using the clothes dryer again

I normally hang all my clothes to dry: It saves energy (dryers are a big energy sucker) and actually helps keep the clothes from wearing out too fast, since the heat and friction of the clothes dryer degrades fibres.

Recently, however, my clothes have been getting really stinky. I first noticed it when I put on a t-shirt for work one day and got a whiff of something akin to old, damp, used lockerroom towels. Not good. Especially on my body, and especially on my way to work.

After some investigation (read: sniffing all my clothes), I concluded that only the most recent wash was smelly. I washed the entire load all over again with borax and vinegar, hoping those eco-friendly deodourizers would do the trick. No such luck. Two days later the drying clothes were still smelly.

So I washed everything one more time with (gulp) a bit of chlorine bleach to kill any germs or mold that were making the clothes smell bad. I hung everything to dry again, and this time all I smelled was the faint, comforting scent of swimming pool. (Which is really not all that comforting, when you stop and think about it; chlorine is toxic in its liquid form, and chlorine bleach fumes are really bad for you.)

The next time I washed a load of clothes, I used a bit of bleach again as a preventive measure. A couple of days later, however, the still-damp clothes stunk just as bad as the first batch. I re-washed the entire load with more bleach, and finally broke down and dried all the clothes in the dryer.

It was a difficult moment for me. When I cast back in my memory, I realized it had been SIX YEARS since I'd last dried my clothes in a dryer. Seriously. I remember because it was the summer of the big blackout (2003), and in the weeks immediately following the blackout I had decided that hanging my clothes to dry would cut down on my family's energy use and contribute towards lessening our burden on the grid.

Above is a picture of my folded laundry after it was done drying. I'm still inexpressably bummed about drying my clothes this way. Plus now all my polyester dress pants are slightly wrinkled. Bleah.

20 things worse for your children than lead in toys

Do you want to clean green?
I saw this story mentioned in Debra Lynn Dadd's most recent newsletter, and thought it was worth posting here. The article mentions several hazardous household products, including air fresheners, dryer sheets, and fire retardants.

The mainstream media is amusingly irrational when it comes to reporting scare stories. The latest example involves the lead content of Mattel toys made in China. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a third recall of Mattel toys involving over 700,000 toys containing unacceptably high levels of lead paint (over .06 percent lead). Irrational parents are rushing back to retailers in droves, turning in their Mattel toys to "save their children" from the dangers of lead paint. Mattel, for its part, is being rightly blasted in the media for selling shoddy products made with toxic heavy metals.

But here's the interesting part in all this: Parents directly poison their children every day with products far more dangerous than Mattel toys. Don't believe me? I'll name twenty things in this article that are far more dangerous to children than Mattel toys. It doesn't mean Mattel toys are safe, of course. They apparently do contain unacceptably high levels of lead, and there's no question about the toxicity of lead. But children don't eat toys nearly as often as they eat some other toxic substances given to them by their parents, and even as parents are herding back into retailers to refund their toxic lead-laden toys, they're returning home and poisoning their children with many other products that are far worse.

The press, of course, reports nothing about these other toxic products. And why? Because they're made in America.

Read the entire article here.

zen cleaning moments - rag stories

Do you want to clean green?

I've used horrible rags in my lifetime. Rags that were dirty. Rags that were frayed and bulky. Rags that were too big. Rags that were too small, and too thin. Non-absorbent rags made from old polyester clothes. Rags that had stiff spots of dried paint scattered all over them. Rags that were hard and wrinkled from being dried all balled-up. Rags that stank.

To some people, rag is a bad word.

~

When I was a little girl, my mother dusted her wooden furniture with a piece of old t-shirt impregnated with lemon oil. I hated the feel of that rag under my fingers - its greasiness gave me the shivers, and its sharp scent still brings back memories of hot Saturday mornings with my bangs damp and my bare feet dirty as I cleaned my bedroom before I could play.

~

Two summers ago the clothes dryer I used to dry my rags in every night broke down. We had an umbrella-shaped hanging clothes dryer in the backyard, so I carted my wet rags outside and hung them (all 70 or so) to dry overnight.

The next evening after work I took them down off the line (replacing them with that day's wet rags), and folded them up to take inside. They were stiff from air-drying, but clean and warm from the sun.

The first day I used the line-dried rags in my cleaning business, I nearly died from happiness. The rags (which had always smelled nice - from the gentle fragrance of the Arm and Hammer Washing Soda I use) smelled AMAZING! The line-dried scent lingered all day long, renewed every time I picked up another rag.

I looked like a fool, sniffing my cleaning rags as I walked from room to room. I replaced the indoor clothes dryer within a few days; for the rest of the summer, however, I kept drying my rags outside on the line. It was the saddest day of the season when the days got too cold for me to hang up the wet rags comfortably, and we took the umbrella dryer down for the winter.

~

I'm picky about the way I like a rag to feel in my hands. If it's too big, I get cranky. If it's too small or too thin, I get cranky. I like the rag to be just a bit bigger than my hand when the fingers are all spread out. I fold my terrycloth rags in half, and they're exactly the right size.

I like to use hot water when I clean. It's less energy-efficient, but the feel of a warm rag in my hand makes me happy. I don't like a rag that's dripping wet. I don't like a wet rag that's too dry. I don't like a dry rag that's too wet. I'm happiest when I can change rags frequently.

When I had my cleaning business, I threw the dirty ones into a galvanized steel bucket lined with a small muslin laundry bag. I made the muslin bags myself, and washed them with the rags every night.

laundry

Do you want to clean green?
This post was first published on my blog an organized existence (April 21, 2007).

I've been watching with interest as many businesses have been jumping on the "green" bandwagon. Just today I was grocery shopping at Loblaws and noticed a large display of their new President's Choice Green products, including eco-friendly cleansers for laundry and bathrooms.

I bought a bottle of their President's Choice Green Coldwater Laundry Detergent. I've been using eco-friendly laundry cleansers for years, and I'm happy with my current methods, but it's always nice to try something new and be able to give people feedback about the products that are on the market.

Many people don't realize how manufacturers have manipulated our opinions about cleaning dirty laundry. We've become convinced that our clothing is full of dirt and germs, and nothing short of the most powerful cleansers, bleaches, and fabric softeners will give us the brightest, whitest and fluffiest results.

The truth is, we don't really need their products. In many cases they actually make our clothes dirtier, or wear out our fabrics faster. Most people, for example, add too much detergent to each load of laundry. It can't be properly rinsed away by the end of the cycle, and when you add liquid fabric softener to your wash, or throw fabric softener sheets in the dryer, you create a waxy build-up on the fabric that attracts even more dirt.

Try a simple experiment. Take some clothes straight from your dryer and stick them back in the washing machine with a tablespoon of TSP (trisodium phosphate), which you can find at most hardware or paint stores. Run the load again without adding any detergent or bleach, and have a look at the water after the machine has begun to agitate. The water will be a dirty, scummy mess. And those were your "clean" clothes!

The biggest problem with most laundry detergents is that they are made from petrochemicals, which use non-renewable resources in their manufacture, and pollute our waterways when they are sent down the drain after each load of laundry. They are mildly caustic, and are a frequent cause of household poisonings. The residues they leave on our clothing can cause skin and respiratory irritations in people with chemical sensitivities to the dyes, fragrances, or surfactants they contain. Many detergents also contain chemicals that are suspected carcinogens.

There are plenty of sustainable, non-toxic alternatives to conventional laundry detergents. A quick look through the organics section of most grocery stores will reveal a range of choices, including Nature Clean and Seventh Generation products. I've been using Nature Clean's All-Purpose Cleaning Lotion for years. I love it because it's multi-purpose - it does everything from dishwashing to general household cleaning to laundry. When washing my clothes, I add about a tablespoon of the cleaning liquid to a full load of laundry, and add vinegar to the rinse water to soften the clothes, which I then hang to dry.

When washing linens (i.e my sheets and towels, which are white or natural 100% cotton), I use a combination of washing soda and TSP, and again add vinegar to the rinse. I would use washing soda for all my laundry, except it can occasionally leave a powdery residue on dark fabric - especially if it's washed in cold water. When buying washing soda, avoid Arm & Hammer if you are sensitive to fragrances, since they scent their product.

copyright 2007, Michelle Lynne Goodfellow

rags

Do you want to clean green?
In previous posts (here and here) I've mentioned how much I love my cleaning rags. I switched to rags from cellulose sponges (which are made from wood pulp, and therefore natural and biodegradable, but manufactured) when I realized how difficult it was to keep sponges sanitary - after using them to clean toilets, for example. I didn't want to risk cross-contaminating different surfaces within a client's home, or between clients' homes.

What do you use for your own cleaning? Be aware that some sponges are made from petrochemicals. Kitchen sponges especially are a breeding ground for microbes. Paper towels are more hygienic, but their one-time use makes them wasteful. (If you must use paper towels, buy the highest recycled-content ones you can find. In Canada, Loblaw's President's Choice Green paper towels are made from 100% post-consumer waste.)

Rags are a great way to recycle old clothing and household linens. The best rags for cleaning (with a few exceptions) are made from 100% cotton or linen. Old sheets (especially flannel ones) and old t-shirts make great dusting cloths, and old terry towels are my choice for general cleaning. I find used towels at yard and rummage sales, for anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar apiece. (In a pinch, you can also buy new fabric rags at hardware or home improvement stores, but they're usually very poor quality, and fall apart after a few washings. Not to mention the fact that they're brand new, and usually covered with fabric finishes that make the rags less absorbent.)

I cut towels into pieces the approximate size of a facecloth, and finish the edges with a wide zigzag stitch on my sewing machine so that the rags don't fray in the laundry. If you don't finish the edges, the rags won't last as long. (It's not as crucial to finish the edges on non-terry rags).

Old t-shirts are a great substitute for microfibre cloths, as long as they're 100% cotton. And old linen tablecloths with holes or stains make great dishtowels if cut to the appropriate size and hemmed.

The more worn the original fabric is, the better rags you'll have. If the fabric has been washed often enough, the finishes will have been washed out, and the fibres will have softened and become more absorbent. When a thick terry rag gets too thin for general cleaning, I use it for more specialized purposes - attaching it to the bottom of my Swiffer drymop, or using it for finer cleaning jobs or quick hand-drying.

I go through a lot of rags each time I clean. When I had my cleaning business, I could easily use 30 terrycloth rags at a single client's home. I keep a basket of them in my kitchen for everything from dishwashing to wiping counters to lifting pans out of the oven; once they're dirty or wet, I hang them to dry on a wooden drying rack and store them in a large pail until I have enough rags to make a full load of laundry. (That's my pail full of rags in the photo at the beginning of this post.)

I wash windows or mirrors by wetting a clean rag, wringing it out, and wiping it across the entire glass surface. I then use a dry rag to wipe off the water, replacing the rag whenever it gets too wet.

In bathrooms I start by cleaning the mirror, then take the wet rag and clean the rest of the fixtures, either ending with the toilet, or doing the toilet separately at the beginning with other rags. More clean rags are used for wiping the fixtures dry and polishing the faucets. I finish by throwing another clean, wet rag in a bucket of water to wash the floor, and if I want a clean shine I also dry the floor with more clean rags.

As I mentioned in another post, you shouldn't use fabric softener (liquid, or dryer sheets) when laundering rags. It will leave a waxy residue on the rags that will cause smears when you're dusting or cleaning glass. To wash my rags I just use hot water and a quarter-cup of washing soda with a tablespoon of TSP crystals. If you can let the rags soak in the washing water before agitating, even better. A half-cup of vinegar is added to the rinse water. If you've got the space, hang your rags to dry. One of my favorite memories is the smell of line-dried rags in the summer. Otherwise dry them under the normal setting in the dryer.