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Last summer my then three-year-old niece stayed with us for two weeks. It was mostly about giving her parents a good, long break and for me and Justin to get to know her better since she lives in Texas. Talk about crash course in toddler management though. Things became a lot easier once I realized that she is a female from our family and there are two basic rules: don’t mess with our sleep and don’t mess with our food. What’s truly neat about the tiny humans is that everything, and I really mean everything, is new and exciting to them – even the chores that we take for granted.
One evening, Justin came home from work and I was in dire need of a break as it had been a rather trying day. He was planning on getting the laundry started which entails taking it down to the second-floor laundry room and getting things set up. I was so desperate that I asked my niece, “Do you want to help Uncle Justin with the magical laundry?” Of course, she said “yes” because what else could she say. Actually, she started singing “magical laundry” and dancing around. In a stroke of genius, I had realquiet for about ten minutes. (You can read all about her visit here.)
Dropps helped us achieve that magical moment that day. This is my super honest review of Dropps laundry pods. (I use their dishwasher pods too!) I haven’t been compensated for this review. I just really like the brand and what they stand for.
what we did before dropps & why switch
Growing up, I was a Tide kid. My mom would buy the mega-sized box of Tide because that’s what you do when you have five kids and an ungodly amount of laundry to do each week. Out of habit, that’s what we always bought too. Except we upgraded and got Tide Pods that we got from Amazon’s Subscribe & Save. The pods cost about $0.25 each.
Over the past year, I’ve been trying to order less and less from Amazon. Similarly to why I don’t shop at Wal-Mart, Amazon’s practices don’t often align with my values. I love(d) them for books, but, as we all know, Amazon has turned into quite the juggernaut when it comes to being all things to all people. You really could buy everything that you need from them. (John Oliver, there is a lot of truth in jest, recently did a great piece about their treatment of workers in distribution centers.) I would rather use my dollars to support better companies. Additionally, I’ve read a lot about the horrors of plastic over the past year. (Most noteably, SanClemants Plastic Purge.) I decided to start looking for products that would better align with my values and use less plastic.
enter dropps
In terms of plastic reduction, dropps is the way to go. The pods arrive in a compostable or recyclable cardboard box. There aren’t any plastic bags holding things together or excessive tape on the box. At most, you just need to remove the shipping label. Since we do apartment composting, I opt to recycle the box. Our worms get more than enough fiber in their diet from egg cartons.
Dropps subscription plans are super convenient. Part of the reason that we were avid Subscribe & Save users was the convenience of not needing to think or worry about running out of laundry soap. Like clockwork, a tub of Tide pods would appear and usually before we ran out completely. Dropps has a similar subscription system. You choose what size of plan to go with (single, couple, or family) and the default is to ship out your order every four months. You can also easily customize the frequency of delivery or skip shipments if needed. Justin and I are on the couples plan and get our delivery every four months.
Dropps costs less than Tide and handles the grossest of wash. One Dropps pod costs about $0.22, a slight savings over the Tide pods. We generally separate our laundry into six types: darks, lights, yoga/exercise, man-wash, dog wash, and cleaning towels. The first two are generally reasonable loads of wash in terms of the dirtiness. Everything else can be a bit of a disaster, especially the cleaning towels. I’ve yet to have a load come back in less than perfectly clean condition. We like the smell of the lavender pods but would also consider the scent-free pods.
my one complaint (and it’s a small one)
With dropps pods, you toss the pod directly in with the wash – not in the dispenser tray. One time, out of hundreds of loads of wash, the pod wrapper didn’t completely dissolve. I found the remains of the pod stuck to one of my shirts while putting the laundry away. After rinsing the shirt in the sink and letting it airdry, things were perfectly fine. It hasn’t happened since, so I don’t really know why it occurred that one time.
If you’re looking for a plastic-free, eco-friendly laundry solution, Dropps is the way to go. Use my referral link and you’ll get $10 off your first subscription. (I’ll get a coupon for $20 off my subscription too!)
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