September 2013 Homegrown Collective Review

This Homegrown Collective review will cover the September box, also known as the Back to School box! The Homegrown Collective box this month was focused on sustainable laundry 101, which means it was perfect for a newbie like me to dip her toes into the whole world of sustainable laundry in an easy and fun way.

This professionally curated and seasonally themed monthly box changes themes every month, hence the "Back to School" theme in this Homegrown Collective review. The box offers realistic, easy to implement solutions for living a more self-sufficient lifestyle, living a more sustainable lifestyle, and reducing your carbon footprint.

The boxes include projects and unique opportunities to grow your own organic food, create your own all natural products, and more. $39 per month ( with $9 shipping, the boxes are very large!), and significant discounts and free shipping for 6 month or longer subs. 

The box contains a sheet for each item, safely tucked into a protective case at the top of the box.

Laundry soap and Bleach alternative: These are the all natural options for clothes cleaning without all those toxins that we may tend to introduce into our laundry room with the mainstream options. These are just the powders, but as you can see they included some adorable mason jars to keep these in, plus a handy scoop.

This is a wool dryer ball. It is simply a ball of pure wool that you scent with the attached vial of pure essential oil. The included oil is peppermint scented and it is a heavenly scent! All you do is throw this dryer ball in with your clothes and it replaces fabric softener sheets. Of course this wool dryer ball can be used over and over, refreshing the scent as needed. I am very extremely happy with this: Used it on multiple dryer loads already and it works well: No static cling, clothes are soft, and the scent is wonderful.

This is an amazingly versatile pure Olive oil castile soap. You can use this safely on your body, your hair, or your laundry (instructions are included for a simple laundry soap: Grate it and add washing soda and salt to make your own laundry detergent!) 

Soap Nuts: These were so much fun to try! The soap nuts are all natural. They contain a natural saponin, which is released when you throw the bag into the washing machine. As the clothes are agitated, the soap is released and cleans the clothes. One bag of soap nuts will do multiple loads - over time the hulls break down and eventually you can safely compost them. They certainly seemed to get the job done with cleaning the clothes and I actually enjoyed the fact that the clothes felt so clean without all the fakey artificial laundry scents I've become accustomed to. My nephew and I had fun with this item because it was an educational experience for both of us, but a fun one that really engaged his interest.

The charming basket, scoop, and two mason jars were included. These items really made the theme of the box kind of come alive because they look natural, charming, and help remind me that I'm using products that are good for the environment. Plus, they made me feel all "Little House on the Prairie" like (this is always a great thing as I always wanted to be Laura Ingalls.)

I found this one of the more fascinating subscription boxes that I've tried in recent memory because it is just so different. Sure, I get lots of makeup and accessories and so forth but I don't get too many items that really engage me in fun projects like this.

I think of Homegrown Collective as a painless way to grow yourself into green. It was enjoyable not only for me but for my family as well -- my 10 year old nephew loved this because he felt like he was doing fun science experiments along with me. I was visiting my sister when I opened this box, and she and my mom begged me to borrow the dryer ball because they love the concept and the scent so much. We all had tons of fun with the soap nuts, so I think the whole box was a hit.

Want to check out the next Homegrown Collective box? They feature a new box theme every month, you can see it here: HOMEGROWN COLLECTIVE!