The Honest Company: 4 in 1 Laundry Packs

June 01, 2016 by Housewife's Whimsy in Natural Home, Special Occasion

photo courtesy of thehonestcompany.com Today I thought I would review The Honest Company’s 4 in 1 Laundry Packs. I’ve been using them now for several months and feel like I finally have a completely formulated opinion on this product that I’d like to share with you, my readers!If you’ve followed the blog for a while you’ll know that back when I first started the blog I posted a recipe for homemade laundry detergent. This is a recipe I’ve been making and using for years and I really do love it. However, I’ve been getting progressively busier over the last year between work and all the Theater related things I do. So when I ran out of laundry detergent this spring I didn’t really have time to go through all the steps to make more right then. I decided to look for a green/non-toxic laundry detergent that was easy to use. After some research, I settled on the 4 in 1 Laundry Packs from The Honest Company.You may have heard about the Honest Company recently, they’ve been under fire for using toxic chemicals (that they swear they don’t use) in a couple of their products. These laundry packs though are a powdered formula, so they are not in the contaminated products category.One thing that drew me to these laundry pods was the fact they scored so well on the EWG. I really wanted a product that was actually going to clean my clothes but wasn’t going to have a lot of skin irritants in it. Way back, when I started making my own laundry detergent right after college, the main reason was the fact that a lot of the “cheaper” detergents made my skin itchy and irritated but I didn’t have a lot of expendable income to purchase high-quality detergent. I found that when I made my own detergent I didn’t have those issues so I’ve been making it ever since! Since these pods don’t have much in the way of skin irritating ingredients though I haven’t had any issues with using these to clean our clothes.The one complaint I have about these pods is that the film doesn’t always dissolve completely and sometimes it created large buildup spots on our clothes. However, if I simply wash them again in a less full washer (I have a tendency to overfill the washer) the dried on detergent will go away.Alex swears that these don’t clean as well. However, I think it mainly has to do with the fact our clothes don’t come out of the wash smelling like a perfume factory. They come out smelling like absolutely nothing, which I think is fantastic.One other thing to watch is the cost of these. You can purchase a pack of 50 pods for about $16 directly from them. If you purchase these from VitaCost you will actually pay slightly less than you would directly through the Honest Company. However, if you already subscribe to their bundle service you can add one package of these for no extra cost to your bundle which makes it very economical.I will probably continue to purchase these pods since they are very convenient and do the job, I’m sure at some point I’ll go back to making my own laundry soap since it is so much more economical to do so. These though are great for the time being when I don't really have extra time to deal with making my own soap.

Homemade Dryer Sheets

January 21, 2015 by Housewife's Whimsy in DIY Ideas, Natural Home

In my quest to find more ways to save money I decided that I wanted to do something about my dryer sheet problem. They were just so expensive I was having a hard time justifying purchasing them. So after I made my own laundry detergent I decided to try my hand at dryer sheets.I was skeptical at first that this would actually work, but wikihow knows its stuff! This softener is economical to make and will last you a very long time, especially if you are just making dryer sheets. I can’t speak to how it works in the laundry since I never actually use fabric softener in my loads.The dryer sheets work just as well, if not better than the store bought ones. I also really love the fact that I can use one sheet in more than one load.

Homemade Fabric Softener:6 Cups Water3 Cups Vinegar2 Cups Conditioner OPTIONAL: 25-50 Drops of Essential Oils that compliment your scentMix ingredients being careful not to make suds. Store in an airtight container.If you want to add this straight to your wash use about ¼ of a cup per load. You can use any type of conditioner you have on hand. You also do not need to use the essential oils, they will simply intensify the scent of the softener. (I used Suave Rosemary Mint conditioner and Rosemary/Peppermint EO’s because I saw the scent combination on another blog and thought it would be good.) If you’re looking for an unscented dryer sheet just use an unscented conditioner and don’t add the oils.

Homemade Dryer Sheets:Squares of fabric – These can be washcloths, small squares of fabric or just about anything you have on handHomemade Fabric Softener Soak the squares of fabric in the softener.Squeeze out so they are just damp.Let them sit out until they are completely dry.Use as normal in your dryer. One sheet will last you approximately 12-15 loads. I’ve used extra homemade potholders that I had on hand. They were the right size and easy to use. I’ve also found that adding a safety pin to the dryer sheet helps prevent static cling!

Homemade Laundry Detergent (Powdered)

November 21, 2014 by Housewife's Whimsy in DIY Ideas, Natural Home

Several years ago after I had just graduated college I started making my own laundry detergent. I was sick and tired of purchasing expensive detergent and I wanted something less expensive since I had just begun working full time and money was tight. After looking through several detergent recipes I came up with one that I enjoyed.When I recently made this the total cost was about $25.00. The amount of detergent this makes will last Hubby and I about two years. We do about 8-10 loads of laundry every two weeks. This means that we will get approximately 400 loads of laundry out of this recipe making our final price per load around $0.06. I would say that’s not a bad price for a load of laundry! The detergent I was purchasing before tended to be between $0.11 and $0.22 per load. As you can see it is much more cost efficient for me to make my own.Now you may wonder how it does on extra grimy clothes. Hubby does a lot of work on the car and other household projects. We’ve always been happy with the way this detergent cleans and it always seems to get his extra greasy or dirty clothes back to squeaky clean. For extra bad stains you may want to pretreat. Since it does not suds at all it is ok to use in an HE washer.

Ingredients:1 (4lb 12oz) Box of Borax1 (3lb 7oz) Box of Super Washing Soda1 (3lb) Container of Oxy Clean2 (14.1oz) Bars Fels Naptha Soap (Zote Soap will also work)4 (1lb) Boxes Baking Soda1 (55oz) Bottle of Purex CrystalsDirections:Grate the Fels Naptha bars (I use my food processor to do this). Combine all of the ingredients well and store in an airtight container. I use the leftover Purex bottle to store the detergent for easy access and I refill it from the airtight container when it’s empty. I use about a half a Purex cap for a normal load, and a full cap for Hubby’s overly dirty work clothes.

I’ve used both the Oxy Clean brand and the Target brand Oxy Clean for this recipe and have not noticed a difference in the cleanliness of our clothes. I will probably use the Target brand again since it is considerably less expensive.The only downside to making your own detergent is that you don’t really get that overly fresh clean laundry scent. I have found our clothes to be pretty scentless when I’m done. However, that is something I am willing to give up for the savings when I make my own.