Tag Archives: laundry

Take The KEY Pledge And Be Entered To Win $2500!

October 18, 2013Cleaning & Cleaners, SafetyAmerican Cleaning Institute, laundry, SafetyAlicia

If single-load liquid laundry packets are not safely stored out of reach and sight of young children they can attract dangerous interest from curious little ones. While single load liquid laundry packets are proven to be very effective in cleaning our kid’s dirty, grimy clothes, keeping them safely away, out of reach and sight of small children is the best method to prevent accidents from happening including unintended ingestion and exposure to the eyes.

In July I announced that I am working with the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) on a sponsored campaign to help spread the message about laundry safety, especially when it comes to using, storing and handling single-load liquid laundry packets. Today I’d like to expand on that and share more safety information and tips from a safe laundry room and routine that child safety expert, Kimberlee Mitchell, recently shared with us.

Have children? Chances are that your laundry room is one of the most used rooms in your home. Did you know that your laundry room is also a potential danger zone? In addition to the possible hazards like a hot iron being knocked off the ironing board or closing a tiny hand in the washing machine door, the laundry room is often where many household cleaning products are stored.

Your young children should not be allowed into the laundry room area, it is not a playroom. The best way to prevent accidents from taking place is to keep it an off limits room If this is not possible, always store household cleaning products, including single-load liquid laundry packets, up high out of reach and sight, preferably behind a locked cabinet or drawer.

Making Safety a Top Priority in the Home

Speaking from experience as a mom of two, small children like to imitate the adults in a household. Now if only they would imitate them when we actually want them to! If you are doing laundry then naturally, your young kids will want to help. Many parents allow toddlers to help by letting them add the laundry detergent to the washer or assist with removing clothing from the dryer.

These are chores that are typically delegated to “mommy’s little helpers”.

Instead of this type of activity it would be better to think of tasks that take place outside of the laundry room environment. Then they will not be exposed to household cleaners such as detergents and bleaches which could pose a hazard.

Parents should make the laundry room an Off Limits area of the home. Instead of bringing kids into a hazardous area take the freshly cleaned laundry to another room and then have your children help you as you sort and fold the clothing.

If you prefer to dry your laundry on an outdoor line the kids could be encouraged to help with this task as well. This would be a good way for both you and your child to enjoy some bonding time on a bright, sunny day.

KEY PLEDGE for Parents

Every parent should become aware of how important it is to take the KEY pledge to a safe laundry room and routine. Signing up is easy to do, and you will be making a pledge to put safety first to ensure you and your family are clean and safe.

As a bonus, each individual who agrees to take the KEY pledge will have their name automatically entered in a sweepstakes contest. The winner will receive a grand prize of $2500***.

You can commit to the safety and health of your child by taking the KEY pledge today!

When you take the KEY pledge your household will be added to those listed on the site’s heat/tracking map. This is a quick and fun way to determine how many consumers in your state have also agreed to follow a safe laundry routine.

Pledge your support for a safe laundry room and routine and you just might be the one who wins the $2500 prize***

Always Follow these Simple and Safe Laundry Rules

Kimberlee suggests that even adults should never handle single load liquid laundry packets with wet or damp hands.
After you purchase single-load liquid laundry packets, as soon as you bring them into your home, store them safely away up high, out of reach and sight.
Never let your child handle or play with any single-load liquid laundry packets.
Keep the single load laundry packets and other household cleaning products out of a child’s sight. “Out of Sight Is Out of Mind.”
Leave the original safety labels on the containers and make sure that you understand the directions before using single-load liquid laundry packets.
Store single load laundry packs in locked cabinets or on shelves that are too high for a child to reach.
Keep your laundry room as clutter free as possible so you can always have a clear view of any reachable surface to make sure nothing harmful was left within your child’s reach.
Teach each child in your family that colorful single-load detergent packets are not something to be played with, they are not toys and must be left alone.
*In the event of an emergency keep the Poison Control Center phone number (1-800-222-1222) – available at all times.

Child Safety Expert Kimberlee Mitchell Weighs In

Kimberlee Mitchell is the owner of a California baby-proofing company named “Boo Boo Busters”. She is also recognized as a devoted child safety expert.. Kimberlee has provided baby-proofing services to more than 5000 homes in California and is happy to be able to lend her voice and support to the KEY Pledge campaign.

Kimberlee has also been collaborating with the ACI on a laundry safety video series which will be rolled out over the next couple of months. Every parent or caregiver with young children needs to watch this eye-opening video to learn about the proper storage, usage and handling of single-load liquid laundry packets. Education and awareness is KEY to avoiding unintended ingestion and eye exposure. View video #1 here: http://www.cleaninginstitute.org/clean_living/safe_laundry_room.aspx

Sweepstakes information:

***NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

Ends on December 31, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Open to legal residents of 50 U.S. and DC, 21 and older. Void where prohibited. Official Rules:http://www.keypledge.com/Keypledge/TermsConditions.html.

My participation with American Cleaning Institute is compensated. All opinions are my own.

Single-Load Liquid Laundry Packet Safety Tips and Take the New KEY Pledge Today!

July 11, 2013Cleaning & Cleaners, Health, Safetylaundry, Safety, Single load laundry packsAlicia

My 13 year old does his own laundry and I am absolutely thrilled about that. I have decided however, not to push my daughter who is 7, into helping me with laundry until she’s a few years older, despite her desire to help. I am a believer that parents should not put their kids at risk just to learn something that they can just as easily learn when they are older and more capable of remembering the proper techniques. You wouldn’t teach a 1-year-old to ride a bike or an 11-year-old to drive would you? My personal belief is that you should consider waiting until your child is about 10 years old before you teach him how to do laundry and hand over laundry responsibilities to him or her.

It is important to make everyone aware of the need for safety when using, storing, and handling the new, concentrated packs of single-load liquid laundry packets. Single-load liquid laundry packets, when handled, used, and stored properly are a convenient, easy-to-use product to help get your laundry done more efficiently and effectively.

The convenience of these products is a boon to adults but it’s important to remember these packets contain highly concentrated detergent and need to be treated like any other household cleaning product, stored safely up and away – out of sight and reach According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), in 2012, poison centers received reports of 6,229 unintended exposures to highly-concentrated packets of laundry detergent by children 5 and younger..Thanks to ACI (American Cleaning Institute) there is now a safety education program aimed to equip consumers with the proper education and awareness on how to properly use, handle and store singleload liquid laundry packets. The name of this consumer program is the KEY Pledge Laundry Safety Campaign.

Parents should take the American Cleaning Institute’s KEY Pledge keypledge.com, because we all play a KEY role in laundry safety. Parents, caregivers and adults can all BE THE KEY to a safe laundry room and routine; we should all be aware of the simple, safety steps when it comes to properly using, storing and handling the new single-load liquid laundry packets to ensure our family’s safety.

And by taking the KEY Pledge, you will have access to the following:

Track KEY pledges and follow pledge progress across the nation and in your home on a heat map. Check out how your area is doing!
Enter a sweepstakes** for a chance to win a $2,500 grand prize to help makeover your laundry room

Single-load Liquid Laundry Packets Safety Tips

Do not let children handle laundry packets
Do not puncture or pull packets apart
Store out of child’s sight and reach
Keep the packet’s package closed and in a dry place
Packets quickly dissolve upon contact with water, wet hands, or saliva so it is necessary to keep them dry

Here are a few additional safety tips to keep in mind when you have single-load liquid laundry packets in your household with children:

1. If there is a reason to believe a child may have been exposed to the contents of a single-load liquid laundry packet call the Poison Help Line immediately. The # is 1-800-222-1222.

2. Store these packets in the same safe manner as you would store any other household cleaning product such as drain cleaners, toilet bowl products and bleach.

3. You know that a child should wear a safety belt when riding in a car. Parents are also aware that they should teach children safety measures when they are crossing a street. Treat the handling and use of single-load liquid laundry packets with this same degree of concern and caution.

4. Take the time to carefully read the warning statement on laundry products. Even if you have been using one of these cleaning products for months (or years).

Be safe. Be careful. Be responsible. Education is the KEY to your family’s laundry safety.

All children are different; even your own children. You might think that because your first child didn’t try to get into the laundry detergent or other cleaning supplies, that your youngest will be the same and so you store cleaning supplies in a less safe place than you might if your first child did have issues with getting into things.

Don’t think that way. Just because your first child always looks twice before crossing a busy street, doesn’t mean that your second child will think the same way, right? You get what I’m saying.

Keep your home safe for you and your children. Visit keypledge.com and pledge to be the KEY to a safe laundry room and routine.

Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator {Review and Giveaway}

March 20, 2012Cleaning & Cleaners, Contests, Giveaways, Home & Garden, New postsFebreze, giveaway, laundry, P&GAlicia

Take your shoes to the garage!

Put your gym clothes in the washer!

Get the stinky clothes out of your room and into the washing machine!

Sound familiar?

I have two kids but some days it smells like I’m raising elephants in my house. I have used Febreze odor eliminating spray for years and keep one bottle of it on all three levels of our house. As I tell my 12 year old son who brings home some super smelly clothes after camping trips “I’m ready to aim and spray whenever necessary”!

What do all of the photographs above all have in common?
They all resulted in stinky laundry!

That’s why I was very happy to learn about a new P&G product, Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator. Good Housekeeping- approved, Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator is specially formulated to clean away odors that get trapped in fabrics. Bad odors are washed away during the rinse cycle. To use, simply measure according to the load size and add directly to wash cycle with your liquid or powder detergent. Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator CAN be used in HE washers.

Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator did not interfere with my laundry detergent scent. My son who is doing his own laundry now, when he remembers, knows to use Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator in his loads now. He goes camping a lot and comes home with super stinky clothes. Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator is a godsend for parents of Boy Scouts, campers, and kids who play sports.

You’ll find information about the new Febreze products on NewFrebreze.com. I am a member of the a Febreze Common Scents Institute and you can be too!

Who wants to win a Febreze Common Scents Institute Kit?

I have been given the opportunity to give one lucky The Mommy Insider reader a Febreze Common Scents Institute Kit!

The Common Scents Institute Kit contains a coupon for a free bottle of Febreze Laundry Eliminator, a Febreze Towel, Tide Odor-Absorbing Travel Laundry Bag, and a Common Scents Institute Guide with a magnet so you can stick it on your refrigerator or washing machine.

To enter to win leave a comment telling me whose stinky laundry you hope to tackle with Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator.

Earn extra entries:

2 entries – Like The Mommy Insider on Facebook
2 entries – Follow Mommy Insider on Twitter
2 entries – Subscribe to our RSS newsletter
3 entries each time – Tweet about this giveaway: “I entered to win a Febreze Common Scents Institute Kit on TheMommyInsider.com. Enter #giveaway here: http://wp.me/plszx-2TK @mommyinsider”
3 entries each – Enter any of our other contests and let us know which contests you entered in the comments below
5 entries – Blog about this giveaway on your own blog and leave the URL in the comments below. Do not copy and paste this post into your blog.
Be sure to tell us what you’ve done in the comments below.

Contest Rules:

Entries accepted through 11:59PM EST March 31st, 2012.
U.S. Residents only.
Ages 21+.
No P.O. Boxes
Winner must respond to our email within 24 hours to claim their prize.
Read The Mommy Insider’s Contest Rules here. By entering this contest you are agreeing to the rules.

Disclosure: I received a Febreze Common Scents Institute Kit for purposes of this review and giveaway. All opinions are 100% my own and were not influenced in any way.

A Story: The Backwards Laundry Switch

December 12, 2010Personallaundry, silly stuffAlicia

I asked my 11 year old son to switch his laundry a little while ago and just realized that he didn’t bring the clothes that were in the dryer, upstairs. I asked him what he did with the dry clothes and he said he put them back in the washing machine. I asked him why he did that and he said “Mom, they were in the dryer for like a week”. “Huh?”, I said. He said “Mom, you always tell me to re-wash clothes if we left them in the washing machine over night because they’ll smell”. I couldn’t get on to him after saying that. I just couldn’t. I didn’t know what to say.
He was either seriously not thinking about the difference between clothes being left in a washing machine for a few days and clothes being left in a dryer for a few days or he was being really lazy. Either way, I laughed it off because it was actually pretty funny and I’m sure he won’t do it again. Or will he?

Out with the old and in with the new.. Frigidaire appliances

June 5, 2009Cleaning & Cleaners, Frigidaire, New postsbaking, clean, dryer, Frigidaire, kitchen, laundryAlicia

I am on the edge of my seat waiting for my new Frigidaire appliances which should arrive within the next couple of weeks… I hope!

My current washing machine is over 20 years old and has served me very well. With all of the new features my new Frigidaire washing machine will have, I’m afraid I might go into shock. Every time I start a load of laundry I think of the gorgeous red Frigidaire Affinity washing machine I’ll be using soon.

When I open my dishwasher and empty it for the 2nd time in a day, I day dream of the brand new Frigidaire Gallery Dishwasher that will take the old one’s place very soon. I am looking forward to the new dishwasher because our isn’t drying the dishes very well lately and I have to spend time drying them before I can put them away.

My refrigerator is great, but small. We bought it about 5 years ago when we bought our new house and we were on a tight budget so we bought a relatively inexpensive fridge that doesn’t have as much space or a water and ice dispenser. The new Frigidaire refrigerator has an water and ice dispenser on the door and the water will be filtered! Our sink faucet doesn’t allow for a water filtration attachment, so I am really excited that we will be able to get filtered water right from the door of our new Frigidaire Gallery Side-by-Side Refrigerator.

spacewiseorganizationsystem_refrigerator_hires

Why and HOW am I getting new Frigidaire appliances?
I was lucky enough to have been chosen as one of 8 wonderful ‘Mommy Bloggers’ across the country to be a Frigidaire Test Drive Mom and receive all new appliances. Besides the 8 of us who will test and review all 5 major appliances, there are 40 other great ‘Mommy Bloggers’ who will each receive one Frigidaire appliance to test and review on their blog.

Here are a few Frigidaire time savers that would have helped me in the last two days and that I’m really looking forward to:

I could have used the Quick Preheat feature of my ‘almost here’ Frigidaire Range this morning when helping Sebastian bake his chocolate chip cookies.
I did 6 loads of laundry yesterday and was jonesing for Frigidaire’s TimeWise™ technology where the wash time equals dry time – so you don’t have to wait for clothes to dry. I kept having to run downstairs to the laundry area to check on the dryer as it takes longer than the wash. Madelyn’s at the age now where when I run down stairs, she runs down stairs. Then she gets fixated on something to play with downstairs when I’m ready to get back upstairs. Ahh!
I would have loved it if the clean dishes in the dishwasher were actually dry! The new Frigidaire dishwasher has a feature called Effortless™ Dry which gives you best-in-class drying performance, so there’s no more double-duty towel drying.
Maybe I would have made chicken nuggets if my oven had a “Chicken Nuggets” button!?

Over the next few months I will be sharing photographs, stories, and videos with you of my new appliances and I will give you personal examples of how my new Frigidaire appliances help me save time.. because after all, Frigidaire has a “More Me-Time” Guarantee!

Here is a personal story, a little related, but maybe not entirely:
As I write this while sitting at my kitchen table working on my laptop while eating breakfast and I am breaking a little sweat. The sweat is due in part to menopause (I’m 34..it came early) and part CHAOS!
Whatever do you mean Chaos, Alicia? That’s what I feel like my husband’s wondering sometimes when he gets home from work and I’m telling him about my day. Here’s a run down of the last 45 minutes: I made pancakes, scrambled eggs, made a biscuit for Madelyn, helped Sebastian make chocolate chip cookies while trying not to burn the pancakes or overcook the eggs and in the middle of all of that, Madelyn went to the bathroom and came back without her panties or shirt and I had to chase her down to get her dressed hoping all of the food was OK and not on fire! In between all of that I cleaned the pans and utensils as I was done using them because I don’t want ants in my kitchen as in previous years. Gosh, when I read that it doesn’t sound like that much but while I was doing it, I could barely feel my feet touch the floor. I swear I was hovering! I know this is a typical Mom story.

You can learn more about the 5 Frigidaire appliances I’ll be testing and featuring on The Mommy Insider at the Frigidaire website.

More Frigidaire links to check out and how you can win Frigidaire appliances:

Frigidaire More Me-Time Guarantee
The Frigidaire DAILYDARE
Tell Frigidaire what 5 things you would do with an extra hour and you’re automatically entered for a chance to win a suite of NEW Frigidaire appliances!
Frigidaire on Facebook