Take the Stink Out of Laundry
Posted on March 11, 2008 by
No, I’m not talking about decontaminating the gym clothes you left to bake on the back seat of your car for a week. I’m talking about that “clean” and “fresh” ocean breeze, or April showers, or spring meadows scent that your next load of laundry will pump out into the air if you use a conventional detergent and fabric softener.
Last night, when I took my dog for a walk, the air was full of chemical “clean.” At least two houses on the block were doing laundry and pumping enough chemicals out into the air to make my stomach turn.
Somewhere along the way we developed the idea that clean is not just the absence of odor but the addition of chemical scents (and usually some sort of blue coloring). This would be all well and good if the scents added were completely harmless, but they aren’t. The ambiguous “fragrance” on the ingredients list of lots of products can hide scary things like phthalates, which are known hormone disruptors. So what we’ve come to perceive as the scent of clean should really be considered the scent of chemical contamination.
The solution: Look for laundry detergents that are free of phthalates and other harmful chemicals. If you haven’t already, switch to products that use essential oils or herbs to add fragrance, or opt for unscented, natural detergents and softeners. Even unscented products can contain phthalates, so it’s important to make sure your brand is specifically phthalate-free.
Method, Ecover, Eucalan, or Dr. Bronner’s products are a good way to go, or make your own laundry detergent. If you’re an April fresh scent junkie, don’t worry, you’ll adjust. After a few weeks of using unscented or natural scented products, chemical smells will lose their appeal.
Thanks for this post! I only recently discovered that Method was a good option, so we’ve been trying to shift our cleaning products to more eco-friendly choices.
AH! This is SO one of my pet peeves – I’m out for fresh air and all I can smell are people’s dryer sheets…
Rach — I know — I always thought Method was more marketing than green, but it’s actually good stuff, and it’s easy to obtain.
Regular Lady, you are a kindred spirit.
A few years ago, I borrowed some detergent from a friend to do my laundry. The scent was so horrible that I ended up rewashing everything once I got some more detergent just to get rid of the smell. Not a great use of water, I know, but the smell made me sick to my stomach and I’m not a person prone to sensitivities (or scent-sitivites!). I’ve been perfume- and dye-free ever since. I need to work on getting phthalate free.
Trader Joes also has eco friendly laundry detergent. They had one that had a hint of lavender (naturally scented) that I LOVED, but last time I was there it was gone.
Jennifer — it’s funny how offensive chemical smells can be, especially when you aren’t used to them.
Elizabeth – lavender laundry detergent sounds heavenly. I wish we had a Trader Joe’s near us!
United for a fake-scent free world!
I think we need a secret handshake or code word or something.
I am sooo for a fake-scent free world!
But the pessimist in me says that too many people love those nasty smells.
Yeah, so many people sure do love them. Once you “detox” it’s hard to like them again though.
And the scents people wear-deoderant, hairspray, colognes, body sprays, lotions! Some times in the mornings when I’m driving the girls we work with to school, I have to open a window. It just doesn’t make scents!
I make our own laundry detergent, because where I live now everything and its mother is scented, and I have skin “issues”. Scenting your own detergent, by the way, is simple–a few drops of essential oil. That’s all it takes, although the scent does not last after the wash. If you do go the essential oil route, though, be aware that some (lavender) may adversely affect people (suspected to decrease testosterone production in men, although far from proven), and many are toxic to pets. I add a drop or two of lavender oil to every half-gallon bottle–enough to scent the detergent, but you can’t smell anything in the clothes.