We care for your skin and the planet – that’s why we create simple plant-based formulas that are healthy for you, your family, and Mother Earth. You don’t have to sacrifice your skin or the environment to get beautifully clean clothes. Why is powder detergent more eco-friendly? Keep reading!

Plant-Based and Biodegradable

Our Laundry Soda is made with a plant-based surfactant. Plants are an excellent source of renewable energy because we can replant them! Plus, all of Nellie’s products are biodegradable, so when it moves through the water system there are no lasting effects on the environment. The environment stays as spotless as your clothes!

Moving Water

Traditional liquid detergents consist mostly of water. It doesn’t make sense to us to ship water around the world! Powder packs more tightly than liquid-based detergents, meaning less space is used in shipping and transporting your favourite Laundry Soda.

Tougher than Liquid

Powder-based detergent formulas are more stable than liquids or detergent pods. This means that our simple formula performs exceptionally well on tough-to-remove outdoor stains like grass, dirt, mud, as well as blood. Pair the Laundry Soda with the Oxygen Brightener for brighter whites and more vibrant colours, without using bleach or any other nasties!

We all know the incredible power of scent, whether it’s the perfume your mother wore when you were a child, or a sunscreen you used at summer camp. Scent can be extremely helpful for waking up in the morning, staying focused at work, and going to sleep at night. That's why we have infused our Scented Wool Dryerballs with essential oils. Here’s a breakdown on which Scented Dryerballs you should be using and when!

Lavender

100% pure Lavender

Lavender essential oil is a popular scent thanks to its relaxing effects. Studies have shown that lavender essential oil aromatherapy calms the nervous system, lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and skin temperature as well as altering brain waves to a more relaxed state. Lavender can also help with mild insomnia and provide a better quality of sleep. The scent of lavender can also reduce anxiety and depression in women with postpartum depression. The Scented Wool Dryerballs in Lavender are ideal for using when drying your bedsheets or your favourite pajamas to ensure a great night's sleep.

Citrus

Lemon, Lavender, Pine, Lime, Geranium, and Rosemary

Citrus essential oils are ideal for helping you wake up in the morning and boosting physical and mental energy levels. Citrus essential oils can have an incredible balancing effect; it can both calm and boost your senses, and aid in greater focus and alertness. Citrus can also stimulate creativity, settle a racing mind, uplift your spirits. Pine essential oil is known for being refreshing, invigorating, and cleansing, like a walk in a northern forest. Lime is ideal for adding a fresh, bright, and clean scent. Use the Scented Wool Dryer Balls in Citrus for your bathroom towels to help wake you up in the morning, as well as your work clothes to keep you going through the day.

Simply Fresh

Rosemary, Tunisian Neroli, Lavender

This blend is perfectly suited for your everyday items that you want to keep fresh without using  toxic chemicals. Legend has it that Greek scholars used rosemary to enhance their memory when taking exams. It's ideal for situations when you need to focus and use your memory, like school or work.  Tunisian neroli essential oil is known for its antidepressant properties, and when combined with its natural balancing and sedative properties it is ideal for managing all types of negative emotional conditions and states of anxiety. Along with lavender, these two essential oils help to sooth and calm any stresses from your day. Launder your favourite work shirts or school uniforms with the Scented Wool Dryerball in Simply Fresh for clarity and peace of mind throughout your day.

Whichever load of laundry you’re drying, there’s a perfect Scented Dryerball for you.

We wash our clothes to keep ourselves, our families, and our favourite items smelling and feeling fresh, but there is actually such a thing as washing too much or too little! There are downsides to both: laundering your clothes more than necessary can shorten their lifespan and ultimately wear them out more quickly, and washing them too infrequently can be unhygienic and lead to bacteria growth. Yuck! Here are our general laundry guides for you and your family:

For your clothes

Bras: After three to four wears

Underwear: After every wear, of course!

Stocks and stockings: After every wear

Sports and swimwear: After every wear

Jeans: five to six wears, although some advocate washing as little as possible

Tops: One to two wears

Dresses: One to two wears

Pants, skirts, and shorts: Three to four wears

Jackets and blazers: Five to six wears

Coats: Once every two months of wear, and before storing away for the season

Pajamas: Three to four wears

Get your clothes fresh and clean, but don't sacrifice your health and the environment! Wash clothes (and towels, bedding, etc.) with Nellie's Laundry Soda, and remove tough stains with the WOW Stick. If your clothes need some extra brightening or whitening, choose Nellie's Oxygen Brightener instead of toxic bleach.

For your kids' clothes

Washing your kids' clothes doesn't need to be a massive chore! Most experts say you can wash their clothing along with yours anytime you see stains or they don't pass the sniff test. The problem is that kids tend to get dirtier more often than adults do, so those stains and smells come up more frequently. Here's a handy guideline: the lighter and softer the fabric, and the closer it hugs the body, the more you need to was it. But as long as you don't notice dirty patches or stains, kids can wear clothes multiple times before they're ready for the laundry pile, just like you.

For your baby's washing

It seems like the hamper is constantly overflowing with onesies, blankets, burp cloths, bibs, rompers, and tiny adorable socks! Unlike grownups, who typically wear one or two outfits per day (not to mention wear an item of clothing more than once before washing), babies are mess machines with their spit up, drool, diaper leaks, or the dreaded blow out. Because of this, it's not uncommon to change their clothes as much as 5 times per day! So when it comes to washing your baby's clothes, there are two schools of thought:

1) Wash one load every day because it can be done quickly and won't pile up

2) Wash everything once each week so that you only have to spend one day dealing with laundry

Whichever one you choose, make sure you're washing with Nellie's All-Natural Baby Laundry Soda, which is formulated with baby's soft skin and messy mishaps in mind. Thanks to a concentration of sodium percarbonate for natural brightening, as well as the addition of pure vegetable soap, there is no need for an additional whiteners or brighteners. The stain-fighting formula is effective on cloth diapers and removes stubborn baby stains such as milk, baby formula, and spit-up. The formula is derived from plant-based and mineral-based ingredients and is non-allergenic, leaves no residue on fabrics, and contains no fragrance.

In the dryer

When drying your laundry, use the Lamby Wool Dryerballs to cut down on drying time, soften fabrics, and reduce wrinkles, naturally! Then, smooth out any remaining wrinkles and creases with the new Wrinkle-B-Gone.

Of course, these guides don't apply when excessive sweating or accidental spills occur, or to those that have different hygiene preferences.

Unless you live in a nudist colony, wearing and washing your clothes is a part of regular life. Of course, some of us hang our clothes on a line to dry, but it’s safe to say that the majority of us choose the convenience of the dryer. As a result, one of the most toxic things we do on a regular basis is use fabric softener or dryer sheets. These products are full of toxic chemicals! Exposure to such toxins have been linked to skin irritations, neurological disease, cancer, hormonal imbalance, and ultimately your overall health can be impacted. Yikes!

Chemicals infiltrate the clothing we wear, which in turn gets on to our skin and is absorbed by our bodies. Some reports show that the occurrence of brain disease is growing, as well as the levels of industrial chemicals being found in human bodies. Some suggest the two are linked! Since manufactures are not legally required to include a list of ingredients on their dryer sheet packages, we have no way of knowing what kind of chemicals are being used.

Get Soft Laundry Without Toxins

Don’t worry  - you can still have super-soft and scented laundry, without subjecting your body to horrible toxic chemicals thanks to Nellie's Lamby Wool Dryerballs. Our dryerballs are made with 100% pure New Zealand wool, so no nasties! They reduce drying time by helping dry your clothes faster, so you’re saving energy and money. They also reduce static and wrinkles, all while softening your clothes, but the best part is that they’re chemical free and will last about 2 years.

If you prefer your laundry to have a fragrance, the Scented Wool Dryerballs are infused with pure essential oils and available in Citrus, Lavender, and Simply Fresh. The scent will last about 50 loads, so you can enjoy the chemical-free natural scent. We recommend tossing one scented wool ball with your four unscented wool balls to enhance your drying experience.

Summer is slowly coming to a close, and soon your kids will be spending less time at home and more time in school. This is the perfect opportunity to get your house back to the clean and orderly state it was before school was out for the summer. Every household is different, but we have a checklist for a few things we should all be doing around this time of year, including the tools you’ll need.

Back-to-school clothes inspection

Put on the no-nonsense drill sergeant’s hat for this back-to-school wardrobe makeover. With your child’s help, throw out or donate anything that’s too grungy or small to wear to school again this year. Make a list of what you’ll need when you go back to school shopping in the days ahead (a new sweater, pair of pants, etc.) based on what’s heading out the door.

If school uniforms are part of the program, this is the time to start ordering new sweaters, sweatshirts, and the like.

Any stains, smudges, or plain ol’ dirt? Tackle them with the Nellie’s All-Natural WOW Stick for stains, the Oxygen Brightener for non-bleach brightening and whitening, and - of course - the Laundry Soda for giving everything a deep, natural clean.

Take that momentum and turn to the rest of the house: go through your home and make a list of anything you don’t need anymore (old school supplies, toys, furniture, old appliances, etc.). Either donate these items, sell them, give them away to friends and family, or throw them out. It’s much easier to clean with less clutter in the house!

Tidy the bathrooms

Clean out kids’ bathrooms of last semester’s grooming remnants and restock as needed.
Help the kids clean out their bathrooms of last semester’s hair gels and stretched-out scrunchies. Make sure your son or daughter has everything needed to streamline morning grooming. This is especially important if you’ve got teens. If you have a couple of kids with a shared family bathroom, avoid the “It’s hers!/It’s his!” fights by keeping it simple and taking care of the issues now.

While you're there, have the kids help you with chores by wiping surfaces down with the All Purpose Cleaner while you scrub the toilet with the Toilet Bowl Cleaner.

Create a homework space

Create a homework centre. Choose a place where each child can work in comfort and without distraction. Stock nearby drawers or cabinets with school supplies.

If you already have a place, now's the time to go out with the old and in with the new and plan ahead for paper chaos. Set up ‘in’ and ‘out’ boxes for school papers. Kids can unload backpacks and drop off papers to be checked, signed, etc. in the ‘in’ box. You can leave signed papers, money, permission slips, etc. in the ‘out’ box.

Organize and entryway backpack zone

Create a backpack drop zone near the entry door. They’re going to drop those backpacks the second they’re inside anyway, so be prepared with a place to catch them. Whether that’s in cute storage cubbies or tucked in a closet, a designated space prevents scrambling in the mornings. Be sure to give the lunch boxes a good scrub – use the One Soap for a natural and fresh cleaning.

Time for a shop

Once you have a classroom supplies list, plan a day to go back to school shopping with the kids.
Make a back-to-school shopping checklist of everything the kids would need for school, from anything to classroom supplies to lunch boxes. When you’re home, make sure that everything is neatly labeled with names.