Stone Mountain Suds

Welcome to the farm, where we play hard…usually in the dirt! Adults and kids and dog alike, no one usually comes in the house clean at the end of the day. These days, the investment made by a flustered, nerdy college-aged version of myself pay dividends of clean laundry, healthy skin and restful sleep knowing that my family isn’t exposed to the multitudes of chemicals hidden behind the labels of even some of the “greenest” laundry detergents.

Grab your coffee, let me take you back and bring you up to speed…

Just over a decade ago, I stood in the laundry room for the I-don’t-know-how-many-ith-time loading the laundry detergent into the dispenser, and sneezed. You may be thinking, yeah - so - everyone sneezes. But, this happened every. single. time. I poured out laundry detergent. So I was curious. Why do I sneeze every time I do a load of laundry, but rarely ever else?

I sat down to my computer and search engine and learned… Engines. That’s where laundry detergent started. You see, apparently, we didn’t always use laundry detergent. At one point in our nation’s history, we used soap. However, circa the industrial revolution, there was this formula that was cleaning machinery and needed a larger purpose, a bigger market. So a little bit of refining, perhaps slight reformulating, and the leading brand of laundry detergent was born. It cleaned your clothes, and the equipment washing your clothes, leaving you with less elbow grease needed and signature smelling laundry. Are you wondering if there’s a trade-off? Why yes, yes there is, thanks for asking!

Even some of the “cleanest”, “greenest” products out there have at least 3 different “high-risk of harm” ingredients. Are you thinking, yeah, but I already buy the natural, or free and clear version… You may still be exposing yourself to more “high-risk of harm” chemicals than you can count on one hand.
 
Wondering what the high-risk of harm is to?
 ∙ allergies/respiratory irritation/immunotoxicity                  ∙ hormone disruption              
 ∙ toxic bioaccumulation                      ∙ organ toxicity
 ∙ cancer                                                ∙ neurotoxicity

And, now I know why I was sneezing. One of the most potently harmful ingredients is the fragrance. The runner up is the dyes. Thus, the free and clear formulas were born - they eliminated the highest portion of toxins, but still left all the rest.

Now, mad that I’d been tricked into thinking laundry detergent was essential and a good thing, I set out to learn how to avoid all the junk. Unsatisfied with anything on the market that was truly clean and affordable, I turned our kitchen into a mild version of my on campus chem-lab and began creating. Our original laundry soap was born. I was so excited, I started sharing it with everyone. And then, then something really neat happened - I started hearing all of these stories…

“My [insert family member here] had terrible eczema, and now it’s clearing up [or totally gone, a little while later]; what did you put in this stuff??”

“We’re washing our cloth diapers and baby clothes with this and our baby’s skin is now clear of even the most subtle of rashes”

“Our towels seemed to be wearing out and not as fluffy - now they seem more absorbent than ever”

The stories went on and on, but nearly each family I had shared it with [unbeknownst to me they were having any issues] began sharing these success stories. So now, I knew the formula worked, or even exceeded my expectations. As I searched for clean and healthy, I learned I could bring it to many others as well and Stone Mountain Suds began.

This year, I was determined to get rid of any last bit of junk that was in the formula. One of the ingredients of the old recipe still had some things I was picky about that, weren’t passing my muster of clean and I wanted to try and do better. At the close of this mission, I am happy to report our newest formula was born. It has all the good of the old, and now has zero ingredients that fail to past muster and it’s getting clothes cleaner than ever before.

—————————

When you really stop to think about this, laundry detergent or laundry soap, plays a big role in our lives. We’re exposed to anything by inhalation when we pour it into our washers. Then, our clothes bathe in it for a good length of time. That water drains into our grey water leach fields or into our city sewage systems, and eventually becomes ground water to replenish our wells or scrubbed and re-enters our water cycle somewhere - the ocean, a drinking water supply - it doesn’t disappear. It is well documented that the microplastics can end back up in city water supplies so they can likely end up anywhere else too. Or, let’s stick to the clothes.. We pull them from the washer, dry them and then put them on our skin for hours upon hours. Or we put them on our children. Those chemicals don’t all “come out in the wash”, unfortunately they can bind to the fabrics of our clothing and stay behind - it’s why commercially washed clothes can smell like their signature detergents for days upon days upon days. So it leaves us with a choice. Are we okay with that risk of exposure?

We weren’t. We wanted better for our family, and we want it for yours too.

Ready to leave all the toxic junk behind? Check out our Stone Mountain Suds page for all of our products. Email me at kate.onpointfarm@gmail.com if you’d like more information and sign up for our farm-pointers to stay updated with any new product developments!

Until next time,

Kate