Green Resolution: Laundering and Dry Cleaning

One area to focus on as you continue to evolve and resolve in 2009 is on your closet and how you get the clothes in there get clean.

Laundry may seem simple, but there are layers of eco-choices to consider as you go about the business of cleaning your wardrobe.

First, for regular washing, you can choose biodegradable, eco-friendly laundry soap. (We especially like natural, sustainable and unique Maggie's Soap Nuts.) You can then choose to wash in cool water to save energy.  For drying, opting for line drying outside saves major energy by skipping the machine dryer and has the added benefit of leaving you fresh, sunny clothes, towels and sheets. If you only have indoor space for a drying rack, leaving clothes inside to dry will help add some moisture to your indoor air.  (And for what you do machine-dry, definitely skip dryer sheets which are full of not-so-fresh chemicals.)

(As an aside, if you go to laundromat like I do, you can can still use natural soap, do some wash by hand and dry much of it in the sun when you get home.)

Next there's dry cleaning.  Traditional dry cleaning is notorious for using the chemical perchloroethylene (perc for short) that is a neurotoxin and carcinogen that pollutes air, earth and water.  So cutting back on dry cleaning or only buying garments that can be hand or machine-washed is a great way to go. If you want to know how to hand wash silk and wool (both lovely, natural fabrics) without shrinking or damaging it, here's a great article on the subject--I wash both with Dr. Bronner's with no trouble (and no cost). 

But don't worry--not all dry cleaners are equal and not all cleaners use perc.

You can find an environmentally friendly cleaner that uses wet cleaning or pressurizd or liquid CO2. Just make sure to ask or use Low Impact Living's handy search tool to find one near you.

Then comes the plastic problem.  Often even eco-cleaners use those plastic-covered wire hangers--a disposable mess that may stick around in landfills for hundreds of years.

So, for the final phase of laundry resolution comes The Clothesnik. Made for clothes hounds who still are passionate about reuse, this reusable cotton bag lets you take your clothes to the cleaners and pick them up in a reusable, functional, no plastic allowed bag. We've got some hanging on our racks for you to check out so you can never go back to plastic at the cleaners again.

Here's to a year of greener laundry!

And let us know in the comments if you have any tips to add or laundry-related resolutions of your own.

Project Laundry List

This isn't exactly a sustainable kitchen topic, but imagine a pleasant line of laundry outside your kitchen window (or outside your front door or in your shower) that lets the sun do the drying job marvelously, sans any energy-using machines.

Project Laundry List has started a movement to get clotheslines back in our lives.  After all, by drying more of your laundry the natural way, you'll save money, save gas or electricity, get the bleaching, disinfecting effects of sunshine, go without chemicals, and help your wardrobe last more seasons all while having a lovely time and getting freshly sun-baked clothes, sheets and towels.  

And with 186 not a cloud in our sunny sky days in L.A., there are plenty of hours to let our laundry soak up those rays.

If you decide to laundry line it, we've got a couple of clothesline options to help (9.99 to 18.50), along with all the old-fashioned clothespins you'll need to get drying.

Spring Cleaning: Laundry

In honor of the official start of spring, the All Shades of Green staff thought we'd tell you about a product we're nuts about:

Maggie's Soap Nuts.

What are soap nuts?  They're the dried fruit of the Chinese Soapberry tree.  Each nut contains saponin, a natural cleanser released when the nut gets wet.  People in South East Asia used to clean their clothes with soap nuts for thousands of years, long before Tide hit the scene.

The beauty of Maggie's Soap Nuts is that they're totally natural, sans artificial fragrances and chemicals that can irritate our skin and airways and eventually wash out to sea, polluting waterways and the ocean.  And, one tree produces literally hundreds of kilos of nuts every year that fall to the ground, begging to be collected and put to good use.

All you do is put some soap nuts in the cotton sack provided, throw it in your washing machine, and go about laundry business as usual, naturally.

You can learn more about the history and cultural significance of soap nuts in India and Ayurvedic medicine here.

And, stop by the store and pick up some soap nuts for truly fresh spring laundry (11.00 for 16-20 loads; 19.99 for 36 loads; 36.00 for 200 loads).

Happy spring!