Yoreganics Laundry To Go Travel Trio Review & Giveaway (CLOSED 2/22)

Feb 15,2011 / By Maria / 5 Comments

Yoreganics sells USDA organic personal care and laundry products including shave gel, lip balm, foaming wash, soap nuts, stain remover and brightener/whitener.

I received the travel size laundry trio, which is enough for 25 loads, and retails for $14.99. The set is also available in sample, medium, large and extra-large sizes. The travel set included a generous helping of soap nuts, a muslin bag, .41 oz stain remover spray, and two small baggies (6 oz.) of brightens & whitens.

Kim included a handwritten note, which was a really nice touch. I realize she probably isn’t able to do that for every order, but as a reviewer, it was really nice to get!

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Rockin Green Funk Rock & Mighty Mighty Marshmallow Classic Rock Review & Giveaway (CLOSED 11/30)

Nov 24,2010 / By Maria / 10 Comments

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In my opinion, wash routine and detergent are the biggest hurdle in cloth diapering. My personal motto is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” If you have a detergent and wash routine that are working for you, stick with it. After trying many different detergents, I’ve been using Tide powder, with an extra rinse and an occasional bleaching.

So why am I messing with it? I was sucked in by the new Rockin’ Green Funk Rock Ammonia Bouncer, thinking that maybe by using it, I could eliminate the monthly/semi-monthly bleaching. I decided to also buy a bag of the mighty mighty marshmallow classic rock detergent to use along with it. Lucky for you, I bought an extra bag of each to give away to a reader!

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Cloth Diaper Detergent – My Journey and my Opinion

Aug 26,2010 / By Maria / 14 Comments

>This may be long, but it’s very relevant and I want to get my entire story out there.

I’ve mentioned before that detergent is a hot button issue for me because it was the only thing that prevented me from cloth diapering earlier. So, I’ll start from the beginning.

When I chose the diapers I wanted to try, I knew I wanted to start with just a few to see how it went. I also knew that I needed a “safe” detergent. Googling led me to a chart with stars, that rated detergents based on their ingredients. The one I was looking at rated detergents from 1 to 4 red stars. None of the “4 star” detergents were available at any of our grocery stores, Target, Wal Mart, or anywhere else I could think to check.

So, I started looking into ordering some. At the time of my research, there were 4 or 5 detergents that I could order online, that had 4 red stars/thumbs up ratings. I eliminated the detergents that were reported to give babies burns, as well as those with so-so reviews.

Now, keep in mind that I’m ~~cheap~~ frugal, so my maximum price for detergent was $2.99 for a 32 load bottle, and I’d only pay that much if we desperately needed it. My “stock up” price was closer to free, or pennies.

A single bottle of the “thumbs up” detergent was about $12, then add shipping. I could potentially buy a case to bring the price per bottle down a bit, but yikes. All this for 3 diapers I didn’t even know if I’d like? So, that’s where it ended. I gave up on cloth diapering. I couldn’t make 3 diapers a $75 experiment.

When my son’s rashes (clearly caused by disposable diapers since they disappeared when we switched to cloth) were so bad that it hurt to look at, I decided I was going to do this darn it! One way or another.

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Naturoli Soap Nuts

Apr 26,2010 / By Maria / 5 Comments

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My friend Tonya is switching her household to all “green,” one week at a time. She’s writing in on Cafemom’s The Stir. Here is the post that prompted the one I’m writing right now! At the bottom of the post you can read the posts from prior weeks as well.

Anyhoo, when she bought her Naturoli soap nuts, she noticed that they were cloth diaper safe and offered to send me some. I’ve been using them on my cloth diapers for over three weeks now and I am so grateful to her for sending them to me!

What are soap nuts? They’re the dried husks of the soapberry. They contain saponin, which works as a natural surfactant. They can be used for a lot more than laundry as well.

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Rockin’ Green Detergent and Giveaway! CLOSED

Apr 6,2010 / By Maria / 238 Comments

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Detergent is one of the biggest obstacles when starting to or continuing to cloth diaper. In fact, it is the #1 reason I didn’t start at my son’s birth.

Believe it or not, detergent is a rather controversial subject. There are a few “cloth safe diaper detergent” charts out there that give detergents rankings based on whether they contain ingredients like dye, fragrance, brighteners, whiteners, enzymes and so forth.

Like so many others, I didn’t want to risk hurting my diapers, or my kid’s tushie. So, when I couldn’t find a “safe” detergent locally, I gave up. Then the detergent drama began. I managed to find one, but then I saw it was not safe on another chart. Round and round we went.

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