Keeping the Kid Clean.....

When it comes to chores I’ve always been the kind of person who likes to have life made a little bit easier and to get it done quickly and that is how I’ve made it to the ripe old age of 30 (I’m aware 30 isn’t that old but I’m still in mourning for my 20’s) doing laundry by the chuck it all in method and hoping for the best. Up to press I’ve never really had any major catastrophes, unless you count shrinking Ants favourite Tshirt once and turning the lining of J’s beautiful Gruffalo snowsuit a murky brown because I didn’t use a colour catcher as disasters. However. Now that J is in school and I’ve just had to sell one of my very poorly functioning kidneys in order to fund kitting him out I guess I best start being a grown up and doing this laundry thing properly in order to prolong the life of his uniform. That means separating my darks from my lights in order to keep his lovely white shirts white rather than grey and gloomy. My grandmother did also mention I will have to start ironing! And so I had to go sit in a dark room and rock to console myself at the thought, I haven’t quite forgiven her for upsetting me yet.

Getting J dressed can be a task in itself. If he was given the choice as to what to wear he would be dressed as a superhero 24/7 or completely naked so in order to try and make our morning routine a little bit smoother and take away the chaos that would ensue from “where is your jumper?” type conversations I introduce the DRAWERS OF DOOM.

The drawers of doom consist of 5 drawers labelled Monday to Friday and each drawer contains a full days uniform - vest, undies, socks, shirt, jumper and trousers. Now some may find it a little excessive to have fresh on every day especially with Jake only being in school for 2.5 hours at the moment. However my son could be in a pure white empty room and end up mucky. The fact he drops to the floor during melt downs no matter where we are mean his trousers get dirty, he misses his mouth 9 times out of 10 when eating, he’s a grim boy who despite having tissue available wipes his nose on his sleeve and then there’s just the typical actions of reception that involve paint and glue and other rather lovely fun tasks that make him need to be washed so for us the fresh uniform each day works.

As soon as J gets home from school he gets changed into normal clothes although tbh if we are just at home he prefers to sit in boxers and a vest, it’s a comfort thing and I can’t blame him as I love nothing more than changing into my Jim’s. We have two laundry baskets so that we can put trousers and jumpers in one and shirts and vests in the other. J has to wear certain socks for school so if he takes them off they go in the cute little laundry bag sent to us by Ecover so as not to get lost. ( We have sock gremlins and I’m colour blind so would end up with mismatched socks otherwise). I’m also hopeful that the action of putting his clothes in the wash basket will stand me in good steed as his father is 31 and still hasn’t mastered it!

The actual physical act of washing is a doddle. I wait till the weekend when the baskets are full and then I have one load of darks and one of lights. I love to use the quick eco wash setting on my machine which is a 15 minute 30 degree wash. We don't have a washing line outside as my garden is J's safe space complete with 14ft trampoline, swing, slide etc and there just isn't the space so it's an airer jobby or the tumble dryer for us. I'm especially liking that our tumble dryer is collecting a lot of the excess fluff from J's jumpers rather than the fluff ending up all over the shirts although I do miss the days of seeing cute tiny outfits hanging out in the sunshine.

In order to wash clothes you need detergent, which brings me on to the Ecover Laundry detergent we were sent to try. It promised to be gentler on our skin and on the environment but would it be too gentle to deal with our mucky clothes?

First Impressions: The liquid is a lot thinner than other mainstream detergents we would normally purchase and it's perfectly clear rather than having some bright funky colour tinge to it. The bottle says you get 25 washes from it and by using the measuring cup that doubles up as the lid I'd agree as a little seemed to go a long way. The fragrance is Lavender and Sandalwood and I thought it smelt a bit like our local surgery whilst in the bottle, almost medical smelling.

Using: Anything of J's with a stain on I would normally presoak in some stain remover before putting in the machine however with the uniform I didn't. I put half a scoop of stain remover in the drawer with the ecover and hoped it would live up to the label of being tough on stains.

Results: All the clothes came out spotless, all stains had gone which I was really impressed with as it means I can remove the presoak section of laundry from our routine! I also found the scent had changed, it no longer smelt medical at all but was a very gentle scent - clean, fresh and slightly floral without being overpowering which is great news as J is very sensitive to smells and if it had been too strong I would have had to rewash it before he would wear it! I'm always wary about changing brands as both me and J have super sensitive skin but we needn't have worried as Ecover is specially formulated for those with sensitive skin and it didn't cause any reaction at all and I can have a reaction to my own tears so you know it's good!

Final thoughts: I was really impressed with the Ecover liquid. It seemed to tick all the boxes and live up to it's promises as made on the label. It's a little bit more pricier than my typical brand which is something to take into consideration especially on those weeks when there is more month than money. However as somebody wanting to try and do a bit more for the environment because I want to protect the future for my son and his children I don't think the price is excessive and weighed up against the time and amount saved by not needing to presoak in stain remover it's a good balance.

This post is an entry for BritMums #EcoverLaundry Challenge, sponsored by Ecover.
I was sent a bottle to Ecover Non-Bio Concentrated Laundry Detergent to review; all opinions are my own