The Top Line: It’s a Mixed Buy! Safely Universal Cleaner is a great, easy to use product that smells and cleans wonderfully. Better yet, the price is very reasonable. Our only complaints — there are some ingredients that may cause some concern according to EWG, and the liquid formula is heavy to ship, meaning a higher carbon footprint.

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: $6 for 28fl oz.

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? Cardboard box packaging, but liquid formula means higher carbon footprint from shipping and transport. While it is mostly ‘plant-powered’ with salt and coconut derived ingredients, there are some ingredients that sow cause for concern. Product overall does not appear to be biodegradable.

• Packaging: Recyclable cardboard box.

• Purchasing & Shipping: We purchased on Safely’s website.

• What’s Your Impact?

  • Comes in liquid format so it requires more energy to ship and transport than tablet options like Blueland or Meliora

  • Traditional liquid laundry detergents are usually packaged in high density polyethylene. 68% of these bottles are not recycled and contribute to the approximately 275 metric tons of plastic waste that goes into our oceans and waterways annually. A family of 4 would typically go through 5-6 plastic jugs of laundry detergent (that can be used for 64 loads) over the course of a year.

The Experience

Context: We have been predominantly using Blueland and Meliora.

• We really like the fresh scent! While it is stronger than our other eco-friendly options, we didn’t find it to be overpowering.

• Cleaned very well, sticky countertop stains wiped right off without any scrubbing.

• Comes in liquid format so no need to make the solution from a tablet

Overall, we liked the ease of use and the fresh ‘rise’ scent!

Ingredients

We took a look at the list of ingredients on the EWG (Environmental Working Group) database, which rates ingredients from a 0 to 10 scale (0 being the best, 10 being the worst).

Overall, the ingredient list was a bit longer than we typically like to see, and there were two ingredients where we did find some concerns:

Cocamidopropyl Betaine: Rated 1-5 depending on usage. Ingredients linked to harm to the immune system, a class of health problems that manifest as allergic reactions or an impaired capacity to fight disease and repair damaged tissue in the body.

Benzisothiazolinone: Rated 3-6 depending on usage. Ingredients linked to harm to the immune system, a class of health problems that manifest as allergic reactions or an impaired capacity to fight disease and repair damaged tissue in the body.

The Cost

There are A LOT of options out there for laundry — we compiled both powder and pod options for comparison, as well as another laundry sheet brand to get a well rounded comparison. Brands included in the comparison analysis below include Beyond Laundry Sheets, Tru Eath Laundry Sheets, Meliora, Dropps, Gain, Method, Seventh Generation:

Money Report: Safely Universal Cleaner is a lot less expensive than other options out there! However, it doesn’t beat out Blueland and Meliora on price.

The Good:

✔ Ease of use

✔ Great price point

✔ Recyclable Packaging

✔ Love the scent!

✔ Cleans quite well (even for a non-aerosol), no scrubbing when we tested it on some sticky countertop stains

The Bad:

✗ Does not appear to be biodegradeable

✗ We have concerns about two of the ingredients: Benzisothiazolinone and Cocamidopropyl Betaine

✗ Liquid formula means heavier, higher carbon-footprint transport

Our Recommendation: It’s a Mixed Buy! Safely Universal Cleaner is a great, easy to use product that smells and cleans wonderfully. Better yet, the price is very reasonable. Our only complaints — there are some ingredients that may cause some concern according to EWG, and the liquid formula is heavy to ship, meaning a higher carbon footprint.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!