Doing the Washing and Laundry - Good Clean Fun

It's laundry day and you are loading the machine.  Among the items you have to wash are your reusable shopping bags. As an eco conscious person you are always looking for ways to help the environment and you begin to think about the laundry. You question if you are going about it in the most ecological way possible.

As you load your reusable tote bags, and set the cycle, you think; do I need hot or even warm water?  A good rule of thumb is hot is only for whites that you want disinfected such as underwear and towels.  Almost anything else can be warm or even cold.  Warmer wash water does not necessarily clean better and in fact can even cause some stains to set.

Using warm or cold with the proper detergent is more than adequate for clean laundry, and it saves the energy used to heat the water.

Another way to save energy is by making sure you have a full load.  Washing lots of small loads wastes electricity water, and sometimes heat.  Not packing the washer full can sometimes improve the cleanliness of clothes when they are extra dirty or muddy, but there is no reason to run the washer for a handful of items. Most washing machines have a feature to adjust load size as well. Lean to use all of the buttons, it will save water, save money and be good for the environment.

You may occasionally notice that the laundry, or some items are not quite clean when the cycle finishes. If that happens, resist the impulse to just run the load again. Check the stains and sparingly use products specific to remove a stain. Even better, load the items one by one if possible.  This is time consuming and a bit of a hassle, but will allow you to properly treat stains and avoid further washing.

Be careful when using detergent.  Many detergent makers are going green by making detergent more concentrated.  This allows them to sell a larger equivalent quantity in the same size container, saving on plastic containers.  Read the bottle and use what is recommended, don't just fill the cap.  A capful may be two or three loads of laundry.

When the wash cycle is done, you can still be ecologically responsible by using the dryer properly.  As with washing, the hot cycle should be used sparingly. Drying cloths on hot can cause certain fabrics to shrink, especially cotton and wool.  Dry on hot and you may make your organic cotton reusable bag into an organic cotton reusable wallet.  And certain fabrics will wrinkle and are a nightmare to iron once they have been dried on hot. Always dry on the lowest setting possible to save energy.

Don't forget reusable bags.  When picking up your dry cleaning, have a reusable dry cleaning bag.  An airline suit bag can work for this, or you can find one in most department stores. And just like reusable shopping bags, you can also bring reusable dry cleaning bags when you shop for clothes as well.

Going green can be good clean fun.