Up for a Challenge?
I’m always up for a little challenge, whatever it may be. The past few weeks, I have been participating in a challenge. The challenge is to do all of our laundry in cold water using Seventh Generation laundry detergent, and line dry. Did I just say line dry? Yep, that’s right. I admit I was a bit intimidated at first. The last memory I have of line drying was my mom doing it when I was little….outside. I’m all about convenience and am a bit of a creature of habit, so I knew this would definitely be a real challenge.

First 15 Days
The challenge is 30 days long. I’ve been going a few days over 15 at this point. There are a couple of things that have been hard for me to get used to. The first is washing everything in cold. I generally wash my darks in cold, whites and lights in warm, and towels, dishcloths and sheets in hot. To be honest, I’m not sure why I wash my towels in hot, other than I remember reading somewhere that it is more effective at killing dust mites. The other reason that I was my whites in warmer water is because it seems to get stains out better. Even though I’m used to washing clothes this way, I started washing everything in cold. I was glad to be doing it after reading this statistic:

If the average family washed their laundry in cold water and dried it on a clothesline, they could save almost $200 a year. If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of traditional 100 oz. concentrate laundry liquid with a 100 oz. concentrate plant-derived product, like Seventh Generation, we could save 466,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 26,800 U.S. homes for a year

Not only does that quote address how cold water can save you money, it also lets you know that by using an eco friendly plant derived detergent, you can do your part to save a lot of oil. It seems like there are a lot of pros to washing in cold. On average, I do about 10 loads of laundry a week for our family of 4. I started looking for any noticable difference in our clothing or towels, and really I didn’t notice anything. I have yet to have any really bad stains to try to get out, so I’ll let you know how that goes down during the rest of the challenge if I get a bad one.

As far as the line drying goes, I’m honestly having a hard time. I feel like I’m a bit pressed for time between work, home, and church. There have been times during this challenge where I have thrown a load of laundry in the dryer because I needed an article of clothing then, and I couldn’t wait for it to line dry. I’m also finding that I’m having to drag out my iron more with line drying, and the indoor rack we have takes up a lot of space. I keep telling myself that our electric bill will go down this month if I just keep trying! I’ve been keeping a small video log along with this challenge, so if you are interested, watch below!

I’m interested to see how the rest of this challenge pans out. Want to win a Seventh Generation laundry pack to get going on your own green challenge? Then be sure to enter on this post! A random winner will be selected and and announced at the end of my 30 day challenge.

Win It
One Babes and Kids reader will win Seventh Generation Laundry Pack which includes: Seventh Generation Natural 2x Concentrated Laundry Liquid (good for 66 loads of laundry), portable laundry line, clothes pins, and laundry basket.

Here’s How to Enter: (This entry is mandatory)

  • Do you wash your clothes in cold water or line dry? Why or why not?

Additional Entries

  • Tweet about this giveaway. – 2 entries
  • Subscribe to my feed via e-mail – 2 entries
  • Follow me – 2 entries
  • Comment on any non giveaway post that you haven’t previously commented on – 2 entries
  • Become a fan of Babes and Kids on Facebook – 2 entries

Please leave each entry as a separate comment. Contest is open to US residents and will end at 11:59 MST on June 21st. Winner will be drawn via random.org and has 48 hours to respond to winning e-mail or prize will be forfeited and given away in a live giveaway.

Seventh Generation and My Blog Spark provided materials needed for this Laundry Challenge.   I received Seventh Generation laundry detergent, a portable clothes line, laundry basket, clothes pin, and a Flip Camera to help faciliate this challenge.  All opinions remain 100% mine.

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