The journal

Notes from the laundry room.

A handful of care guides and behind-the-studio essays. We write when we have something to say, not on a schedule.

Care guides · Featured

How to wash your delicates without ruining them

A field guide to silk slips, vintage knits and that one cashmere sweater you actually wear.

By Yunan Hui · February 4, 2025 · 6 min read

Most delicates do not need a dry cleaner. They need cooler water, less agitation, and a gentler detergent. Once you understand the three, you can wash almost everything at home.

Start by sorting by fiber, not color. Silk and wool behave differently from cotton lace. Place each group in a mesh bag, fill the basin with cold water (60–70 °F), and dissolve half a Coastal Breeze Sheet before adding the garments.

Behind the studio

Why we switched from liquid to detergent sheets

After three years of formulating both, here is the honest comparison — water, plastic, and the wash itself.

A typical 100-oz jug of liquid detergent is roughly 70% water. We were shipping water from California to Chicago, in plastic, and asking customers to lift it. It made no sense.

A box of 64 sheets weighs 4.6 oz, ships in a kraft mailer, and cleans the same loads. The active ingredients — surfactants, enzymes, builders — are identical. The difference is the carrier.

Sheets are not magic. They have honest trade-offs. They prefer to dissolve in the drum directly (not the dispenser), they need a moment in cold water (60 °F+), and a heavily soiled load may want two sheets. But once you learn them, they are simply better mail to receive.

By Marcus Chen · November 19, 2024 · 7 min read

Care guides

A practical guide to laundry in hard water

If your towels feel stiff and your whites turn gray, the problem is often not your detergent.

About 85% of US households have moderately to very hard water. Calcium and magnesium ions bind to soap, leaving residue on fibers. The result: stiff towels, dingy whites, and that faintly mineral smell.

The fix is not more detergent. It is a builder — typically washing soda — that softens water before the surfactants get to work. Our sheets already include sodium carbonate for this reason. For very hard water (>180 ppm), add a tablespoon to the drum.

Once a month, run an empty hot cycle with a cup of distilled white vinegar to descale the machine itself. Your laundry, and your washer, will thank you.

By Sofia Reyes · January 10, 2025 · 8 min read

Care guides

Caring for organic cotton so it lasts a decade

Organic cotton is sturdier than people think — if you stop washing it on hot.

We grew up watching our grandmothers fold linens, and they almost never used hot water. Heat is what wears cotton out — fibers shrink, dyes leach, and elastics give up.

For everyday cotton: cold wash, low tumble or line dry. For sheets: warm wash once a month with a half-cup of vinegar in the rinse to keep them crisp without bleach.

A good rule: if you can put your hand in the wash water, your clothes can be washed in it.

By Yunan Hui · September 2, 2024 · 5 min read

Sustainability

Microplastics, your laundry, and the Pacific

What synthetic fabrics actually shed each cycle — and three small habits that meaningfully reduce it.

A single load of synthetic clothing can release up to 700,000 microfibers — most of which slip past wastewater filters and end up in waterways. We live a mile from the ocean. We think about this a lot.

Three habits help, and we use all of them in our own homes. First, wash synthetics in a Guppyfriend bag or a Cora ball — they catch most fibers. Second, wash less often and at lower temperatures. Third, when you do buy, choose natural fibers when you can.

We also formulate with this in mind. Our sheets dissolve fully in cold water so you do not need hot cycles, which shed more fibers. Small choices, repeated, are how the ocean stays the ocean.

By Dana Whitfield · March 15, 2025 · 9 min read