Welcome to the June 2013 Natural Living Blog Carnival: A Natural Challenge.This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Natural Living Blog Carnival hosted by Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project through the Green Moms Network. This month, our members took 1-2 weeks to explore a natural practice that they had yet to try. Today, they're going to tell you about their experience! Hopefully, you'll find some inspiration to try something new on one or more of the posts.
—–
This week I am participating in my first Natural Living Blog Carnival. Please come back next Thursday for Thrifty Home Improvement Part 2.
I've been reading the Natural Living Blog Carnival posts for about a year now and I finally decided to participate. I decided that since we already gave up our dryer (except for sheets since I can't figure out where I'd hang those), I would give up heat completely for laundry. For 2 weeks we washed all our clothes, including diapers, in cold water instead of a warm wash/cold rinse for clothes, and hot wash/cold rinse for diapers and we hung everything to dry (something we've been doing for about a year now).
I was a little, well a lot concerned, that the diapers wouldn't be clean since everyone stresses to use hot water to get them clean. We had no staining or stink problems. I'm happy to say that our clothes all appear to be just as clean as when we use warm or hot water. I haven't received our PG&E bill year, but I'm sure there will be a difference since we say a huge difference in our bill when we stopped using the dryer.
The one thing I had to be diligent about was making sure to wash one load of laundry every day. I only have room for one load to dry on the rack at a time. Sometimes if we need things, I've cheated and used the dryer, but for these 2 weeks I was committed to staying on top of our laundry and didn't cheat. (This is huge for me.)
—–
Visit Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project to learn more about participating in next month’s Natural Living Blog Carnival!
Please take some time to enjoy the posts our other carnival participants have contributed:
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...
we dont have a washer and dryer in our apartment so i handwash and dry diapers most of the time. hanging them out in the sun battles stink and bleaches stains, too :)
ReplyDeleteMiranda, I was the guest blogger for Kissed by the Moon during the Flats and Handwashing Challenge. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. The diapers were cleaner too.
DeleteHow awesome! I BET that power bill comes back way lower - even the smallest changes have saved us big bucks, and I'd consider this a BIG change! We've paid in the $100-200 range when others on our block with similarly sized homes are paying $400-600. AND you are doing something for the environment. Feels great, right? www.theeasternbay.com
ReplyDeleteWe just got it last night. It was $20 lower than last month. It would have been even lower if we hadn't needed the AC for a week when temperatures spiked to over 100
DeleteOh my, no dryer? that's amazing!!! I'd love to do that but I don't think it'd work where I live. It's too cold and things would probably mildew if I dried them indoors. I did a cold water only challenge for my first Natural Challenge (different group of bloggers). I did my diapers as well. I did have to switch to warm water when we were using high amounts of coconut oil for a bad rash but cold water is definitely the way to go!
ReplyDeleteI still dry towels and sheets in the dryer in the winter because they take too long inside. Everything else goes on the rack and usualky takes 24 hours to dry
DeleteI wash everything on Cold, but I can't bring myself to wash the diapers on cold. I don't think I could do the no dryer either. Great Job! I'm sure you saved a lot of $$$!
ReplyDeleteWe cut our bill in half when we stopped using the dryer. Changing to cold water saved us $20 even with our use of the AC.
DeleteWow! Good for you! I bet you will see a big difference in your bill.
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I've always used cold water on everything even the baby's things and I've never found it be less clean than when I was washing with warm water.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a clothesline! When we lived in Uruguay, we hung dry all of our clothes on the balcony since we didn't have a dryer. I need to switch back to cold water now that the weather is warm! During the winter the water gets so cold that it won't dissolve detergent well if I don't use warm.
ReplyDeleteWe have a really nice metal drying rack from Costco. I love that it collapses so I can store it easily when we have people over. It's outside on the patio when the weather is nice. In the fall and winter we put it in the dining room
DeleteI think some of the leaking problems people have are due to incorrect prep and washing so if you follow the directions and use the correct soap you shouldn't have a problem. When she is big enough for the mediums, I will buy them again. We have never had a problem with diaper rash. As you can tell, I'm happy with these and although the washing and stuffing the diapers is a little more work, we make it happen. We will soon be using cloth wipes because it won't be anymore work for us and better for our little girl!
ReplyDelete