Laundry….it’s an essential part of any family’s busy life. Being a mom of two boys, I know more than my fair share about laundry. There aren’t many stains I haven’t seen. I’ve had more than my fair share of fading and rips in my kids’ clothes. In fact, over the years, I’ve discovered that when it comes to keeping my family’s clothes looking great, I’m constantly met with challenges. Pair that with the fact that we try to live an environmentally friendly lifestyle and at times I’m left feeling like being a boy mom and being kind to the environment just don’t go together. But recently, I’ve been rethinking the way that I do laundry and I’m come up with some eco-friendly laundry tips that are allowing me to keep my family’s clothes looking great while ensuring that I’m doing my part to be kind to the world that we live in.
Now, it’s not hard to understand why taking care of the environment matters. The older my kids get, the more aware I am of the fact that small changes today can have big impacts on their future. In our home, we’ve put simple rules in place like turning off lights when we’re not using them and not running water while we’re brushing our teeth. While these are super small changes, my family and I really feel that they are a step in the right direction to conserving the resources on our planet. In fact, my kids have gotten so involved in the task of looking for small changes we can make that they have me looking literally everywhere to see what I can do differently. While my youngest suggested that we just stop washing our clothes (he’s all boy ya’ll), it did get me thinking that there had to be some changes we could make to our laundry routine. With just a little thought and a few simple tweaks to the way I’ve always done laundry, we’re making sure that we not only make the most of each load but that we get great looking clothes while still being eco-conscious! Want to know how we’re doing it?
Wear Clothes for Longer Between Washes
Of course I don’t want my family wearing dirty clothes but that doesn’t mean that a piece of clothing that has only been worn for an hour needs to go in the laundry basket. As a rule in our home, certain pieces of clothing can be worn for longer before throwing them in the washing machine. While t-shirts and under garmets are always one wear only items, jeans and sweatshirts can be worn multiple times between washes (as long as they are still clean and look good). It’s important for my family to know that if an item isn’t dirty, it can be hung back up or folded and put in the drawer for additional wears.
Always Wash Full Loads
Much as we try not to wash clothes that are not dirty, I also have a general rule in my home that if we don’t have a full load, the laundry doesn’t get washed. Sometimes this means getting a little creative and pairing everyone’s dirty clothes together to create one full load so that my youngest son’s baseball pants can be washed before his upcoming game. Sometimes it means simply telling me teen that he’ll have to for-go wearing his favorite hoodie until we have a full load to wash. But by simply choosing to not wash clothes out of convenience but instead only out of necessity, we’re taking a much more eco-friendly approach to our laundry routine.
Choose the Cold Water Setting
Not washing clothes that don’t need to be washed and waiting for full loads has dramatically cut down on how often I do laundry. But I wanted to take things one step further. When it comes time to was our clothes, I now choose to wash ALL our clothes on the cold setting on my laundry machine. Not only is the cold water setting gentler on clothing but it’s better for the environment. And the best part is, I can still use my beloved Tide PODS® Plus Downy laundry detergent pacs to wash every load on cold (be sure to keep Tide PODS® out of the reach of children).
That’s right, there is NEVER a need to wash clothes on hot when I’m using my Tide PODS® Plus Downy laundry detergent pacs that boast 4-in-1 technology that cleans, brightens, fights stains and protects our clothes each time we do laundry. With simply adding a Tide PODS® Plus Downy laundry detergent pac with each cold load, I’m able to clean, condition and protect my family’s clothes!
Since I know that Tide PODS® dissolve in all temperatures, I can trust that washing my clothes on cold will deliver the results I want while helping me to protect clothes from damage in the wash. Whether using a high efficiently or standard washer, simply adding Tide PODS® to every load guarantees that I have the HE turbo technology that provides 6 times the cleaning power in half the time (stain removal of 1 Tide PODS® pac vs. 6 doses of leading bargain brand liquid detergent, base variant). For me, that means brighter, newer looking clothes with each load plus the ability to make a difference with the environment…it really doesn’t get any better than that!
Hang Clothes to Dry
Once my clothes are washed to perfection using Tide PODS®, my final tip is to hang clothes to dry. Whether it’s on a laundry line in your yard or a hanging rack in the laundry room, allowing clothes to air dry helps keep them looking great for longer while saving energy and making a difference in the environment. While I won’t say that I never dry any clothes (after all, sometimes you just need to shrink those skinny jeans), I do try to air dry at least 75% of our laundry in order to keep our laundry routine eco-friendly.
To me, it’s amazing that small changes can make a big difference in the long run and as I see my children watching my every move, I want to ensure that I’m making choices that will make a difference in the future of the planet.
Now it’s your turn! Try my eco-friendly laundry tips. Most importantly, be sure to pick up Tide PODS® to help ensure that washing your clothes on cold produces results you can trust with each and every load.
Now tell me, what’s your best eco-friendly laundry tip?
These are all great tips! I love Tide Pods b/c it makes it so much easier or my boys to help with laundry. In the past they were using SO much soap on the clothing that we were having spots on our clothes. These have been a lifesaver!
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These are great tips. I use COLD wash on everything too. And I’m sure to make sure the washer is FULL. I can’t do the clothes line though well maybe…
I don’t have anything particularly eco-friendly to share really. I do wash most of our clothes on cold and the results are terrific, the only clothes I was on warm are my youngest son’s because I find they turn out better.
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In our house, we do all of the laundry by hand. We wash it by hand, hang it to dry, and then put it away. Not only does our laundry get cleaner than when we used the washing machine, but our clothes last a lot longer and we don’t have detergent spots and misshapen clothes.
Excellent suggestions! I find that air drying clothes tends to lock in that freshly washed scent, which is just another added bonus.
Great tips! I agree fully too! I never understood people wearing something one time than washing! I mean unless you are gardening, or doing some outdoor activity that is messy! I wear a pair of jeans for a week! Granted if you are around sick people then you would want to wash for germs.
I also always use cold water.
I will have to try out the Tide Pods.
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Awesome tips! We too always use cold water and hang what we can outside to dry. I miss my four line clothes line that I had when my kids were growing up. I live in Southern California so in the summer, the clothes I hung up first would be dry by the time I hung up the last of them.
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We follow all of these tips. My husband will usually wear things again because they’re not dirty or smelly. Definetely saves on water!
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I try to never wash less than a full load. It’s a waste of water otherwise.
So many great tips to go green on laundry day. I am always telling my daughter she can wear her jeans more than one day. She still fights me on that one!
Your household must be similar to mine when it comes to washing clothes, because I utilize each and every one of these tips. We never wash anything but full loads, and we wear blue jeans that look neat and clean still over a second day. We also only wash on the cold cycle.
I actually hang clothes to dry and wash in cold already. Mostly because it’s easier not to sort all the time. lol But did’t realize hanging to dry was a better option for preserving clothes. 🙂 Thanks for the tips.
These are great tips and i’ve actually been doing some of these things recently myself too. Especially the cold water option, it make a difference.
These are great tips. I am good about wearing clothes again when they don’t get too dirty. I make homemade fabric refresher and that works out very well. Always make sure I have a full load and hang dry when I can.
These are excellent tips. I always use cold water when washing clothes. We also have the same rules about wearing jeans and sweaters a few times.
Happy Mother’s Day!
In our case, we always rewear our home clothes because we’re mostly outside at work anyway and spend time only sleeping at home.
Going longer between washes is a habit I picked up in the Army (as the washing machines in the barracks were nearly always in use or broken) that I’ve carried over to life. If it’s not stinky or dirty, why wash it? As a bonus, your clothes last longer, also.
These are great tips! We always wash full loads here, but I am going to check the setting on my washer now.
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Our water is so bad and we struggled with our clothes mildrewing. We tried a bunch of different things to fix it. Our washer ended up going out and then we switched to powdered pods. The powder pods seem to work best with our water problems.
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I live in a super small apartment no room for a washer and dryer so I opt for a washer. ALL my clothes air dry, so I guess I have been ‘eco friendly’ for awhile! LOL 🙂
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I agree, certain pieces of clothing can be worn longer before washing like pants or shorts. We do that over here not unless they are really dirty. And I always wash full loads too.
These are all great tips. My daughters need to learn that they can wear something more than once. lol
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I love hanging my clothes out on the line to dry when the weather is nice. They smell so much fresh. I usually like to separate my colors from my white and darks but I will combine them to make a full load.
I have just recently hopped on the Tide Pod bandwagon and I am loving them so far!! These are grey laundry tips!!
I love your tips. I’ve started using the Tide pods and love how well they work. I always hang my clothes out to dry when it’s sunny out.
I haven’t heard of Tide Pods before but they sound fab! I always tell my kids that they have to wear their jeans a good few times before putting them in the wash. Unless they’re dirty of course! There’s nothing worse than keep washing things that still have plenty of wear in them - you just end up with premature fading and bobbling. And no one wants that 🙂
Louise x
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I hang dry almost all of my laundry! And tide pods are our favorite in our house!
Laundry is seriously a pain! I love that there are ways to do it that also help with the environment.
I always my loads in cold water, it saves the color on clothing as we’ll as being eco friendly : ) As for the rest of your list I seem to follow each one you mentioned, so that feels good to know I’m eco friendly : )
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These are some great eco friendly tips. When I lived on the coast, we used to hang our clothes out to dry. Haven’t really done it since then.