PSA: 40% off at EcoStoreUSA

EcoStore USA is offering 40% off their products through the end of the year - and free shipping on orders over $25.

Take a note on something up front here: Their prices seem high. $11 for a bottle of laundry liquid ($6.60 on sale) seems steep...but I've found I can do a super-full load in my extra-large front load washer on about a tablespoon of this laundry soap. It's extremely concentrated - so while the bottle might seem small for that price, you really use a LOT less than you would with "regular" laundry soap. The price per load for me works out to about the same as Tide at the average on-sale price at Target.

I love their laundry liquid and their rosemary orange shampoo in particular. The shampoo has been great for my scalp, which decided a couple years ago that it would become extremely itchy for no danged reason, most of the time. I've tried about everything on it and frankly what worked on the itch tended to do other things - like blister my scalp, yes way. (That was a prescription deal. Prescription. Shampoo. Just think about that for a second. I had no idea they even HAD such things before I had some. Anyway, I think it had sulfuric acid in it or something. Possibly alien spit and radioactive tar juice. Anyway, it cured the itch but left BURNS ON MY SCALP. All things considered? I'd prefer the itch, thanks all the same.)

That rosemary-orange shampoo, though, actually helps a lot. And makes me wonder if I'm allergic to something in "regular" shampoos. But let's not delve too far into that, because hello, digressionary paths of endlessness.

The best thing about their laundry soap for us is that it leaves nothing behind I can't then pour onto my lawn or roses or even onto my vegetables. Since I've become this rabid water-conscious micro-farmer (oh yeah, that whole 'big garden' thing), I'm pretty intense about trying not to waste water if I don't hafta. I haven't had any ill effects from using the laundry-produced gray water anywhere yet.

Unless you count the times I didn't get the hose all the way into the water tote, and it squirted all over the laundry room and into the hallway and even the downstairs bathroom. Good times! (Jury rigged a heavy fishing weight solution that weighs down the hose so it can't do that anymore. Only took about FOUR flooding-the-laundry-room experiences before I figured that one out.)

And reusing the gray water really does cut down my water bill. It spiked up to almost $130 a month for a while there, but using the laundry water instead brought it back down to the more-normal $60-ish...without having to give up my roses or the front lawn. Or make the kids go without baths.

In related news, it is really shocking just how much water goes down the drain to clean a load of clothes, even if you have an "efficient" washer. It's an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of thing, and I'd never really thought about it much. After all, I've got one of those energy star, California-friendly, "high efficiency" washers with smart-sense technology blah blah blah, right?

One week's laundry equates to nearly 300 gallons of water. 300 gallons!! DANG!

But I digress. (Oh. There's a surprise.)

Great sale. Great products.

And they didn't pay or even ask me to say so.