The above picture shows some of the greener laundry products I have been testing lately. Laundry is one of those chores I absolutely despise. I wish green gadgets could change that but they don’t. The only thing they do is make the process a little more planet friendly and that at times seems like a stretch in my opinion. Most “green” laundry detergents come in plastic bottles and that isn’t so green at all. Soap nuts have to travel from around the world and they don’t last long. Lots of laundry aids are most commonly found in plastic… baskets, hangers, etc. The dryer sheets have loads of chemicals. So it seems we often have to get comfortable with whatever we consider to be the lesser of several evils.

The Planet Hugger line of laundry aids are what we typically see in green laundry products. They still come in wasteful plastic bottles but the ingredients are slightly better than conventional laundry products… safer for us and for our water. These particular products, the laundry detergent and the dryer sheets, have plant based surfactants or softening agents and essential oils for fragrance. I liked them well enough but it is hard for me to view any product that requires me to buy dozens of plastic containers as eco friendly.

The hands down winner was the next one I tried and what I refer to as a smart plastic… aka one of those sturdy plastic products that prevents you from having to buy more plastic. In this case it is the SmartKlean Laundry Ball. It is made of plastic but it lasts for one year and takes the place of laundry detergent. And get this.. it really works. I have been using mine for about a month now and it gets the laundry clean and fresh smelling without any added detergent. Even my gym towel and swim suits which have a tendency to get musty smelling in our humid Ohio weather, smell fresh and clean after washing with this laundry ball.

You need to pre-treat anything that is stained, if you actually bother with that.. I must confess that I am too lazy to care much about stains. You also need to be careful not to overfill since the ball needs to be able to move around between the clothes so only 3/4 full. You can also leave it in the washing machine between washes. The ball itself contains 4 types of mineral ceramic pellets that help the surrounding water clean the clothes. It elevates the pH to levels similar to that of detergents and soaps, it increases molecular motion to ensure sterilization, eliminates mold and bacteria, eliminates chloride compounds in the water, and it beats the clothes as it agitates to wash dirt away. Once a month you need to let it sit out in the sun for an hour to regenerate the mineral pellets in the ball. Pretty darn easy!

For reference I have a top loader. We chose not to drop a grand on a fancy front loader and just went with a used Craigslist find instead. Works great in our machine but you can use it with any kind. The price is about $50 w/shipping and you would spend that in only a couple months with detergent bottles. That might even be cheaper than making your own laundry detergent in the long run. There are some cheaper ones by another company on Amazon too. They look almost identical.

Another product I have and have yet to review is the Practecol 4 Line Retractable Clothesline. I plan to have my husband set that up on our back deck soon and put it too work so we can reduce our energy costs for summer.

What I REALLY need is a product that will make our enormous dirty laundry pile (see below) just go away but in the meantime I have been happy to make the job a little easier with some of these green products.

PS this was taken before the kids and I emptied our hampers. It is now 5 times that size! Perhaps the greenest thing to do would be to downsize our wardrobes!

Many thanks to the companies who donated these products to me for review.

This year I had it in my mind that I was going to try and dye Easter eggs using our GLOB natural botanical paints. Only problem was I could not find them in all the stuff I have not yet unpacked in our move. So when I came across the Eco-Eggs Easter Egg Coloring Kit, I opted to just use that. The dyes are made using natural plant, fruit, and vegetable extracts. It includes three natural dyes (orange, blue and purple), a color chart for creating 6 colors, and instructions for coloring eggs.

It was VERY easy, which I love. First you have to decide if you want to hard boil the eggs or blow them. I opted for the latter although I haven’t done that part yet. The colored eggs are chilling in the frig until I decide to tackle that. You just pour the 3 dyes  and a 1/2 cup of warm water in 3 glass cups and drop the eggs in to start the process.

Right away I noticed that this “green” product could be even greener if the dyes came in small paper bags instead of plastic containers that look like the ones you usually find lip balm in. My daughter confiscated these to put little beads in but they will still likely end up as garbage so that seems like a waste. But moving on…

The color chart that comes in the kit advises you on how long to let the eggs sit for the desired color. Some you need to let sit in one color followed by a little time in another to mesh colors and create another color altogether. The standard colors (purple, blue, and orange) were vibrant and beautiful. The mixed colors were only so-so. The green for instance was nice enough but not as green as I would have hoped. The brown did not work out at all so we ended up throwing it in all three dyes and got a dark burgundy instead. The yellow came out nicely and was the easiest to dye… only 3-4 seconds in the orange dye followed by a quick rinse.

The photo above is not edited so those are the true colors we ended up with. Quite nice I think. ;) The really dark burgundy egg is actually a brown egg so that is why it is so dark. I wasn’t too keen on buying the nasty white factory farm eggs for this project but hopefully we will be able to keep these for years to come when they are done. Our local farm fresh eggs (brown) just didn’t take the dyes, with the exception of the purple. You can dye quite a few eggs with this kit and even refrigerate leftover dyes for future use, at least we did.

Anwyay that is our experience with this product. How do YOU keep Easter on the eco-friendly side?

A new study has been released by Enviromental Health Perspectives that addresses ways to reduce exposure to BPA and DEHP (bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate) by changing our dietary shopping practices. Essentially it evaluated exposure contribution by food packaging (canned foods and foods wrapped in plastic) and tested urine levels of BPA and DEHP metabolites before, during, and after “fresh foods” interventions. There were 20 participants in five families who were studied and they were self reported consumers of canned and plastic packaged foods.

The concern with canned food is the BPA lining used by nearly all canned good manufacturing companies. DEHP is a plastic softener that can be found in plastic that wraps food for protection. These chemicals are known to disrupt hormonal systems in the body leading to developmental and reproductive issues, obesity, and even cancers. And aren’t we fortunate that they both make an appearance in a wide variety of food packaging materials? Ugh…

So did the BPA and DEHP metabolite levels in the study participants decrease when they stopped using canned and plastic wrapped foods and switched to fresh foods? The results of study were quite telling. The levels were greatly reduced and would indicate that food packaging is a front runner in exposing us to these chemicals nasties. You are what you eat right? The intervention reduced concentrations of BPA by 66% and DEHP metabolites by 53-56%. Wow!

What we need to extract from this study is that food packaging is a major source of exposure to BPA and DEHP. Also, we CAN do something about it by making dietary adjustments and changing our food selections.

What Can You Do Personally?

• Opt for frozen, dried, jarred, or fresh foods instead of canned foods and beverages. If you do need to buy canned then buy Eden Foods brand, the only known brand to not use BPA. Campbell soup claims to be eliminating it soon as well.
• Buy loose fruits and veggies, not those wrapped in plastic. Bring your own cloth produce bags to carry them.
• Instead of buying bags of trail mix, beans, grains, rice, etc buy these loose and in bulk. Cloth bags or glass jars can be used to hold them.
• If you do buy food wrapped in plastic, like that yummy Smoked Gouda from Whole Foods, unwrap it and store in a glass refrigerator dish instead.
• Buy more fresh foods from the farmer’s market and less processed foods that need extra packaging.
• If you use baby bottles opt for BPA free ones or even better, glass baby bottles.
• Avoid bottled water, even the large 5 gallon containers. Filter your own tap water and fill reusable bottles.
• Sippy cups should be BPA free, like this EIO Glass Sippy Cup we used.

This recent study is a boon for parents because it provides data that shows us we DO in fact have some power here. We can significantly reduce exposure to some of these chemical in ourselves and in our kids by simply being diligent and shopping smarter.

Are you caught up in a flurry of Back to School activity? Yeah, me too. Today I reached for the easiest and most simple lunch box options we have. Yes the Tiffin is very cool and the Laptop Lunchbox is a kid favorite but when you want easy and fast… you need a stainless steel LunchBot or a Sigg Midi Aluminium Box. They are easy to fill, compact so they fit inside the small pocket of most backpacks (just throw in a cool/warm pack too), and they are durable as well as stylish. Oh, and they are easy enough for younger kids to open on their own.

The Sigg Midi Aluminium Box comes in several colors… white, green copper, and pink are the ones I have seen. We have the copper one and it is perfect for my 10 year old boy and I rather like it for my lunches too. These boxes work equally well for children and adults. They remind me of fishing and camping gear or sardine cans… I am not sure which but I like the look. I can also put containers from my other lunchboxes inside which is a nice bonus. The small steel container is from one of our Tiffins. You can get the Sigg Midi at the Sigg web site or Amazon.

The LunchBot Duo is better suited for younger kiddos… with primary colors, a smaller size, and the compartments. There is also a LunchBot without the middle divider too but we like the divider for keeping food separate. This box is quite small so it is perfect for my 6 year old but it is also great for using as a take-out box. Seriously, if you know you will have leftovers or you are going to a pick up take-out instead of eating in, just hand them this box and tell them to forgo the plastic containers they usually use. We have the orange but they also come in green, yellow, and blue. You can get them at Reuseit or Amazon.

On the menu – Wild Alaskan Salmon & Mayo on whole wheat, a Bubbie’s pickel, Raw Organic Flax Snax, and dried cherries. Green smoothie on the side in a reusable bottle.

Much thanks to Sigg and LunchBots who passed these boxes on to me for my kiddos to test drive. Gracias!

When I was doing some deep cleaning in my kids bedrooms last week I decided to research some non plastic options for storage containers. We have several of the plastic ones already and certainly don’t want to add to that number by buying more. So I decided to see what was out there that was non-plastic. Since I was looking for my kids rooms obviously some of these will be kinda kiddie looking.

I ended up purging so much stuff that I didn’t need to buy containers… I settled for thrift store baskets. But just in case anyone else has looked for options like these I thought I would list them here. I found them all at Land of Nod which has a lot of natural and greener options.

The picture above is the Kids Mini-Suitcases for Storage. They were what I likely would have bought… so cute!! They are cardboard and thread, so unless the thread is polyester (which it may be – it didn’t say) they are almost completely plastic free other than the handle, which looks plastic.

I also liked the Metal Locker Baskets. Front side features three old school locker vents and an authentic looking locker number plate. I liked these so much that it made me look for old lockers (the real ones) on Craigslist and I actually found several so next time I need  storage or shelves I may go that route.

Colorful Large Canvas Bins – I like these for under the bed or laying inside the closet. They have three roomy, divided sections ideal for organizing toys, laundry and other stuff. Imagine if you get your kids to sort their laundry before they brought it out! You can fold these and likely wash them too, so that is a plus. Here are some other canvas bins that would look good on shelves.

I thought these Kids Flea Market Wire Bins would be awesome for my boys and for our sports equipment. In fact I still might get these for the latter cause they are so cool. They would also work for toys and laundry. They are non-toxic, powder-coated and handmade.

The Color Me Organized Storage Collection is perfect for kids and adults, and a great way to organize desks, hutches, closets and more. They are made of sturdy cardboard and you can choose a 4-Drawer Storage Box, Art Box, Magazine Butler, Pencil Cup or Photo Box. The Butler, Art Box and Photo Box include a name plate and labels.

They have quite a few more options too but I just highlighted my favorite. Here are some others. Do you find it hard to move away from plastic storage tubs? If not, how do you handle it?