Use less product

17 years ago

Seriously, guys. I'm consistently shocked at the overwhelming majority of products that can be used in amounts MUCH smaller than most of us are used to, and still work fine. And consistently surprised at how many people DON'T know this.

My frontloading washer is pretty dang water-efficient, true, and the recommendations for soap aren't huge amounts in the first place. But I only need about a teaspoon of detergent to get stuff clean. A TEAspoon. A quart jug of laundry liquid lasts us months. Now, maybe your washer uses more water than mine and therefore needs more soap. That's fine; My last washer was a behemoth that took a whopping two tablespoons of soap per load. That's one EIGHTH of a cup, contrasted with the half or third of a cup the product bottles recommended. I don't use fabric softener, but I've been told that using half as much of that works fine, and half a dryer sheet at a time too.

I think we all know that you don't need to glob an inch of toothpaste on your brush. Just a tiny smear is fine.

Shampoo and body wash are actually BETTER for your hair and skin (less drying) if you cut them at least half-and-half with water. Keep an old bottle of each so that when the new bottle comes in you can dilute it right away and have it handy. My experience is that the preservatives in the products are plenty to keep even the watered-down version from going bad. If you're worried, mix smaller batches at a time.

(And you know that if you have long hair, you don't shampoo the whole long length of it, right? You need a nickel-to-quarter-sized blob of shampoo for your scalp, which then gets rinsed down through the rest of your hair. You don't need crazy lather to get your hair clean.)

I personally use a mixture of one part Dr Bronner's liquid soap to 6 parts water or so, as body wash. If I use it on my hair, which I sometimes do, it's more like one part soap to twelve parts water.

Aftershave and mouthwash dilute fine too.

Conditioner, sadly, doesn't take kindly to being diluted, but if you prefer to cut down on the cost of it or on the petrochemical ingredients in it, you can mix two parts conditioner to one part honey and/or one part pure aloe juice. This has to be used up right away, as bacteria will breed in the extra sugars.

Storebought house cleaning products work fine diluted half and half or even 2:1. Or, use Dr Bronner's liquid soap or a generic equivalent (Trader Joe's makes one). You only need a teaspoon of soap to a quart of water.

We use so few products here anyway that I'm sure I'm missing at least a few. Any other experiences with products you can routinely use less of than the label calls for? REDUCE does come first in the "reduce, reuse, recycle" triad for a reason, after all.

Kristin

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Comments (21)

scrappyjack
17 years ago
I just bought a front loading washer too. And with the 5 of us, I only wash when the washer is full. and it took me forever to figure out how much soap to use. For a full load it takes me about a third of a cup at the MOST.
As for dryer sheets, those can be used about 3 times over and only as needed. I use them only when my loads start to get static-y.

We also use body wash, instead of bar soap only because my kids would leave the soap in the tub and it would melt into a horrible mess. But there too I know that it is reccomended that a dime size portion be used, but I think my husband uses about a quarter size amount.
I am good about using just a bit of toothpaste, but I can't break the habit of letting the water run while I brush.

On the topic of use less products, how about useless products......Swiffer pads, disposable spongy toilet bowl cleaners, clorox wipes....etc....

Jackie
flora_uk
17 years ago
I agree on the manufacturers' recommended quantities. After all they want to sell as much as possible. I take it further and don't bother with either fabric softener or conditioner. And I'm not sure what a dryer sheet is. I have a clothes line outdoors and a drying rack indoors. No electricity and no products to buy. No, I'm not a Luddite or a martyr - I have a washing machine but the line involves no extra work apart from a little bending and stretching which is good for me. The wind comes free. Seems like a win-win.
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girlndocs
Original Author
17 years ago
Those swiffer pads are something else. I actually have a Swiffer, and the Clorox equivalent of the Swiffer WetJet (I bought the Clorox one because it doesn't take a battery ... come on ... a floor mop that takes a battery?).

I like both of them a lot and they're extremely handy, but I use them with pieces of old towel I pop in the wash afterwards. I noticed in particular that the Clorox wet-mop pads were absolutely useless! All they did was smear the wet dirt around. The best mopping cloths I've found are old diapers; but not just any diapers, they have to be the diamond/birdseye weave. Something about that weave really scrubs the floor clean.

If you buy the Swiffer type "starter kits" you can wash and reuse the dry-mopping cloths that come with it up to 4 times. You have to air dry them, though, or they melt.

Speaking of conditioner, it's really a pointless waste for short hair. Mine is long, though, and I do use conditioner, but I minimize it by not washing my hair more than twice a week. I also don't need gel, hairspray or mousse and I noticed when I did use them that aside from gluing my hair into place, they usually did the opposite of what I bought them for -- "extra body" products weighed my hair down and made it flatter, so I quit using them.

Kristin
aachenelf z5 Mpls
17 years ago
I stopped using fabric softeners and dryers sheets years ago. I just couldn't stand the oily residue they left on the clothes and skin. I can't imagine that stuff is good for you.

Try vinegar for a hair rinse. Sounds awful, but I've really learned to like the way it makes my hair feel. If you Google "vinegar for hair" you'll find lots of info about the benefits.

K
macbirch
17 years ago
The things I've never used! Fabric softener, dryer sheets, hair conditioner. I'm bad with shampoo though. I know I don't need to make huge amounts of suds for it to work but after a day spent working in the garden it feels so good.Maybe that's why I haven't been working in the garden so much lately. I know I'll want that bad bad long shower and I'll use lots of DS's expensive shampoo.
lyk71
17 years ago
I totally hear you all on the dryer sheets. I stopped using them after my pediatrician said they might be the reason why my kids have such dry itchy skin. A little static is no big deal.
I'll definitely try to less detergent in the washer. I hate buying huge jugs and boxes of that stuff.
green_jen
17 years ago
Clearly none of you work for a major consumer goods corporation. Imagine the bonus that the person who thought to add the word 'repeat' to shampoo instructions got!
katrs5
17 years ago
I use little washing detergent, but I also have hard water, which I believe means I should use less. My gram never used more than 1/2 the recommended, so I follow suit, but use even less.

Gram cut dryer sheets in half (Gosh, when I think of the grief I caused her over stuff like this)...I do that or more often, don't use at all.

I don't use store bought cleaners. I use vinegar, borax, ammonia, bleach (sparingly), water, and baking soda. Works for us. I started looking into this b/c our puppy has allergies. I read up on how cleaners can be a huge issue for allergic dogs. This has really been a great help. (Although, sometimes my husband says the kitchen smells like a salad bowl). Anyways, I dilute it ALL - so a $1 box of baking soda or jug of vinegar lasts forever.

I need to cut down on shampoo/soaps. Good tips on that. My hubby is ultra wasteful in that area. I've read that instead of liquid soap, you can use bubble bath....it's cheaper, so I may try that with him.
girlndocs
Original Author
17 years ago
It's cheaper, but not necessarily more green: bubble bath usually being made with petrochemical detergents, whereas real liquid soap is, well, soap, and vegetable or animal based.

Also if it's cheaper, and you feel OK about using your current amount or even more of it because of that, the packaging and transportation waste isn't addressed.

Kristin
steve_o
17 years ago
I use little washing detergent, but I also have hard water, which I believe means I should use less.

Actually, hard water often requires you to use more detergent/soap, because the minerals in the water inhibit some of the ingredients in the detergent/soap. The big secret with modern detergents, though, is that you don't have to see oodles of bubbles to know it's working. In fact, in many washing machines, too many bubbles are a bad thing (it makes the water pump work harder).
aerion
16 years ago
I'm actually disgusted with the manufacturers of detergents and shampoos (one of the same). They keep making the liquids more and more toxic by adding more and more chemicals when In fact I want something really mild for my scalp that smells like a flower (a real flower) and not some petrochemical. They are making it so that you cannot any longer get the chemical smell out of the clothes. Hence you have to buy new clothes. I don't like the marketing trickery they use these days. For I cannot tolerate those chemicals and get very sick. It's a dangerous game they're playing with my health.
steve_o
16 years ago
It's a dangerous game they're playing with my health.

These days, there is no one to advocate for you but you. There are mass-market detergents that do not contain (detectable) fragrances or bleaching/softening/coloring additives. Natural-food stores (and better supermarkets in larger metropolitan areas) sell vegetable-based detergents which also come free of fragrances and colors and minimize the use of "strange" ingredients.

If, indeed, the chemicals in the cheap mass-market brands of detergent cause you health problems, you certainly can write the manufacturers of those products and the management of your local store and express your unhappiness. But then you have to do the one thing that everyone in capitalist societies understands: vote with your money. Buy a product that works for you and don't settle for the product that doesn't.
bry84
16 years ago
I stopped using special toilet cleaners years ago. They're extremely wasteful and run out fast. They also have a tendency to stain the toilet crazy colours if you leave them on too long. A teaspoon of multipurpose detergent or washing up liquid scrubbed around works great, and a bottle lasts ages.

I don't mix detergent in water when I wash the floors, I just pour half a cap on the floor and scrub it around with a damp mop before washing it off. It works better because it's not so dilute, and it uses very little product.
aok27502
16 years ago
If you want the effect of conditioner with less product, make your own "leave in" conditioner. It's simply a greatly watered down version of the original. Use about 1 tablespoon of your favorite in 12 oz of distilled water. Spray it on your damp hair, comb in and style as usual. A bottle of store bought conditioner will last forever.
brendan_of_bonsai
15 years ago
Aftershave and mouthwash depend on a concentration of alcohol so if you dilute them you loose efficacy, they have enough EtOH to kill bacteria and with half as much they don't do their job (the one you cannot possibly gauge with your own faculties) a quarter as well.
gatormomx2
15 years ago
I read in the book " Urawaza - Do Everything Better - Secret everyday tips and tricks from Japan " by Lisa Katayama that mouthwash makes a good toilet bowl cleaner . I tried it and was pleased with the results . Smelled good too .
She also recommended when a bar of soap shrinks to a size too small to use simply stick the soap in the microwave and watch it grow back to a usable size . Doesn't say how long or what power . When my soap shrinks I plan to try this - very carefully !
Less is most definitely more !
roseyp8255
15 years ago
I am working on the green angle myself - slowly but surely - both in the yard with compost and recycling as well as inside. I have started using Arbonne products for my hair/shower/skin b/c they are botanically based (and of course great for my skin LOL) - and am working on the indoor cleanign products - i use bleach and vinegar a lot. i too use less than recommended on laundry, etc.
girlndocs
Original Author
15 years ago
Hmm, some interesting stuff about Arbonne here.

Kristin

Here is a link that might be useful: Unfavorable Arbonne review
lorna-organic
15 years ago
Trader Joe's has a product line called Spa shampoo and conditioner. The price is about $2.50 per bottle. There is no sodium laureth (laurel)--great product. A little bit of either goes a long way.

A fifty-fifty mix of hydrogen peroxide and water makes a good bacteria killing mouthwash. One can brush teeth with baking soda, or salt, instead of toothpaste. Many toothpastes have sugar in them. How silly is that?!

Hydrogen peroxide helps to clean gunk out of crevices around kitchen counters where the sink attaches to the counter and around faucets. It helps to break down mineral deposits behind the sink where water sprays on my formica counter. It also does a good job on tile around bathroom sinks, and helps to brighten white grout. Pour it on and let it work for about ten minutes, then wipe dry with an old towel. The tiles gleam!

Lorna
organic_flutterby
15 years ago
I totally agree with your original post Kristin. I have always thought that the recommended amount of this or that was way overboard, probably so you will run out sooner and have to buy more. I have been wary of using harsh chemicals for anything, but especially for close contact stuff like detergents, softeners, household cleaners, etc. One of the things I would like to replace with something more natural is deodorant. Anybody have something that works well? I have never tried the Dr Bronner brand, is it good? I make my own soap for personal use and I love it, I wish I could come up with a good shampoo though.

Katrs5, I use the same stuff as you do for household cleaning. I'm not much into the bleach either. I have used H2O2 in the laundry for pretty good results. It is better in the environment than bleach.

The best thing of all is that when you make your own stuff and use your own common sense about store bought stuff and all the hype that goes with it, you get such a feeling of independence and freedom. When I first broke away from believing I needed everything "they" said I did, I felt like I discovered a well-kept secret. It was liberating.
mamato3
15 years ago
deodorant: vodka, witch hazel, or rubbing alcohol. Just wet a cotton ball and apply. *poof*

Use less product

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