Have you experienced something like this… “I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but I remember the day many years ago when I was cleaning the shower in my childhood home (as a teen the bathroom duties were my assignment) and wondered what exactly I was cleaning with. I knew the colors and shapes of the different bottles I grabbed from under the kitchen sink where we stored our arsenal of household cleaning products. I knew their distinct smells (which I had grown up associating with the smell of “clean.”), and knew a light-headed sensation was sure to follow. I even knew their individual superpowers (the blue one left the mirrors streak-free, the foamy one made the porcelain glisten). But what were they?”
“What was in them? How did they do what they did? I pored over the label looking for the ingredients and found nothing but a crude list of warnings. Do not take internally. Flammable. Warning. Keep away from children. The last one struck me. I’d been using those products for years to help my mom keep the house clean (it was largely due to me and my brothers whenever it got dirty). I knew the warning was aimed at preventing small children from drinking the stuff, and I only started using it when I was old enough to know better, but it still seemed counter intuitive. These products were meant for use all over the house. Every surface and textile was regularly sprayed, wiped, rinsed, or rubbed with one of these chemical concoctions. If they were as toxic as their labels implied, why were we using them where we ate, bathed, slept and played?”
“At that moment, I began to understand the big picture of chemicals in everyday products and the secrets manufacturers would prefer we didn’t know. Secrets of how they get us to shell out billions of dollars annually for products that really don’t serve our best interests.”~ Christopher Gavigan, of HealthyChild.org 
My first personal experience with a product with a warning on the label came as a shock to me… I was 5 years old at the time and couldn’t read, my mother asked me to keep an eye on my younger siblings while she stepped outside to tend to something for a few minutes. No sooner did mom walk out the door and my brother went to the attic staircase, opened the door and then proceeded to climb the steps and take the white bottle (the white colored bottle was bleach).
No damages were done, but when mom came back into the house “I” got into BIG trouble! I was 5, I didn’t really know how to control other children and I also didn’t have a clue as to how toxic bleach was. I wondered how something that seemed so innocent, a white bottle, could have been so bad. I remembered that day and for many years made numerous attempts to understand ‘why’ something that helped make our laundry clean could make mom freak out.
Which, even though I got into a GREAT deal of trouble when my brother got hold of the bleach, it was the infancy of a lifelong hobby… of questioning “what’s really in it!?”
When I was 12, I was listening to the radio and Ralph Nader was speaking about chemicals on our foods and how it was legal for farmers to use these poisons on food e ate, and how companies could make products for consumers to use daily that were ruining our health. It was then that I first discovered that I only knew a tiny piece of the big picture. I was stunned that our government and other regulatory enforcers allowed this to happen, I thought they were suppose to be watching out for us!
I’m sure you have a story too, I think we all have one.
Maybe like myself you’ve spent time over the years searching for products that didn’t have labels that warn us of ‘some’ of the possible harm an innocent looking product can cause. My biggest bug-a-boo is the products that have quite harmless sounding names, like Scrubbing Bubbles, Downy, Purell, Glade, and Bounce – to name just a few.
For instance, there are even people who seek out alternative ways to use products, such as dryer sheets (#7 suggests scrubbing your dog or cats, especially wet ones) with a dryer sheet before they come back into the house!)
And… last year, the Bounce Everywhere campaign donated $10,000 to the ASPCA (who says it’s a “fun way to help support our mission.”) It’s part of a bid to promote dryer sheet usage by pet owners that goes by the slogan, “Share the love, not the hair!” Bounce’s Make Your Pet Sing. However, the Merck Veterinary Manual seems to think this isn’t such a great idea… YIKES!!!
Has anyone noticed that our children are getting diseases that kids years ago rarely got?
Or, that our pets are in as equally poor health compared to the pets my generation had when we were kids?
There’s a reason for many of these illnesses and I can summarize it all up into about one whole word… “POISONS.” Ralph was right, no one was really looking out for us then or now, some put on a good show, and some are trying to get things changed. The unfortunate fact still remains, marketing and profits reign. The Dirty Dozen: 12 products You Should Avoid
Some may already know how I feel about dryer sheets, if you don’t know – I find it appalling that they are allowed to be manufactured. I find it hard to believe that people, if they knew there were other choices, safer choices, would discontinue use those stinky little sheets.
Make Your Own Dryer Sheets – Super Easy!
Choose your favorite Young Living Essential Oil, get an old wash cloth and dampen it, put 2-4 drops of your essential oil on it and toss it into the dryer with your laundry. You cannot get any more all-natural than that.
That’s how easy it is!
Some of my favorite Young Living essential oils for making my own dryer sheets are:
- Thieves (17 cents a drop)
- Purification (costs 9 cents a drop)
- Citrus Fresh (costs 7 cents a drop)
- Christmas Spirit (costs 9 cents a drop)
- Abundance (costs 17 cents a drop)
- Lavender (costs 11 cents a drop)
- Sensation (costs 45 cents a drop – nice romantic scent for lingerie!)
There are approx. 250 drops per 15ml bottle, 80 drops per 5ml bottle.
(Note: the cost would be 24% less if you’re a wholesale customer or distributor)
The cost of using superior quality essential oils is priceless!
Is Static Cling a Problem?
Static cling occurs when fabric is ‘over-dried.’
To solve the problem:
Turn the temp down on your dryer and/or shorten the length of time. You’ll have to play around a bit to find the point that works well for your dryer – it’s well worth the small effort. You’ll save time, money, your clothing, your health and the environment.
Dryers Catch on Fire!
If all of the above isn’t enough to make you stop using dryer sheets forever, consider that the combination of lint in your dryer vent and particles from dryer sheets are a fire hazard!
Dryer fires are rather common. They occur when the vent gets trapped with lint, and particles from dryer sheets; some appliance manufacturers even advise NOT to use dryer sheets for this reason!
When the vent gets clogged hot air cannot escape and builds up. Then the lint in the vent gets too hot and poof, fire occurs.
The daugther of a friend home burned down this past spring from a dryer fire, she and her kids lost everything.
The exact same thing happened at an apartment my son was living at years ago, his next door neighbor put laundry in the dryer and went out to run a few errands nearby. Fortunately, my son was out on his back porch and happened to notice that smoke was filling up in the apartment next door and he quick phoned the fire department. If he wasn’t home, he and his wife and two kids would have lost everything too.
3 Tips to Prevent Dryer Fires in Your Home
- Don’t use dryer sheets.
- Clean your dryer vent regularly. Here’s a Bob Vila video showing how to properly clean your dryer vent.
- Do NOT use the white plastic dryer vents, the aluminum colored ones are safer.
Laundry Trivia
In 1998 The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History mounted an exhibition titled “American Clothespins,” which consisted in part of displays of patent models of clothespins from as long ago as the 1850s. People came in droves. Those old wooden pegs inspired a huge outpouring of nostalgia. Then one day Barbara Janssen, the curator behind the exhibition, was walking through the museum and saw a boy turn to his father and ask, “What’s a clothespin, Dad?”
It’s no wonder the child had never seen one before. Nearly 60 percent of American homes are now equipped with clothes dryers. It’s in the shadow of the dryer that quaint old clothespins and clothespin doll kits turn up on auction at eBay. The device has become so superfluous that Janssen herself, the leading expert on its evolution, has no use for it beyond its appeal as a collector’s item. She once purchased a pack with playful flowershaped heads at Target, but not to hang garments with. When asked if she has a clothesline, she replies, “Of course not. I use a dryer.”
And let us not neglect the clothesline to hold the laundry and clothespins!
Related Articles:
Bacteria Talk Between Species: those tough little bugger’s
Essential Oils Can Help with Acne
Ways to Use Essential Oils and Thieves Household Cleaner Around the Home
Evelyn Vincent
Articles by Evelyn Vincent, Young Living Independent Distributor #476766
Helping families make informed choices!
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"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly." ~ R. Buckminster Fuller
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