Full Disclosure

Going through my linen closet recently, I unearthed four raggedy, but bright white, bath towels. I kind of just stared at them for a minute... and it all came rushing back to me. Here's the full disclosure: the green housecleaner was once a full-on bleach lover. It all started when I bought those white towels ten years ago. I was just married and about to host my first houseguest in a new apartment. I wasn't raised to be particularly domestic-minded but for whatever reason, now that I was an adult, it just seemed right to have brand new matching white towels. I was getting ready to cut them up for rags when I smelled the bleach. It's easily been four years since I stopped using the noxious stuff altogether yet these towels still smelled "bleachy-clean”.Damn, those towels drove me mad. We didn't own many more towels so they even got used for the occasional home hair dying fiasco. On top of that, I routinely poured straight bleach down the drains (which never seemed to clear them) because a landlord had advised it. Oh yes, I loved bleach. It defined "clean" for me. Turns out it also gave me serious asthma attacks and skin issues. When I decided to cut out the toxic products, my health improved dramatically and all of a sudden I craved colored towels, sheets, curtains anything NOT WHITE! It was as if a huge weight fell off my shoulders. All that high maintenance white stuff I owned (because I thought I should) just didn't seem worth the trouble. There are, of course, much less toxic ways to keep whites bright: oxygen bleaches, borax, even lemon juice can achieve wonderful results… But, really, why bother?