Blog Changes and Eco-Friendly Laundry Solutions

So i'm making some changes to my blog next year. I will be keeping a yearly grocery total, but I won't be blogging as detailed about the deals I get. Instead i'll be focusing more on eco-friendly, natural and organic living.

This year I think I have shown that couponing can shave you thousands of dollars every year on basic things you use. However, I have also seen how easy it is for couponers to get so caught up in getting good deals that they needlessly clear shelves and purchase items that they otherwise wouldn't to fill their stockrooms. So are you really saving money then?

This next year I will be incorporating natural, chemical free, eco-friendly living with couponing. You can still save amazing amounts of money by using coupons on natural organic cereal, cleaning supplies and good wholesome food products that are good for you and the environment.

Here's a snippet of just what kind of useful information I will be blogging about:

Eco-Friendly Laundry Solutions

Ever wonder what kinds of chemicals you are coating your clothes in when you wash and dry them every week. Chemical perfumes in laundry detergent, fabric softeners and especially dryer sheets, all coat your clothes with a layer of toxic chemicals. When you wear those clothes, your body moisture causes those chemicals to come into contact with your skin and be absorbed directly into your bloodstream.

After doing hours of research on laundry soap, fabric softener and dryer sheets I decided to make the switch to some more eco-friendly choices; soap nuts and wool dryer balls.

Soap Nuts (1 kg bag ($18), 300 loads): Soap Nuts are actually a fruit, taken from the soapberry tree. Thanks to their high concentration of foaming "saponin," soap nuts are used throughout the world as cleaning agents.
Saponin is the chemical compound that makes soap nuts "sud." When they come into contact with water the soap nuts "sud" giving the same kind of reaction detergents aim to create with their lab-created surfactants. Saponin naturally softens fabrics are well, therefore the added benefit to using soap nuts is that you no longer need to use fabric softener. Soap nuts also work very similar to vinegar as they neutralize the odour of clothes especially sweat and mildew (towels). Soap nuts can also be turned into a liquid detergent simply by boiling them.

Wool Dryer Balls ($18 per set of 4): I've been using dryer balls for about 5 years now and love how they reduce drying time and the static in my clothes. Mine were getting old so I decided to buy some new ones and ordered some handmade ones from an Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CleanSypria

Wool soaks up some of the moisture in your laundry as it dries, but then evenly distributes it into the air – helping your dryer stay humid longer, which exponentially reduces static cling. In addition, this “soaking and releasing” action makes your clothes dry faster. And all of these things together mean fewer wrinkles. Best of all they last up to 5 years!

If you like the smell of liquid fabric softners out there you are in luck. Wool dryer balls can be scented with natural/essential oils so that you still get that lovely out of dryer smell without all the chemicals. I chose: Pear&Rosewood, Apricot&Chamomile, Vanilla&Pomegrante and Bergamont&Yuzu.