Natural Clean Part 4: Laundry

The last few weeks I have shared how I clean my house naturally.

Part 1 was about my favorite household cleaner.

Part 2 was about my favorite scouring cleaner.

Part 3 was about my favorite germicide.

My husband and I de-toxed our home a few years ago and now use only the above three non-toxic cleaners for the whole house! It's so great to reduce and not worry!

Today I want to talk laundry. This is something we all have to deal with. Some more then others depending on your family size.

I try to do at least one load per day and usually always have more that could be done. I save towels and sheets for the weekends. 

What brand do we use that is safe, natural and effective for my family's laundry needs? Shaklee! No surprise, right? lol. We truly love the Get Clean laundry products. They are safe for my young kids, safe for the environment, concentrated, and work really well! 

Have you ever been around someone who smells like "fresh laundry"? You can just smell their clothes the second the walk in the room? Maybe that someone is you? And maybe you mistake that smell with clean. But did you know that the fresh scent you smell is actually chemicals? Chemicals that can be harmful to you and your family. The real smell of clean actually doesn't have a scent at all!

To be honest, I didn't really think about these things until I became a mom 4 years ago. Babies skin is super sensitive. Their clothing, their bedding, their toys...anything washable can leach these chemicals onto their delicate skin. Babies immune systems are immature. This makes it difficult for them to detoxify, metabolize or get rid of chemicals in their body. It also takes time for children to develop the barrier protecting their brain from chemical exposure.

All of this made me search for a company and products that I trust. Little did I know that what I was looking for was right under my nose my entire life as my mom has been using Shaklee cleaners and supplements for 37 years now! I really never paid attention to their quality until my son was born. Shaklee's cleaners fit our needs perfectly. Here are the laundry products we use and love....

Fresh Laundry Concentrate (powder or liquid)

My family has used both. The liquid is better for HE machines but we don't have one yet. So either works for us just fine. I have super sensitive skin and have contact dermatitis, which means my skin breaks out in an itchy rash or eczema after coming in contact with chemically scented laundry, lotions, etc. After switching to Shaklee's detergents, my skin irritation issues have disappeared. They reappear anytime we are away from home and sleep somewhere that does not use Shaklee's cleaners. Both come in a light fresh scent or fragrance-free. There is a pump that you can get for the liquid which is awesome because it measures it out perfectly for you. You just need 1-2 oz. depending on the size of the load.
I love using the detergents with my son's cloth diapers. We have been using cloth for 2 years now and the diapers still look new! Once in awhile I do a deep cleaning on them with the Nature Bright (listed below) and the germicide Basic G germicide that I talked about in my Part 3 post for deodorizing. Works great!

Cleaning Credentials:

• Biodegradable Surfactants
• Concentrated
• Hypoallergenic
• No phosphates
• No chlorine

I went back into my archives for a good picture of how well the Shaklee detergent works. My son will probably hate me for posting these when he is a teenager. But since he's just 2, I thought I would share.:) Warning: this isn't going to be pretty!

Here is a before picture of a diaper explosion when my son was a baby.

And the after picture. I sprayed it with Basic H2 and then I washed it in the liquid detergent because it also has a stain fighter in it. It worked beautifully! The Nature Bright, which I will talk about next, would also work well in this situation. :)

Nature Bright

Every mother's BFF. This is an awesome and safe alternative to bleach. Chlorine, which is in bleach, can cause damage to eyes, skin and other membranes. The Clean Air Act listed it as a hazardous pollutant in 1990 and it is among the top cause of accidental poisonings among children. 

Nature Bright is a safe alternative to bleach. It whitens whites and brightens colors beautifully. Perfect for diaper explosions, grass stains, and other difficult stains. It outperformed Oxiclean in removing grass stains! Love, love, love this product!!

We recently took this old blanket on a cabin trip and used it outside for a picnic with 5 young children ages 7-1. You can guess that it got pretty messy! It was hard to capture good pictures of this but here is the before picture when we returned from the cabin. There are some BBQ beans stained in the middle area.

And here is the after. I sprayed the stains with Basic H2. I keep this in my laundry room as it also is a great stain remover.  I soaked the blanket with Nature Bright and washed with the Powder Detergent. It looks brand new again. Considering this blanket is probably about 25 years old, that is saying a lot! lol The stains are completely gone and the blanket looks a few shades whiter.

Soft Fabric Concentrate 

I love how this helps to reduce wrinkles and prevent static cling. It is really concentrated and has a light fresh scent.  Because of my skin issues that developed in college, I could no longer use fabric softeners or dryer sheets. Until I tried Shaklee's! Awesome!! This is another one that you can get a pump for to measure perfectly. Love that!

Soft Fabric Dryer Sheets - Fragrance Free

These are so cool - they are veggie based and completely biodegradable. So recycle after you use them! You cannot do this with the leading brand's dryer sheets. I love how they soften clothes while reducing static cling.

So that does it for another cleaning post. I hope the information has been useful to you. I love these cleaners so much that I can't help but share them! Which products would help with your family's laundry issues?

Please be sure to visit me on Facebook soon! 

Thanks for reading:)

Rebecca

Children's health

As you probably can understand, children's health, particularly MY 14 month old's health has been on my mind a lot lately. He got pretty sick recently and you can read all about it if you click on "Benjamin" on the right side of my blog. I am thankful to say that he is doing better and took his last dose of meds tonight to counter the drug withdrawl he experienced in the hospital. He is getting stronger each day and we are very thankful.


So because this topic is on my mind, I thought I would get back into my regular blogging on health topics by sharing a few wonderful and natural products that I use with my own kids. As parents, we truly want the best for our kids. I never fully understood that until I actually became a mom 3 years ago. We are constantly worrying about our children's well being and health and doing our best to keep them well and healthy.


One thing that our pediatrician suggested when my boys were infants was to supplement their diet with a good vitamin formulated specifically for children. Something to "fill in the gaps" in their sometimes (or lately with my 3 year old, ALL the time picky eating habits:). Up until very recently, both of my boys have been very healthy. Even when Benjamin developed his sudden cough last month, the doctor thought that he aspirated something into his lung rather then it be the bad pneumonia that he had, because he didn't have any other symptoms. No fever, no runny nose, etc. His body was fighting it hard, which is why the doctors, including the specialists at Riley, didn't think pneumonia until they went in to find the aspirated object but instead found the mucus.

Hind sight is 20/20 as they say. Before last month, my 14 month old took a whole food natural powder vitamin Shakleebaby Multivitamin and Multimineral.

Both of my kids took this early on every day. It is easy to mix into their oatmeal or most liquids that they drink. I am sorry to say that last month I had forgotten to order it with my monthly Shaklee order and we ran out. I didn't think too much of it because we had another powder vitamin in the house called Citriboost. This is another great whole food multivitamin that Shaklee makes that is complete and safe for many people including adults and kids over the age of 1. My son was able to take half a scoop of this a day mixed into his oatmeal or drink. This is a great alternative for people who have a hard time swallowing vitamins and since my son was over a year old, I knew that he could have this so I didn't worry about ordering more of his children's vitamins right away. What I realized now however, is that the Citriboost was not as complete for his young needs as the Multivitamin and Multimineral powder is. Like I said, hindsight is definitely 20/20 and if I could do it over again....



Once my 3 year old was able to chew well, we switched him to Shaklee's Incredivites.

These are chewable and are an assortment of berry flavors that my son loves. Because he is under the age of 4, he only takes one a day which makes the bottle last for 4 months! This also has lactoferrin in it, which is the immune booster found in breast milk. My son still gets colds once in awhile, and a few more since starting preschool this year, but they usually come and go fairly quickly. And neither boy has ever had an ear infection!

When either of my boys are fighting something, we also give them chewable Vitamin C.


There is some research out there supporting vitamin C helping with immune function. One of Shaklee's chewable vitamin C is equivalent to eating 1.5 organic oranges. My older son can chew these and we crush them and put them into food or drink for my 14 month old. One of the doctors at Riley childrens hospital was talking to me about the research supporting vitamin C as an immune booster and infection fighter when Benjamin was there. They were supportive of us bringing our Shaklee supplements and protein powder in to give him in the hospital, which we were very thankful for.



One of my other favorite products that we use with our kids is Shakleebaby Gentle wash.
All of Shaklee's products are completely safe, natural and work really well. Shaklee uses pharmaceutical standards and third party testing on all of their products to make sure they are the highest quality and purest ingredients. So I never worry about the safety of products like the baby wash on my kids young skin. I was surprised to learn that the leading brand of baby wash (that we used to use!) actually has formaldehyde in it that is a bi-product of some of its ingredients. It is a small amount and not enough for them to legally have to put it on the label apparently, but Hel-LO-o! Do I really want my kids bathing in that chemical no matter how small of an amount?? Nope and I am thinking you may feel the same. One thing I love about Shaklee's wash is that it is so concentrated (like most of their products) so a little goes a long way. Very gentle, natural and safe. We really love it in my house.

One last thing I should mention is Laundry products. This is one area that it seems some parents overlook when thinking about their kids health, esp. young kids. Kids, especially babies, spend a lot of time sleeping.

They are breathing in anything coming off of the bedding and a lot of detergents with dyes and perfumes that make them smell nice, also leach chemicals. Not too good for young lungs and skin. I really love all of Shaklee's laundry products for my entire family, including sensitive-skin ME! lol


Shaklee's detergents are great for all skin types and they are very concentrated so a little goes a very long way. We switched to cloth diapers earlier this year (I wish I would have started with them with my oldest son - they are so great) I have heard so many conflicting reports on what detergent to use with cloth diapers. The only one that I have ever used is Shaklee (both liquid and powder) and both work great at cleaning my son's diapers. I will never use anything else.

As parents, we only want the best for our kids no matter how old they are. I truly feel that using the products I mentioned above are good choices for my kid's health.

Thank you again for reading. If you enjoy reading my blog, you can subscribe to it above so you will always know when I put a new post up. Have a great and healthy weekend! :)

Rebecca

my laundry mishaps!

I teach music lessons in my home one night a week. My first student was about to show up the other night and I was running around getting everything ready with my small kids before she came. I had a few minutes to grab something to eat and as I was getting the spaghetti out of the pot, the red sauce splashed up on me. ugh!
The first thing I did of course, was take a picture in the bathroom mirror since I was still wearing the shirt and had no time to change. lol.

The next thing I did was take a little of my very favorite cleaner, Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate and rub it into the spots with some water. And the stain actually came out right then! I didn't lose any time changing and was able to eat and teach as planned. I waited a day or two before I had a chance to wash the shirt as I normally would have done and the end result was a very clean shirt:)

I like to keep a small 4 oz. bottle of the Basic H2 in my laundry room to put on spots and stains. And believe me, with a toddler and baby, we have lots of spots and stains! I also use Nature Bright Laundry Booster and Stain Remover to whiten and brighten our laundry, although I didn't need it for this particular shirt. It is a great and safe alternative to bleach. I talk about how much I love the Nature Bright and also the other Laundry Products that I love so much in the blog post about Airing the Dirty Laundry. It is a good read, especially for parents of small children! Be warned however, that there are some graphic before pictures in that post. :)

And don't forget about the FREE membership promotion that Shaklee is running through May 20th with only a $30 order! Members save 15% on all products always with no annual fees. If you are interested in the Basic H2 and laundry detergent, there is an Earth Day Healthy Home Kit that is being offered for a limited time. This includes the Basic H2, two spray bottles, Laundry Detergent, liquid dish soap, microfiber cloths and Shaklee energy chews, all for only $30 which will qualify you for the free membership! It is a great deal and a great way to introduce yourself to some wonderful and completely safe products. More information can be found at the bottom of my Shaklee website under Current Product Promotions.

Thanks again for reading and I hope you are having a wonderful and healthy week!

Rebecca

airing the dirty laundry

After my first post on how I replaced all of the 20+ toxic household cleaners with just THREE Get Clean products seen here , I had some of you ask about Shaklee's laundry products. So here is my promised post to those of you who asked.

When I started researching laundry products, I was surprised to learn about the different chemicals that many laundry detergent manufacturers use. These chemicals can be the reason your laundry smells nice, but they can also be something that can harm your health. This can be especially true for children, who have extra sensitive skin. I had never thought about that before. According to the EPA, chemicals in laundry products could be a cause of asthma and other skin irritations and allergies. You can read about that in this EPA article. I had also learned that because these chemicals are absorbed into the skin through your clothing and bedsheets, a chemist may be able to determine what type of laundry soap you use simply by testing your urine! gross, I know but something to think about.

Like the Basic H2 , Scour Off, and Basic G that I talked about in my first post, all of Shaklee's laundry products are non-toxic, safe for your entire family and work really well. I have some before and after pictures below showing you just how well they really do work. WARNING: some of the pictures are graphic examples of how having a very small baby can severely soil clothing, towels and other garments. These pictures are not for the weak at heart:)





Here is a picture of my 5 month old's outfit after a bad diaper explosion recently:
(I told you it wasn't going to be pretty!)

And here is the after picture, after I washed it with Fresh Laundry Concentrate .
I did add a scoop of Nature Bright to the washer. And that's it! It came out perfectly clean. Nature Bright is a great alternative to bleach. It isn't harsh and I love how it whitens and brightens my laundry so well.

Nature Bright was shown to remove grass stains 60% better then OxyClean!!

Here's another example of more baby diaper explosions. This time, I soaked both the outfit and the towel in Nature Bright first and then washed the items with Fresh Laundry Concentrate

Before (obviously!):
And after the soaking and washing:
And here is the towel before picture. This one I had waited a few days to wash. I had put a little Basic H2 on the stain first and rubbed it in before soaking and washing.
And after:
I was really happy with how well it worked.

In addition to the products mentioned above, Shaklee also has a wonderful powder laundry detergent that we also use seen here. (note: if you have a HE washer, then the liquid concentrate works best) One 5.5 box of the powder will wash 88 loads of laundry! You can see how this can save you money as well by looking at the cost comparison info here. Just use one oz. for a regular load of laundry. Both the liquid and the powder come with a fragrance free option as well as a slightly scented option.

I have really sensitive skin that gets itchy when I am around other types of detergents (for example, when we travel and stay in hotels). I didn't always have this problem. It started in 2001 while I was in grad school, after I used an inexpensive off brand of laundry soap. Once I had exposed my skin, I developed an allergy known as contact dermatitis, which flairs up whenever I am exposed to soaps, lotions, etc that have dyes, chemicals and perfumes in them. I don't have that issue with the Get Clean line of detergents however. I can even use the Soft Fabric Concentrate as well as the Dryer Sheets with no problem. The dryer sheets are veggie based and biodegradable, so you can just throw them in your recycle bin when you are done. And they can double as duster/sweeper sheets, like ones that you may use on a swiffer duster. I love that! In an article in Natural News, many household cleaners/laundry products and their toxicity is discussed. The article talks about how dryer sheets can leave chemicals on your clothes that are absorbed into your skin, which could be cancer causing. You can check out the article here.

Wow! That was a lot of info but I hope it was useful info to you. I hope you have a good and healthy week! Thanks for reading!

Rebecca