People ask me often where to start in swapping out traditional products for safer, cleaner options to be more toxin-free. My answer is always to start with the top three worst household products we use…these will be the simplest and have the most immediate bang for your buck. And this hack to triple my favorite laundry soap is a “recipe” people often ask me for, so I figured I should get it up on the blog to make it easy!
A few years ago I ran across a 15-year study1 reporting that women who stay home or work from home have a 54% higher chance of dying from cancer. What?! As someone who’s worked from home for almost 14 years, that caught my attention! The EPA also found that toxic chemicals in household cleaners are three times more likely to cause cancer than outdoor air pollution2. 2,983 chemicals were analyzed in personal care products and they found:
- 884 are toxic
- 146 can cause tumors
- 218 can cause reproductive complications
- 778 cause acute toxicity
- 314 can cause biological mutations
- 376 can cause skin and eye irritations
Yikes, right? These are in regular, everyday products at our favorite stores with no warning labels. Which means they are also all over our homes. So if you can start by swapping out three big offenders with things that are safe, plant-based and actually work, then why not?! My recommendation is start by replacing (1) household cleaners, (2) synthetic fragrances (room sprays, plug-ins, wax warmers, candles, etc.), and (3) laundry detergent. Thieves Cleaner concentrate and essential oils/diffusers have been my easy solution for the first two. You can learn more about those HERE.
Laundry Soap
Once I decided I wanted to replace our old Tide, I tried A LOT of natural laundry detergents. A. Lot. Thieves Laundry Soap is definitely my fave! Like Thieves Cleaner, it’s a concentrate so one small bottle will do 64 regular loads or 128 loads if you have a high efficiency washer like me. It’s easy, I love the scent, and it was the only one that kept my clothes from smelling dingy/musty later on.
Did you know you can actually stretch one bottle into 3 bottles of laundry detergent?! It’s TOTALLY not necessary to dilute the Thieves Laundry Soap and for years I didn’t. Why add extra work if you don’t need to, right?! But once I tried this hack to turn one bottle into three, I loved it so much that I’ve been doing it ever since! If you’re really looking to stretch your dollar, this is for you, friend! (If you don’t have these ingredients, I have a bundle HERE were you can snag my favorites!)
Ingredients
- 10.5 oz Thieves Laundry Soap (or 1/3 of the bottle)
- 2 cap fulls of Thieves Household Cleaner concentrate
- Filtered water
- Optional: essential oils
- You can find them all HERE
Directions
I make this in a 32 oz. pump bottle, but you can also make directly in your Thieves Laundry bottle and just set aside the extra for later. I have THESE clear glass bottles with black pumps and THESE with clear pumps. I also love THESE in amber glass.
Side note. Can we talk for a sec about old-school label makers? I have THIS inexpensive one and I’m obsessed with labeling all the things! My laundry soap, diffuser blends, notebooks, pantry items, room sprays, school supplies. Pretty much anything I can think of!
If you’re using an empty pump bottle, you will add 1/3 of the bottle (10.5 oz) of Thieves Laundry Soap, 2 cap fulls of Thieves Household Cleaner, and fill the rest of the way with water. I find that adding warm water helps everything mix together faster. Adding essential oils is optional, but I LOVE the combo of lemon and bergamot. I add 5 drops of each to mine. Lemon adds a cleaning boost and bergamot just smells happy, bright and fresh. Peppermint is also a great option (especially for stanky clothes).
If you’re making it in your existing Thieves Laundry Soap bottle, just pour 2/3 of the bottle out into a jar and store it for later. Then mix the rest of your ingredients right in your Thieves bottle.
Once the lid is on, I just turn the bottle upside down a few times slowly until everything is all mixed together.
I use about 1 Tablespoon per load, which ends up only costing about $0.20 per load!! The best part is I absolutely love this laundry soap! 
You can grab my favorites for this recipe, as well as toxin-free DIY fabric softener, HERE!
Dryer Sheets Replacement
They say dryer sheets are one of the worst things in our laundry rooms. They work by coating our clothes, sheets, and towels and apparently that coating isn’t very good for us or our kiddos. Luckily, the swap is easy and cheap!
All you need is a set of wool dryer balls. I have THIS set of 6 organic wool dryer balls and you can’t beat that price! They reduce drying time (which means savings on your electric bill), they last a couple of years so you aren’t spending money replacing dryer sheets, and they are totally non-toxic! I just leave mine in the dryer when I’m not using them. You can also add a few drops of essential oils as a scent booster in your dryer (I find this works best the last 10 minutes of the dryer cycle).
If you prefer a liquid fabric softener, it’s super easy to DIY. Just mix 2 cups water, 1 cup distilled vinegar, 1/2 cup toxin-free conditioner (I prefer the Lavender-Mint included in my non-toxic laundry bundle HERE) and essential oils for scent (I don’t add extra oils when I use the Lavender-Mint condition, since it already smells ah-mazing!). Boom, done!
Bonus Stain Stick Recipe
Okay, this really doesn’t even count as a recipe. 😂 But it’s another one of my toxin-free laundry necessities and could not be easier! All you need is your Thieves Cleaner, a 10 ml roller bottle like THIS, and a little filtered water. Just fill the roller bottle half with Thieves Cleaner and the rest with water. BOOM! Done! Seriously the best. I keep one in my laundry room and one in my purse. I’ve used this to remove all kinds of stains…even black crayon from a white table cloth!
Easy, right? Save this for later, because you’ll love it! If you want to learn more about toxin-free living and swapping out products, I have a FREE Easy Guide to Toxin-Free Living PDF that you can download when you subscribe HERE.
I don’t DIY everything, because busy mom life. But these are easy and worth it!
XO, Kelli
P.S. Unrelated, but I’m obsessed with Turkish dish and hand towels. THESE are my favorite from Olive & Linen for my kitchen and I love supporting a small business!
1 Presented at the Toronto Indoor Air Conference, more HERE
2 More on this one and other similarly alarming studies and stats HERE
