When it comes to lifestyle changes, one of the most frequent pieces of advice I see is to avoid making overly broad and unclear goals. So things like "I want to lose weight" or "I want to be more fit" or "I want to spend less money" are pretty much recipes for failure unless you narrow them down. That's how I feel about my current plan. My goals are to use fewer products tested on animals and to try to minimize my effect on the environment. Oh, and being more socially responsible when I shop. In addition to being hard to quantify, they also run up against each other pretty often. If I have to choose, do I choose the option that's cruelty free, more environmentally friendly, or more socially responsible?
Right now, I'm making gradual changes and taking my time to research options. Since I tend to stockpile health and beauty products, I haven't had to make many decisions when it comes to cosmetics and I've found several good options when I am ready to buy new products.
Laundry, on the other hand, has been a problem. I do laundry regularly and I've gone through most of my laundry supplies. It's been further complicated by the fact that I've had a hard time finding options. I had been using Mrs. Meyer's laundry detergent, but when I checked Leaping Bunny, I found out that it's owned by a non-cruelty free company. I'm not happy about that, so I've switched to Seventh Generation, which seems to work well so far.
Fabric softener has been an even bigger headache. I had been using Downy, which is made by Procter & Gamble, which is most definitely not a cruelty free company. None of the local stores seem to carry any cruelty free fabric softener, so my options are either use Amazon (which has some good prices but usually only sells multi-pack products) or check stores in other areas. I've been putting it off, thinking I had several bottles of Downy left from when I stocked up during a sale, but I was apparently mistaken and ran out of fabric softener after I started to wash a load of clothes late at night.
After debating my options, I decided to try white vinegar, which was recommended by several sources. Most of the sources recommended one cup per load, but my fabric softener dispenser only held about half a cup, so that was what I used. For most of the laundry, I couldn't notice a difference between vinegar and fabric softener. There was no static, the clothes felt soft, and there was no vinegar smell. The one downside was that the towels weren't as soft, so that was a letdown. I'll have to decide whether to live with less fluffy towels or compromise and find a good, natural, cruelty free fabric softener just for towels. A few sources also mentioned using baking soda in the wash cycle or mixing vinegar, baking soda, and water to make fabric softener, so that's another option.
One of my long term goals is to go to green cleaning supplies (preferably homemade), so this feels like a good first step down that path.
