I don’t know about you, but I love a great deal. I used to think a deal was just a really low price. Now I see it as more of a value-based equation that involves a lot more than just the purchase price. And with that in mind, I’m pretty pleased with the deal we recently got by upgrading our washer and dryer to new, water-saving & energy-efficient machines.
By utilizing the amazing MassSave rebates ($350 for clothes washers, and $50 for dryers), not only did we save on the purchase price, our monthly laundry costs will also drop by switching to these snazzy, high efficiency units (double-deal!)!
How to Find Rebates Near You
If you live in Massachusetts, consider signing up for a free MassSave Home Energy Assessment to lower your energy costs and take advantage of rebates like these! And if you’re not in Massachusetts, try using the EnergyStar website to search for rebates near you.
What’s the Best Laundry Detergent?
Just as important as these new energy-saving machines, is what you put in them. Did you know that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) publishes a Guide to Healthy Cleaning? Their guide rates all kinds of cleaning products on their health and environmental concerns. It’s an amazing resource, and a little scary to see the health effects of the ingredients in some of the best known laundry products. And how did I not even know until last year that you don’t actually need to use chemical-filled dryer sheets!?!
Making the Switch
Rather than beat myself up about it, I choose to do as Maya Angelou said, and “Do the best you can until you know better; When you know better, do better”. Now I use the EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning to choose a safer laundry detergent, and we’ve switched from the chemically laden dryer sheets to all-natural wool dryer balls (like these). No more spending money on dryer sheets! And when we want our clothes to come out of the dryer smelling like something other than ordinary fresh laundry or clean sheets, we just add a few drops of an essential oil (like Lavender) to one or two of our dryer balls. Voila! A solution that’s safe, effective, less expensive, healthier for us, and better for our environment! Now that’s a deal!