Looking for the thing, that is not the thing.

Sometimes, the thing is not the thing. Or the thing is the thing, but then you realise there is another thing.

Things that are not the thing, are sometimes so obvious once you notice them, that they become the thing. Got it?

Probably not, and so please indulge me.

For this journal, our little change was more attention to what we put down the drain.

We decided to start with the detergents that we put through our washing machines. But once we got into it, I realised that the thing was not the thing.

I’m back on the thing again, and so let me go back to the beginning and set the scene.

Our washing machine, is a hard working soldier. It is our household’s relentless workhorse that does not take a weekend off. It is solid and trustworthy and uncomplaining despite often working many shifts a day.

Washing our clothes is one of those habits that we rarely consider when we sort, load, wash, dry, repeat. It is something that happens upwards of 200 times each year. We are a family of three, and so it is not unreasonable our use is normal. We work, exercise, and have a small child. Normal stuff.

We don’t think about it — we pile it up, and throw it in. We want the dirt to go away and the clothes to be fresh with minimal effort on our part. Washing machines were invented as a labour saving device, and that is exactly what we want.

If there was a robot that could fold them and put them away at the end, that would be awesome too.

However, the washing machine is not the thing.

But it is getting closer to the thing. Because we don’t think about what we put in the machine, we don’t think about detergents either. Detergents are part of the thing, and the other products that make our clothes soft and fragrant. Sniff your sleeve right now. Lovely.

Finding out what is in detergents, is less of a pleasant experience. Behind images of marshmallow bedding, or families frolicking in Cotswolds fields, it is chemical components that make that uncommonly purple or pink liquid.

You can find the lists on brand website, and why each chemical is there. All listed in neat alphabetical order. Yet despite the images, there is no mention of ‘lavender’ in the ‘L’ section on the website.

And as with many products, the longer the list of ingredients, the more like humans have made it in a laboratory.

If I am true with myself, I was under no illusion previous to this research. We all know that the little bag of purple liquid we popped into the washing machine, was not some kind of delicate package of essential oils. Even the fact that laundry products are packaged in convenient plastic boxes, has never been hidden from view.

Entire aisles have been dedicated to bright coloured packaging. Television adverts have been telling us for years that our white clothes will be even whiter after they have been washed. They never said it was because of magic. We don’t notice, or pay attention, because have been focused on getting it done.

It is also not a big surprise that the chemicals that go into making our clothes look or smell amazing, do not do the same for our waterways and our ecosystems. Common ingredients can create blooms of algae once they find their way out of the drain. These blooms starve oxygen from fish and other aquatic creatures. Dyes, chlorines, and other chemicals can hang around in the environment, causing damage that does not have to be there. Fabric softeners contain animal fats.

The good news is that planetwise choices for laundry products are available and becoming even more so, even if you do not want to make you own. From detergent free options, to those who have eliminated plastic and animal products. A simple internet search can allow us to make choices for our washing machine that will make it more heroic.

This is the first change we will make. We will change our detergent.

But detergents are not the thing either.

I do believe that changing detergent can help to make a positive change, but this also needs perspective, and careful research.

Care needs to be taken into what you swap, to make sure you’re swapping in a wise way. The best brands are the not always the most visible online or on social media. But they are the most visible on their own websites, about components and ingredients. It is worth spending time doing research.

Those who enter into a conversation, not bombard us with slogans. Or worse, those who use the planet to frighten us into buying a product.

If you have read this far, then you are probably dying to know what the thing is. Or what my thing is, because we all should have our own things.

The thing, to bring the suspense to an end, is nothing to do with the products or the potions we add to our washing. It starts when we plug the machine in, and it ends when the door lock pings. The thing is not what we use, or what we do

It’s how we do it.

How we wash our clothes in our washing machines. We have been doing it all wrong. We wash our clothes for too long, and we wash them at too high temperatures.

There is no reason that we can’t get the same performance from our washing machines by washing our clothes on a cold setting, and on the shortest washing cycle. And you don’t even have to do anything but press a different combination of buttons.

The reason this is also the thing, is because it is much easier to do, and it is something we can all do. We are all connected, and how we wash our clothes is a common ground.

If you do not believe that kinder detergents work, you can still do it. If you wash your clothes every day, or if you wear your underpants more than once, you can still do it. If you handwash most of your clothes, and use the machine only you have to, you can still do it. If you own a hotel, or a laundry, you can ask your staff or your customers to do it.

It is also the thing, because of these statistics on the change we can make by doing this. Modern machines are reducing these statistics, but even if it is in the ballpark of being correct, it is startling. First off, the colder setting. Changing this can be effective, because 90% of the power we use on a washing cycle heats the water in the machine. Only 10% of it is used for other power needs, such as the motor. The label on your clothes, is also a guide or a maximum washing temperature, not a target.

It is an easy change to make. You can read about this, and some other cool facts that I discovered here.

The reason for a shorter washing cycle, can be power related too, but is also about saving water. Water is universal, and it is realistic to believe that saving water in the UK, can indirectly provide permanent water for someone else we have never met, somewhere else in the world.

An average washing load, in a modern washing machine, can uses around 50 to 100 litres of water. This is water we never see, because of the magic of the washing machine. A faster wash can save this by 30%, which means each time we wash our clothes, we could be saving tens-of-litres of water that is otherwise invisible to us.

The shorter cycle also has other benefits. There is the difference to power consumption for example. But also it is related to microplastics, which are the tiny bits of plastic that escape from our clothes. The tiny bits that are too small to be picked up by any filtration systems.

They end up in the sea, in creatures, and might be even ending up in our food. By washing colder, or on a shorter cycle, the release of these microplastics can be reduced. There are also systems and gadgets starting to be available that can collect these inside the machine or on the outlet pipe. There are types of clothes that shed more microplastics than others. Often these are in the category of ‘fast fashion’. Another reason why we should always consider where our consumptions come from, and how they are produced.

Depending on what you read, washing can release anywhere between 700,000 or 17 million of these tiny fragments of plastic.

Maybe it is the smaller number, but this is still a big number compared to zero. Microplastics are an important topic and you can read more about microplastics here.

We are all connected, and by making this change, we can make a change inside the moment of a household chore, not around it. We can all save water. We can all save power. These are things that benefit us all.

If someone said to us that we could save tens of litres of water a week, or that we could reduce our energy consumption by 90%, without switching anything off or stopping using a particular modern gadget, most of us would make that change.

Maybe our clothes will not smell as good, or will not be as clean. But we used to live mostly outside, and we used to wash our clothes in a river, and that was fine. Our lifestyles overall have become more sedentary and less manual.

I’m not saying this change suits everyone, but it is food for thought. Perhaps every washing load we put on, does not have to be clinically clean. Most of us have a lifestyle that does not collect lots of dirt. But we do have a lifestyle that continues to use more and more.

That is the thing, that was not the thing.

It’s good to find the thing, when you are looking at the other thing.

Being surprised by the thing that is not the thing is exciting.

Life is good.