It’s been said that the seven deadliest words in the business world are, “We have always done it this way.” The enduring nature of totally erroneous expressions like, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” demonstrate the human ability to accept absurd ideas without questioning their validity because longevity must make it true. Entire industries are built on faulty ideas and cleaning products are most definitely in that category.
Those of us with a grip on reality would agree with the idea of not letting a cure be worse than the disease, but in practice, buying conventional cleaning products from the store violates that principle, a fact much mentioned on this site. This post though is about laundry products which is a bit different than the human health concerns of other cleaning products. But like the assault on your personal health those household cleaners create, conventional laundry products mercilessly attack your clothes even though those clothes never did anything to harm anyone.
Conventional warfare on dirt and stains means collateral damage on the clothing itself. We have all these cool advances, not just washing machines themselves, but great ideas on making the machines better. Our modern military can hit extremely small targets accurately from great distances, yet laundry products are akin to 1700’s cannons where if you hit any part of enemy ground the accuracy is considered good. You may get the stain removed but colors fade and the fibers that make up the material integrity are compromised. If you’ve ever accidentally splashed bleach on your clothes, you know how harsh these cleaning agents are.
There is no targeting with these laundry products where the thinking hasn’t changed much since the days of lye soap. Laundry cleaning is closer to the “Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out” warfare approach than the well planned and executed, precision tactics that are now possible in military operations.
One of the many benefits to enrolling as a Melaleuca Shopping Club member, besides the noticeable product quality difference, is the opportunity to discover why that difference exists. It’s the result of Melaleuca’s rethinking the approach to solving problems. Knowing about Melaleuca’s innovation makes you an informed buyer and informed buyers tend to be loyal and appreciative buyers.
I have repeatedly been impressed with how colors don’t fade and yet we get a very high success rate in stain removal. I’ll minimize the technical side of Melaleuca thinking, since you can discover that on their web site, and focus primarily on personal experience and share valuable nuggets not easily found elsewhere.
For one, you may notice the inclusion of Sol-U-Mel in the picture above. Sol-U-Mel is not sold as a laundry product but it is highly useful as such. For one, the laundry stain removers are primarily ideal for general stain use like blood, grass, condiments, etc. If the stain is something like cooking oil, petroleum, or gunk from a grill, and if the stain is removeable at all, Sol-U-Mel is the heavy artillery that will do the job. Full strength, it will remove chewing gum. I keep the laundry spray bottle at 50/50 concentrate to water ratio so it serves as the special ops when needed, and I can always grab an undiluted concentrate bottle for extreme warfare. It’s also a highly effective odor remover (something that is mentioned in official sources) which is great if vile smelling substances are involved.
The short story for how the laundry products work is safe, chemical free cleaning agents to keep clothes looking new but the stain fighters go after the stains and not the clothes. The enzymes used break down the chemical structure of the stains themselves and thwart their ability to cling to the fabric fibers. Pretty amazing!
I should note that if it’s a particularly nasty stain it should be treated and washed right away for best results. I usually start with Prespot (available in concentrate to mix in a spray bottle and/or gel with brush cap) except where experience tells me to call in the special forces of Sol-U-Mel noted above.
If you choose scented products, all are available scent-free, the fragrances are very light, which is good. I was pleased when Melaleuca introduced Mela Boost fragrance booster a number of years ago. Although I don’t want or need much fragrance in the clothes I wear, I do like bath towels to have that extra “boost” which you control by choosing how much to add. The fragrances are also derived from natural oils, not cheap chemicals, but you would expect that knowing Melaleuca’s standards.
There are of course many more Melaleuca laundry products available than shown here, this is just our personal stock of artillery. You might have noticed both liquid and dryer sheets for fabric softener…yes we use both, especially for towels and rugs which are more prone to static electricity. Plus my preference for fragrance boost already noted factors into this choice.
Though this is one of my longer posts and I could easily add much more, there’s just one more point you’ll appreciate. Mela Power laundry detergent is less than half the price per load compared to a leading national brand, and it’s so ultra concentrated that the 32 oz. bottle shown will do 96 loads. That’s considerably less packaging, less environmental impact at every level, and you’re not paying for mostly water and inefficiency like you would be with the flawed retail store model.