Airing Out Your Dirty Laundry: What Chemicals Are Stuck to Your Clothes?

Did you know that in the United States the ingredients in cleaning supplies are gravely under-regulated?! There are loopholes for everything. That means the things we love and use consistently like fabric softeners can have toxic chemicals in them and ingredients that are hormone disruptors, skin irritants, asthma irritants, and can cause reproductive harm. These companies use vague terms like "perfume" and "fragrance" that don't actually tell you where they are getting the smell from. Even unscented products still contain harmful chemicals.

The truth is that we all love the benefits and fail to look at the chemicals and toxins used to accomplish the result. So what can you do? QUIT using fabric softener and dryer sheets. Gasp! From a washing standpoint, softeners and sheets actually leave a filmy residue on your laundry that over time makes your clothes grimy and towels less absorbent. You would have to use even more chemicals to strip your clothes to remove all of the build up. If you have never fallen down the rabbit hole of laundry groups on Facebook, just trust me that there are so many things I never knew about laundry and cleaning until I joined them. The downside is they want top performance despite using toxic ingredients. Anyway, you can prevent all of those unnecessary and toxic chemicals in your laundry by removing softeners.

But static, what about the static?! Static is typically caused from over drying. I haven't used dryer sheets in years and I just make sure my clothes don't over dry. One thing I have recently added in to my routine is wool balls. They reduce static and drying time without adding any chemicals to your load. Toss a few in the dryer and you will have perfect laundry. They cost maybe a couple of dollars more than dryer sheets but will last for years;  since they can shorten your drying time (saves on electricity costs) and cost less over time since you buy less, they actually are great money savers. From someone who likes a good deal, these are a win-win.

You can cut out the toxins. It is easy, I promise, and you won't have to sacrifice performance. We will talk more about laundry detergent later, because that is really its own post. To see our recommendations for dryer balls or detergent, hop over to our Resources Page (spoiler, Branch Basics and Amazon can save the day).

Hope this helps,

B&R


Legal, privacy, and disclosures for this post.
For more information on ingredients, visit Branch Basics, ewg.org or Living Well Mama.