the two plastic balls on top- started the cycle. That’s it.
Folks, the verdict is out. When the wash was over, I pulled the things out- they were clean and … THEY SMELLED CLEAN! I mean they did not smell like lavender soap or ‘mountain fresh”. They smelled, well, just fresh. Clean. No dirty or mildewy or pooey smell at all. At all.
I am six months into this and I am IN love. I have used those two balls over and over again- sometimes three times a day. I make sure to freshen them in the sun once every two weeks- I leave them on a sunny window sill.
Onto fabric softener static sheets that I adore:
Again, I researched making my own sheets- no bueno. Most use paper towels and I am sworn off those. So I researched more and would ya know it, there are balls for this too! Hand sized felt balls - dryer balls. And, you can add a drop of two of lavender essential oil onto them and voila- lovely smelling soft laundry out of the dryer. I found a brand called Heart Felt that came with six felt balls and then I use my lavender essential oil- one drop a ball per cycle.
However I did start see a rise in static- and guess what? Yep- more balls!
Take some organic earthy friendly tin Foil, like the kind from If You Care, and roll a wad up into a ball a few inched in diameter. Throw one or two of those into the dryer and voila- no static!
Feel free to check out this article too:
So I have an all reusable, zero waste, organic, no toxins laundry process! And what more, a huge time saver in that I don’t have to try to make anything from scratch!
Guys, this is low hanging fruit in terms of what you can do to reduce and reuse-AND IT SAVES MONEY. The crystal balls are about 45 dollars - or +, the cotton dryer balls are about 20 bucks. I think in one year I spend about 175 bucks on laundry supplies- I have effectively reduced that cost in half and helped to save the environment, and my time. Win-win, people.
Win with balls. :-)