- Filed under:
- Cloth diapers
- Green Diapering
- Laundry & Cleaning

Cloth Diapering is great for the environment. Once you collect a set you can reuse them again and again. They can even be passed on to siblings or friends. Having your cloth diapers last is what makes them economical for you and the earth. Treating your cloth diapers with respect is key for their longevity. Choosing a cloth-diaper safe detergent that is good for you and the planet is an important part of that process.
Cloth diapering may be one of the greenest choices but it isn’t always the easiest. When I began my cloth diaper adventure I wasn’t nervous about poop or pee. I wasn’t scared of transporting many soiled things in my bag after an afternoon at the park. I wasn’t even afraid of the start-up cost of building my stash of premium cloth diapers. But I was terrified of the complex laundry procedure! When I first read the PARAGRAPH of washing instructions on my son’s new fancy diapers I was more than a little intimidated. Especially when the online FAQs stated that if I handled them incorrectly then I could completely ruin them. I needed to find a detergent that was free of perfumes, dyes, whiteners, brighteners, softeners, enzymes and fabric enhancers. That wasn’t too ‘soapy’ and that will rinse out completely. This list of must-haves knocked out almost all the laundry soaps in the grocery aisle and my homemade detergent as well. When I finally found some alternatives online I quickly realized that locating these diaper-safe detergent on Canadian shelves was going to pose another problem.
Enter Nellie’s All-Natural Laundry Soda. Hailing from all the way across the bridge in North Vancouver, this soap was perfect for washing my cloth diapers AND local! After one load I was hooked. Nellie’s super effective detergent only needs one tiny scoop each wash. It is safe, effective and natural.
and it comes in cute tin 🙂
What's To Love?:
Cloth diapering may be one of the greenest choices but it isn’t always the easiest. When I began my cloth diaper adventure I wasn’t nervous about poop or pee. I wasn’t scared of transporting many soiled things in my bag after an afternoon at the park. I wasn’t even afraid of the start-up cost of building my stash of premium cloth diapers. But I was terrified of the complex laundry procedure! When I first read the PARAGRAPH of washing instructions on my son’s new fancy diapers I was more than a little intimidated. Especially when the online FAQs stated that if I handled them incorrectly then I could completely ruin them. I needed to find a detergent that was free of perfumes, dyes, whiteners, brighteners, softeners, enzymes and fabric enhancers. That wasn’t too ‘soapy’ and that will rinse out completely. This list of must-haves knocked out almost all the laundry soaps in the grocery aisle and my homemade detergent as well. When I finally found some alternatives online I quickly realized that locating these diaper-safe detergent on Canadian shelves was going to pose another problem.
Enter Nellie’s All-Natural Laundry Soda. Hailing from all the way across the bridge in North Vancouver, this soap was perfect for washing my cloth diapers AND local! After one load I was hooked. Nellie’s super effective detergent only needs one tiny scoop each wash. It is safe, effective and natural.
and it comes in cute tin 🙂
Overall Rating:
Health Rating:
A biodegratable coconut-based formula. No harsh chemicals or perfumes to be found in this all-nautral laundry soda. It boasts a long list of healthy attributes: Non Toxic, Hypoallergenic, Gluten Free, No SLS or SLES, No GMO’s, Chlorine Free, Phosphate Free, Septic Safe, No animal testing (Leaping Bunny Certified), Dye free, Non toxic, Paraben Free, Formaldehyde Free, Ammonia Free.
Design Rating:
Nellie’s gets two thumbs up for having an attractive retro-style branding on its packaging and a very user-friendly and exciting website .
It includes a tiny spoon in each tin to ensure you are using the proper dose of laundry soda in each wash, a design feature I aways appreciate in things that require measurement. Who wants to guess how much to put in each load?! not me.
Carbon Rating:
Nellie's only manufactures powdered laundry products. Liquid detergents are over 50% water by volume. Which means that when you sell liquid detergent you need to use double the packaging and ship double the weight. By making powdered detergent Nellie's save space, fuel and water. Nellie's is designed to dissolve fully in water at any temperature, which means you can wash your load cold to save energy.
Waste Rating:
Nellie's is packaged in an adorable tin that is attractive and good for mother earth. Iron and steel are the most recycled materials on the planet, due in part to their ease of reprocessing. Not that I would recycled one of these tins, they are too cute and too functional! reuse them to keep odds and ends organized.
Value Rating:
All natural cloth-diaper compatible laundry detergents can cost more than any parent on a budget wants to spend. Nellie’s is in the mid-range at around 20 cents a load. Not the most economical detergent on the market. But buying from a local company with such positive brand ideals, environmental sensibility, and effective laundering power has me hooked.
Spending a few extra cents every wash is worth it to know that the environment, my baby, and my fancy cloth diapers are healthy.
