Sustainable Saturday - 10 Tips for Getting to Green in the Laundry Room

 This week's Sustainable Saturday is the sixth part in the Series Getting to Green.  This Series focuses on easy, cost-effective ways to implement green ideas or concepts throughout your home and life. 

10 Tips for Getting to Green in the Laundry Room

1.   Purchase Environmentally-Friendly Laundry Detergent.  And it doesn't have to cost more! For instance I recently purchased Method (50 Loads) Laundry Detergent from Babies R Us on clearance for $5.48 PLUS I had a $2 off Babies R Us/ Toys R Us Store Coupon which made these bottles on $3.48 each.  Babies R Us/ Toys R Us is a great place to find discounted Environmentally-Friendly Laundry Detergents like Method, Seventh Generation, BabyGanics and others.

2.  Use Chlorine-Free Bleach.  Explore non-toxic, chlorine free products that use hydrogen peroxide to lift tough stains. Made without fragrances, dyes or optical brighteners.  Chlorine-Free Bleach, like Seventh Generation Free & Clear Ultra Bleach Chlorine Free,  will be better on your clothes, better for the waterways and better for your indoor air quality in your home and when you are wearing the clothing item.

3.  Re-think Fabric Softener.  You can explore not using fabric softener at all, consider using 1/2 cup white vinegar in your wash cycle in lieu of liquid fabric softener, purchase a reusable dryer ball from retailers like Norwex or purchase compostable dryer sheets like those from Seventh Generation.

4.  Compost your Dryer Lent.  It's that simple, place your dryer lent (and dryer sheet if applicable) into your compost bin.

5.  Reuse hangers.  Reuse plastic hangers that you receive when purchasing an item from a store and reuse or recycle metal hangers from dry cleaners.  Most dry cleaners will happily re-use metal hangers.

6.  Install a Clothes Line.  You can find both indoor and outdoor clothes lines which reduce the amount of electricity or gas you use to dry your clothes (depending on which type of dryer you may have).  Let nature, the suns rays and wind, dry your clothes.

7.  Install Low Flow Faucet Aerators on Sinks or Utility Sinks.  Low Flow Faucet Aerators save 77% more water and energy then a standard 2.2 GPM aerator.  You can purchase a faucet aerator for a $1 or less.

8.   Replace light bulbs with more efficient CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulbs.  Check out programs like AEP's (American Electric Power) gridSMART program in which you can purchase CFLs at a discount at participating retailers (like Home Depot).

9.   Use Green Cleaning Products or make your own.

10.  Minimize clutter by donating unwanted or unused clothing and shoes to charity.  

You can read the entire Getting to Green series here:   

Sustainable Saturday - 10 Tips for Getting to Green in the Kitchen 

Sustainable Saturday - 10 Tips for Getting to Green in the Bedroom

Sustainable Saturday - 10 Tips for Getting to Green in the Living Areas (Living/ Dining/ Family/ Office)

Sustainable Saturday - 10 Tips for Getting to Green in the Bathroom 

Sustainable Saturday - 10 Tips for Getting to Green Outdoors and in the Garden 

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