Tackling the washing with Ecover – #EcoverLaundry challenge

For the last few weeks I’ve been doing something a bit different with my laundry.  I’ve been testing out the gorgeously scented lavender and sandalwood non-bio washing liquid from Ecover, as part of the #EcoverLaundry challenge for Britmums.

As a family of four, we create a seemingly endless pile of laundry.   Every once in a while I get to the bottom of the pile, and have a gloriously empty washing basket.  And for a precious few minutes I feel a strange sense of calm, before someone spills something down their top or I find a rogue pair of dirty socks that someone had hidden in the lounge.

I know that some people like to tackle their laundry by letting it build up over the course of the week and then washing it all in one day, in a big washingathon.

This just doesn’t really work well for me though, so I tend to do a load of washing most days of the week to try and feel on top of it.  With the washing machine running pretty much every day I am aware of the impact it might have on both the environment and my bills, so I generally will run the machine on a cool wash.

Which means I need a washing detergent that will clean really well, on a cool wash.

Rhys generally comes home from school each day grubby.  Or filthy, depending on how much he’s played outside in the woods that day.  He wears white polo shirts to school that end up covered in mud and sometimes grass stains.  So they were perfect to put Ecover to the test.

I have to say, I was really impressed with the results.  Even on a cool wash the tops came out stain-free after a wash with Ecover.

See the thing is, it’s not just at school that Rhys and Nerys get grubby.  After school and at the weekends they get up to various things that often result in mucky clothes.

We go to the beach and they get covered in sand and splash in the salty sea water.

We bake together, and as good as they are at it, they often still end up with cake mixture on their sleeves and cocoa powder down their fronts.

They help their Daddy in the garden, and end up with mud all over them.  Normally because they wipe their muddy hands on their clothes; why do children do this?!

So some weekdays I’ll have a dirty set of school uniform to wash for each of them, and then they’ll get the clothes they change into grubby too.  Lots of grubby clothes means that I really do need a detergent that lives up to the claims it makes about how well it works.

We’ve been using Ecover for a couple of weeks now and I have to say that I have been really impressed with it.

Here’s what I love about it:

• The smell is really lovely.  I have always loved the smell of lavender and the addition of sandalwood to this washing liquid just adds a little extra something to it.
• It is lasting ages.  The bottle is really quite small, which is useful if you don’t have a lot of storage space for huge boxes of washing powder, but it claims to have enough liquid in it for 25 washes which I think is great.
• It is effective.  It has tackled every stain we’ve thrown at it so far, so I’m really pleased.
• It’s designed for sensitive skin.  Now, we don’t really have any issues with sensitive skin in our family luckily, but I really like that Ecover has been developed with sensitive skin in mind.  It means that I know it will be gentle and safe for my whole family.

I honestly haven’t really noticed any big negatives about the Ecover washing liquid I’ve been testing.  Although, I would love to have tried it alongside an Ecover fabric conditioner to really test out the product line, because I’ve been adding a conditioner from a different brand to my wash to get the real softness that I like in my clothes.  I found that just using the Ecover detergent didn’t leave my clothes as soft as I would like.

I can definitely see us using Ecover in the future though, as I really like the ethos of the brand and have been really impressed with how well the detergent has worked on our tough mountain of washing.  And I’m not the only one who has been impressed by it.  Back in May Mumsnet asked over 200 people to try it out, and 85% said they would buy it again and 89% would recommend it to a friend.  Pretty impressive!

Now you’ll have to excuse me, I have to go and put another load of washing on before the clothing mountain starts to take over the house!

This post is an entry for BritMums #EcoverLaundry Challenge, sponsored by Ecover.