I do three loads of laundry every week — that’s a lot of soapy water draining into the sewers around my home. Just two years ago, I must confess that I never really thought very hard about laundry detergent. But then I moved into a home with a washing machine (no more wash-and-fold laundromats) and welcomed a daughter who has eczema and is irritated by dyes and fragrances. Suddenly the question became urgent: Could the products I use to wash clothes be both effective and good for the planet and our bodies?
I am always on the lookout for environmentally friendly laundry cleaning products (I’ve used Ecos and Seventh Generation in the past), so I jumped at the chance to try the Branch Basics Laundry Kit. The brand, which calls itself nontoxic, has gained notoriety for its commitment to creating cleaning products that are gentler on the environment. Its products are formulated without many of the common chemicals that appear in traditional detergents. But I was curious to find out if it effectively cleans clothes too.
I was impressed by how well it removed everyday stains like food and dirt and left clothes smelling fresh but not fragranced, but there were a few (albeit small) drawbacks to this detergent worth mentioning. Here, we explore whether Branch Basics’ sustainable laundry detergent is the right choice for your needs, especially if you’re curious about how to wash laundry sustainably.
The Branch Basics laundry detergent is free of sulfates and phosphates, has no fragrance and won't irritate sensitive skin. The kit comes with a refillable jug that can be used each time you need to make a new batch of detergent using the Concentrate cleaning solution.
What I liked about it
It’s versatile
The first characteristic of Branch Basics that stood out to me is that the foundation of all its cleaning products is the Concentrate, which is sold in 33.8-ounce bottles. A 16-ounce spray bottle can be filled with water mixed with several ounces of the Concentrate and can be used to clean the bathroom, kitchen counters and stove, and it even works as laundry detergent. It’s a seriously versatile cleaning product, but it also saves money and space in the long run — there is no need to buy and store a ton of other single-purpose cleaners.
To make the laundry detergent, just fill up the 32-ounce reusable laundry bottle (which comes with the kit) with water, then add in several ounces of the Concentrate — a clearly marked line on the bottle indicates how much to use. The kit also comes with a 2-pound bag of Oxygen Boost, which is intended to brighten clothes and aid in the removal of odors and stains.
It features sustainable ingredients
It’s what Branch Basics is lacking that makes it so appealing to me: There are no phosphates, a common ingredient in traditional detergents that pollutes the water by encouraging the growth of algae. Algae blooms decimate the water’s oxygen supply, suffocating other marine life. It also doesn’t contain sulfates. This pesky chemical, which is used to boost the effectiveness of detergent by pulling dirt out of clothes, can be a skin irritant — so that’s a nonstarter for my daughter’s sensitive skin — and can even exacerbate water acidification.
The Concentrate is also entirely fragrance-free, which is a game changer for my family. On top of my daughter’s eczema-prone skin, I have easily triggered allergies that send me into a sneezing fit at even a hint of a cloyingly sweet or floral scent. Refreshingly, Branch Basics smells like nothing, not even fresh linen, a warm breeze or whatever those other supposedly unscented detergents end up smelling like.
The powder formula Oxygen Boost supplements the Concentrate by removing odors and stains from the laundry. It’s formulated from just two ingredients — sodium percarbonate and sodium bicarbonate — and no bleach.?Bleach is corrosive to soil and toxic for wildlife, so this is a big plus for anyone concerned with how their detergent affects the outside world once it leaves the washing machine.
And in another win for sustainability, the Branch Basics starter kits come with recyclable and refillable spray bottles or a laundry bottle, depending on which kit you buy, which should drastically cut down on the amount of plastic in your home.
It’s effective
While I appreciate that I can get my laundry done without adding more chemicals to the local water supply, I also can’t have my family running around in dirty clothes, so effectiveness is key. And happily, this laundry detergent can do it all. After a month of use, I can say that clothes consistently emerge from the dryer looking and smelling clean.
According to the instructions, the cap only needs to be filled three-quarters of the way full for a load of laundry, but if I had clothes in the hamper with grass or dirt stains or that had been covered in paint or marker, I used the entire capful (and I didn’t have any issues with excess soap gumming up the washing machine). When I examined my clothes close up, the stains were actually gone, not just faded.
The clothes smelled clean after every wash, but the brand kept its promise of imparting no fragrance. We’re potty training right now, and even a pair of underwear in which my daughter had an accident didn’t smell. I also washed a load of just-purchased clothes with this detergent and it didn’t fade the vibrance of the colors.
What I didn’t like about it
It’s slightly more time-consuming to use
Washing your clothes with Branch Basics’ Laundry Kit is a slightly longer process than you might be used to. With a traditional detergent, you probably just dump some soap in the dispenser and go. But with Branch Basics, there are a few extra steps. Once every 64 loads, you have to first mix the Concentrate with water to make the detergent. And every time you do the laundry, you have to dump the Oxygen Boost straight into the drum before adding the clothes, but you may be doing this already if you add softener to your laundry. I think these few extra minutes are well worth the effort given how much more sustainable Branch Basics is than the typical store-bought detergent.
The other issue is that grease stains embedded into dish towels that I use on a daily basis didn’t disappear — at most those stains were only lightened. I don’t have a big problem with this, though. Once I run those dish towels through the washing machine to at least remove bacteria, I go right back to using them to wipe up messes, so they are always going to be dirty.
It’s more expensive
And if you’re used to buying an almost 2.5-liter bottle of Tide, you may get sticker shock from seeing that $69 price tag on the Branch Basics laundry kit. After calculating cost per load, it is slightly more expensive than traditional detergent, but I think it’s well worth it for a cleaner, more sustainable product.
When making your Branch Basics laundry detergent in the included jug, you’re mixing roughly 16 ounces of water and 10 ounces of Concentrate (from the 33.8-ounce bottle). Each jug lasts for 64 loads, and you’ll be able to fill the jug a little more than three times for a total of about 213 loads of laundry. And with a $69 price tag, you’ll be doing laundry for about 32 cents per load. That cost comes down once you’re buying refills of the Concentrate at $55, to about 26 cents per load (it’s 23 cents per load if you sign up for the Concentrate to be on a subscription). A jug of Tide, on the other hand, covers 64 loads, and at $13, costs about 20 cents per load.
Bottom line
The Branch Basics Laundry Kit will remove stains and deodorize clothes, as long as you use both the Concentrate and Oxygen Boost in conjunction, and it is truly fragrance-free.
Branch Basics has created a system that effectively cuts down on how much you consume, and how much waste you put back into the ecosystem. The reusable laundry jug cuts down on the amount of plastic in my home, and I appreciate that this laundry detergent is especially long-lasting too.
Stains that have soaked into fabric from grease and coffee are going to be tougher to remove in just one wash, but the Oxygen Boost can be used to pretreat stains as well if one spot needs extra help. If you’re eager to eradicate polluting cleaning products and you need a laundry detergent that actually works, Branch Basics is a good place to start.
