Fabric softener is a scam
Fabric softener is a scam
Fabric softener is great. Mix a bit with water and use it to clean your shower glass doors/walls. It removes limescale like a charm thanks to the anionic surfactants that are in there. And the Aldi store brand costs hardly anything.
Gen X here, I only use unscented dryer sheets because if I don't I will get shocked a lot. My apartment is great because the humidity is super low in the winter, but clothing hurts. Humidifier doesn't work because if I don't use distilled water everything gets a rust color on it. Also I'd be going through a gallon of distilled water a day. I can't afford that, but I sure as heck can afford a big box of unscented dryer sheets that solves my problem.
It's worth noting that cat owners(at least, never had anything buts cats) should avoid certain essential oils, As our furry pals' little organs aren't equipped to process them, and they can easily be deadly!
@[email protected], saw you mention essential oils too, just a PSA.
It's worse. Fabric softener is composed of an anti static oil. When you run it in the laundry, it coats all of your clothes with a very thin layer of oil.
Which is why towels dried with fabric softener and dryer sheets don't absorb water anywhere near as well as plain towels dried without it!!
My mom complained to me for years that I wasn't "doing it right" by not using fabric softener. But her towels are useless compared to mine! She continues to spends $100/ year on fabric softener while on social security. Over the year she has spent thousands and thousands of $$$. 🤦♀️
yup, I kept finding these weird stains on our clothes and figured out it was from the fabric softener sheets, stopped using them immediately. Can’t even tell the difference tbh
Not only that, some people (including myself) are sensitive to the oils used. Having underwear that actively makes you itchy sucks. I switched to wool dryer balls and never looked back
It was the primary cause of milia on my arms/legs. It took me years to figure out why my arms always had things that looked like whiteheads but couldn’t be as there was no infected area around them.
I keep having to tell family to stop using dryer sheets on at least the towels. If they want to use them on anything else, whatever, their clothes. But god damn stop making the towels bad!!
I'm not convinced about the cost. A kilogram of borax seems to run about $10CAD. 2 cups, at 1.7g/CC, would be about 850g, so $7 just for the Borax. Unless there's a much cheaper place to get it...
A ~5L jug of Tide costs $31, or about $6/L. If they have approximately equivalent cleaning power per volume, Tide wins.
Most of that tide jug is water.
Yeah, which is why I added the note about cleaning power per unit volume. But it'd have to be a fair bit more powerful to make the effort worth it, I think.
We use maybe 50ml of Tide (so that'd be probably 100 loads) when doing our laundry, so if that's equivalent to like one tablespoon of the Borax mix, I could see it saving me $20 or so overall, if it's three times stronger.
So it'd come down to how much time I spend shopping and combining the mixture vs just buying it.
Mind, that's just the borax. Bar soap and baking soda are cheap but not free.
(edit: and before someone jumps on me about "baking soda", I was thinking of it in terms of decomposing it into carbonate in the oven. I haven't priced out washing soda)
That homemade laundry soap made with bar soap would be a nightmare in hard water. I don't even want to think about soap scum in the drains and in my clothes.
I just use the smallest amount of detergent I can get out of the bottle, that works well. And don't wash a garment after wearing it once if it's not underwear. Invested in a lot of Merino stuff which manages to be comfortable even here in Florida and doesn't stink ever. I can wear those shirts and just hang them back up.
I'm happy buying detergent honestly - it last a LONG time when you actually use the correct amount per load. I think the real crime is the "measuring caps" on liquid detergent basically tricking everyone into using WAY too much detergent. Most washers will recommend 1-2 tablespoons of detergent maximum for heavily soiled loads.. Most measuring caps are over that even at the first of several marks, and people rarely think they need the minimum (moar soap moar clean, right?) - so people tend to add 5-10 times the detergent they need.
The numbers on the cap are just numbers and lines on the cap. You assign meaning to them as the maker never tells you what they are for.
and they we have pods. Which are the hugest ripoff per load, but for the first time people are actually using the right amount of detergent and they're all amazed that the machines don't get gummed up.
Just measure the real stuff right?
Yeah I buy maybe 2 £4 bottles of washing liquid a year, because I put in like 1/4 of what it tells me to.
So honestly making my own just isn't worth the time.
The best soap for washing machines is powdered. They remove all the extraneous crap that can also cause mold growth in the washer. Front loaders are really bad about this too.
I was with you until the wool in Florida. I lived in FL almost my entire life and there were times I'd have taken off my skin Hellraiser-style just to be less hot
Admittedly I run cool, was born here. But ride to work in the Merino wool t-shirts from Unbound or silk/Merino thin knit sweater and also merino socks, and arrive absolutely presentable, so much better than cotton, not better than linen, but better looking for an office. Only the v-neck though, can't stand it near my neck, that does itch. And not all brands, only Unbound for the T-shirts. Silk/Merino blend always rocks.
If only millennials bought more fabric softener instead of avocados and coffee they would be able to afford a house.
I propose we start calling it fabric lotion. Maybe the disgust with that mental imagery will shut down this worthless product.
they would be able to afford a house
How much avocadoes for a house?
And you forgot the /s.
Don't need the /s on here, all the idiots are still on reddit
There's always avocados in the banana stand!
At the current rate? Depending on where you live, 3-10.
Wool balls do not work with synthetics.
Synthetics are terrible anyway
Cotton fibers from repeated washes and clothing waste are also terrible though. In my case, one pair of synthetic outdoor or workout pants lasts over a decade while a pair of cotton jeans or khakis has the crotch chewed out within months. As far as I understand the math on the environmental impact, it's more about using the same items for as long as possible than what material those items are.
Cheap ones, yep.
I can't imagine baking baking soda in an oven is cheaper than just buying washing soda? They're both sold in similar size bags (1kg) for similar prices in my area (€9-€10). Seems like a waste of energy to buy the wrong type of carbonate.
Some people will literally discard economies of scale just to be sanctimonious.
also, soooo many people will just ignore power usage bills, which can be quite substantial in some areas. Running my oven for an hour straight is not exactly cheap
The amount at Costco is about 5lbs, so that is more than the 2.2lbs y’all are talking about.
It might depend on the size of the household, and the volume produced at any one time. If you make a gigantic batch that will last 1+ year(s), it might be a cost-saver, but who knows?
Fabric softener is sometime useful for very hard water. You don't have to buy it, though. You can use white vinegar to soften the water to actually soften the fabric mix in a big container one part white vinegar to one part sodium bicarbonate. Wait for it to stop foaming. Add four drops of essential oils per liter of mixture. Stir. Allow to rest a few hour before using. You can make big quantity ahead of time as long as your container is big enough for the big foam of the big batch.
Speaking of hard water, I recently installed a water conditioner/descaler instead of replacing my dead water softener. It's an electronic device that mounts on the water supply pipe, and uses a couple of wire coils to create an electric field that makes the calcium ions in the hard water stick to each other instead of pipes and fixtures. I was skeptical, because the description of how it works sounds a lot like many woo-woo devices that use "magnetic fields" to do... something. But I read up on water descalers, and all of the information that I found was very straightforward, listing the pro's and con's of descalers versus softeners.
And it works! I checked the water utility reports for the wells which serve my area, and found that they're all "very hard," but quite low on manganese. Therefore, I don't mind that the minerals stay in the water; they just go down the drain instead of building up on things. It's actually starting to dissolve the scale buildup on my faucets, slowly. No need for vinegar to have soft fabric out of the laundry, either. I like that it descales all of the water in the house, so I don't have to bother about which is softened and which is not. It was also cheaper than a water softener, and I don't have to buy salt regularly. Also, it's an older house with galvanized pipes, which soft water will corrode.
Anyway, random aside on hard water.
Very interesting. Thank you for the advice (^_^)
Honestly at a loss here. The title references fabric softener, but the content relates more specifically to DIY laundry detergent while only mentioning that softener makes clothes more vulnerable to wear & tear. What's the nitty-gritty on the fabric softener? Does it actually damage clothing in some way?
As geek analogy, is it like the subatomic bacteria that starts destroying the Klingon ship in Star Trek: the Next Generation S2E8's "A Matter Of Honor", or does it just make the material more susceptible to tearing?
https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/how-do-fabric-softeners-work.html
It was created so that when you dried clothes outside (especially cotton) they didn't get crunchy. The fibers tend to freeze an interlock microscopically when they dry. It coats the fibers and makes them not stick together.
When mechanical dryers became the norm, they needed a new reason, so the called out static. And in some climates, dryer static can be a bit of a pain. Dryer balls supposedly help with this, but I can't find any reasonable data to back that up, and that's just the kind of thing we're confirmation bias over.
Softener can/will build up on the fabric. It can discolor bright whites.
I think the worst of it is:
- if you use it on towels or anything meant to absorb water, it seriously dampens that ability
- it builds up in the nooks and crannies of the washer and it's hard to clean off,
- it's expensive
- for mechanical drying in moderate climates, it does little more than add smell.
- some people have allergenic reactions to it
Dryer balls supposedly help with this
From what I've heard, dryer balls help the drying process by warming up faster than the wet clothes and drying from inside the pile. And even if that turns out to have been misinformation, I'm not too annoyed by it because it's a single low-cost expense whereas dryer sheets are consumables
Just the sort of information that I was after, thank you.
I worked in appliances for about ten years, and not a single washer manufacturer would actually recommend using fabric softener. It horribly gums up the workings of the machine, even when you use the tiny amount you are actually supposed to (which most people use way too much). They are (or were originally) basically just animal fats and emulsifiers with some fragrance thrown in. They smell awful when they are left stuck somewhere for a long time (like the outer walls of the inner tub of your washing machine - seriously, it probably looks furry if you opened it up to see).
I can't speak to what it does to your clothes specifically, but I can imagine several downsides to essentially coating fabric in lavender scented industrial mayonnaise.
Interesting take, it's the first that I'm hearing about them gumming up the machine's innards, but I can definitely see that being a serious issue over time.
Yes. As I understand it, fabric softener softens the fabrics. Obviously. Which makes them more prone to ripping, tearing, and just deteriorating faster. In addition to being another cost, both financial & possibly environmental, it's plain unnecessary.
I buy some really nice clothing & I want my clothes to last as long as possible. Most of my clothing takes a long time to wear out. My recipe for success for the last 10 years is precisely as follows:
I have a frontloading washing machine, which uses far less water & it doesn't have an agitator screw thing in the middle that grabs your wet clothes (clothing is weakest when it's wet). I button & zip my pants, and anything else with a zipper like a jacket, so the zippers aren't attacking clothes during the wash cycle. Nice clothing, I turn inside-out to preserve designs or outward-facing fabric. I use the ECOS greywater friendly laundry detergent from Costco, and I just use more of it like I dump a full cap or 1.5 caps per load. In case it's not as effective as conventional, just use more. Plus 1 scoop OxiClean (idk the greywater/waste impact of OxiClean; I'm convinced it's a powerful multipurpose cleaning agent that is gentle on clothing).
All clothing is treated the same, whites & brights & colors & blacks, all get washed together, I couldn't care less. Run washer on Tap Cold, Extra High Spin, Heavy Soil level every time. No matter the load. So my washer works extra hard to gently wash my clothing & then wring nearly all the water out of it. The harder you run the washer, the less work is done by the dryer, which save you electric/gas & is gentler on your clothes.
Then my athletic gear, wool socks, and denims never go into the dryer, I let those air dry. The rest is gently run through the dryer & "it is what it is", it's mostly stuff that doesn't really matter.
It takes longer to write out than to do, you can see, it's quite expedient. I don't separate. I dump a lot of simple, gentle detergents in. Wash when dirty, wring out water, dryer if necessary. I'm telling you: my clothes last a very long time. Less is more.
Sound habits, these. Except for the front-loader, and Oxiclean, it sounds like we're on the same page. Aside from these strategies, I figure that the quality of the clothes, and having kept all synthetics out of my dresser/closet have helped to lengthen the life of my clothing as well.
Nobody's mentioend laundry detergent sheets yet? Super cheap. I buy the Poesie brand. 160 sheets in a box for $9.49. That's just under 6¢ per load. For my two loads of laundry per week, a box lasts me a year and a half.
Bonus: the box takes up almost no space, 6" x 5" x 3".
Also, white vinegar is an awesome replacement for fabric softener!
"Detergent sheets", "dryer sheets", it's like you're in a different world with these fantastically strange single-use products :D
They look like a tissue made of rough fiber, do they dissolve or do you have to throw them away after usage? Either way it seems less practical than just adding a bit of powder, but what do I know :)
Another replacement for fabric softener is hair conditioner (diluted with water so it runs better). I only use it when washing polyester fleece, since that gets fiercely static, so it's nice to be able to use a product we already have at home.
Detergent sheets completely dissolve in the wash.
Single-use? I mean ... sure? I guess? The same way a scoop of detergent powder is single-use.
probably most everything is a scam if you look close enough.
It's worth wondering how much fabric softener would cost someone over their adult lifetime as an exercise. Let's say 50 years of adulthood, and 12 bottles a year costing $10 each. That's six grand. For something that serves no functional purpose, makes towels less effective and has an environmental impact.
So yes it's a scam. If someone really needs to use fabric softener, at least buy a cheaper supermarket brand and use it sparingly.
12 bottles a year??? Lmfao exactly how much laundry you got? Assume a family of 4 does 3 loads a week (12 a month). A bottle of Snuggle fabric softener ($8) has roughly 112 rinse loads.
That's 112 rinse loads /12 wash loads a month = 9.3 months
2 bottles max a year at a whopping $16.
$16 x 50 years= $800
This new generation can't do anything and spends money frivolously.... This generation is too stingy and resourceful.... Guys pick a damn lane.
They can't afford fabric softener or washing detergents to clean those avocado stains.
'Most millennials aren't buying enough of our shit and that's a HUGE PROBLEM that all of you definitely care about!'
That's some pretty useful advice in the comments tho. But also I'm 52 years old and have literally never used fabric softener in my life and have no idea what it's supposed to be for other than making companies like Proctor & Gamble even more money.
Also, another handy tip: 'lather, rinse, repeat' is bullshit, unless you have really thick or really oily hair and don't wash regularly, you don't need to wash it twice, the shampoo company just wants you to buy more. Same with fill marks in a washing machine, unless you're doing a huge load there's no reason to fill it all the way up.
and don’t wash regularly
Even washing hair regularly is a scam. If you wash once a week your hair will be fine. It'll look like shit for a few weeks until your scalp gets the message that you aren't stripping away all the natural oils still and that it can cut back on oil production but afterwards your hair will be healthier.
I'm sorry to have to say, but the idea of "hair training" is a myth.
The oil glands (which are known as sebaceous glands, and produce an oil called "sebum") are controlled by genetics, hormones, and stress. Sebaceous glands don't have any sort of "sensor" to tell them when to produce more/less oil, so washing or not washing won't make a difference.
100%.
Use a shampoo that has aloe as the primary ingredient as well. Can comfortably make it a week and half before it looks gnarly.
Routinely get complimented on it so I know its not nasty.
Was "lather, rinse, repeat" an advertising jingle or something for you guys, or do you just all get taught to wash your hair twice?
It was on the instructions on the bottles and IIRC in the ads for the major brands too.
I learned that from Lizzie McGuire. Ethan Craft, the character frequently noted to have amazing hair, calls the "lather, rinse, repeat" thing a marketting trick.
I've had a box of fabric sheets for a decade or so cause my mom got them for me when she house sat, and I didn't have any. I sometimes use em if there are sparks when I pull something out of the dryer, and i don't forget i have them.
Cotton and mostly-cotton blends don't get that much static but nylon, polyester, and bamboo/rayon/microfiber make sparks. If you're trying to wash pet hair out of something, the softener can help it let go. Although, before you wash, try using a squeegee or a silicone bowl-scraper to remove most of the hair.
Yeah I'm not putting all that effort and potentially ruining my washing machine to save me a few cents per wash. That seems ridiculous.
You don't even have to buy the fancy, expensive, in a pod detergent or anything, considering they always contain the same stuff that comes in a box/bottle. Just buy whatever's cheap.
Yea, making your own laundry detergent from grated soap and borax seems like something people with money do to convince themselves they're frugal. When in reality, there is no way in hell you're making a commodity cheaper than GreatValue (tm)
Yeah, the cheap standard powder detergent would probably be less expensive. The volume you'd need to make to beat it is huge. Like, maybe five years' worth.
I am also laughing at making washing powder in the oven to save money. The amount you'd spend on electricity would put you in the red, unless you live in a petrostate with free electricity or something.
Not just the effort, but by the time you buy all those ingredients, you're probably paying more than you would for normal laundry detergent.
And if you use Dr. Bronner's bar soap as recommended, you'll be paying out the ass.
im ok with buying a container of laundry detergent every few months
Yeah I don't use fabric softener or dryer sheets but a good value size jug of detergent is worth it to me. My wife and I both work two jobs., I don't want to spend any time grating soap.
I'd recommend powdered detergent instead. It's usually far cheaper per load since you aren't paying for them to ship you the water that's in the liquid detergent.
You also don't need to follow the 'load size' guidelines listed on the scoop, as only the bottom line or two is really adding anything to most loads.
Yeah, I just looked it up. The name brand that I buy is $23 for 132 fl oz. With the way I use laundry detergent, at 0.5 oz per cycle, that's 264 cycles for $23. Less than $.10 for the name brand stuff, maybe less for a store brand.
I have kids so I run 2 batches per week, but that's still 20 cents per week for a family of 4. Not sure that's worth making my own.
Hello electricians and safety nerds. Fabric softener removes the fire rating on fire rated clothing protecting you from arc flash hazards.
Yes, and it will even say so right on the tags. At least it did on the 35 year old bunker gear I wore when I was young and a volunteer fireman in my small rural town. They had special washing instructions right on a big tag sewn on the inside to the coat and pants.
My favorite is the Tide Free and Clear commercial where the kid goes "look dad, it's just as clean but without any of the chemicals that harm me!" They're literally admitting their core product contains harmful chemicals yet people are still buying it!
Borax gives me rashes, but I’ve used laundry bar soap or just the super sensitive skin liquid stuff. I use vinegar instead of name brand fabric softener because it’s cheaper and the other stuff gives me a rash. Nearly all of the store bought laundry stuff gives me rashes.
I was always so frustrated in college when I'd run a load at the laundromat, and then discover I'd missed a dryer sheet someone had left in the dryer. I'd be itchy all week.
I've found baby washing detergent to be exactly what I ever wanted, no perfume, no nothing, and it's sensitive. And if you're wondering if it gets shit cleaned, you can wash diapers with it. This stuff is not made by babies but for them.
You have to really make sure borax is fully rinsed out or it can leave some residue as well. But, it can be extraordinarily effective at cleaning clothes, particularly if you 1) fully dissolve it in water prior (use boiling) and 2) soak for at least an hour.
Borax is also effective at killing mold. But, like you innormally stock with vinegar. Gets rid bacteria, viruses and mold too.
Doesn't that make your clothes smell like vinegar?
No, I use it during the rinse cycle and it’s fine.
All ot does is make the fabric soft? Are yall wearing potatoes sacks?
Having softener does not soften fabric. It's basically just liquid perfume for your clothes. It also shortens the lifespan of your clothes by destroying them.
I'm not sold on that homemade detergent. Soap tends to leave insoluble residue, especially when you have hard water. There is a reason why almost everything uses synthetic detergents (though it might also be because those are cheap).
You can just use white vinegar instead of fabric softener. It's significantly cheaper, can be used for other non-laundry things, eliminates odors, and doesn't gum up your washing machine with residue.
Is there anything vinegar can’t do?!? Between white and apple cider vinegar, I feel like they cover so many areas of cleaning and household stuff.
Further advice, don't use a lot of it. You'll see videos on youtube of people pouring like three cups of vinegar in their washing machine, don't do that. You only need a splash of it. If you use too much, the acid will eat away at the rubber gaskets and shit
O.O
That's a terrifying amount. I use around 1/4 cup for most mid to large loads. 1/2 maaaybe if it's a large towel load. Does the job well enough.
You definitely don't need that much vinigar. That said most new washing machine are using a chemical resistant silicone or TPE instead of more traditional rubber compound. This eliminated the already miniscule risk of acid damaging the seals.
If you add 3 cups(about 700 mL) of standard 5% acetic acid bleach to 4 gallons of water(~ 15000 mL) you end up with a 0.2% acetic acid you will end up with a pH of something like 5.5 or about the pH of healthy skin. A lot of HE washers will use a 5 gallon initial wash so it's likely to be even gentler than what I came up with in my rough napkin math guesstamate.
Isn't vinegar used to remove fabric softener
Please don't do this. It seems like a hack, but will mess up your machine bc of how corrosive the vinegar is. Learned this the hard way.
If your clothes really need it, just soak them in a bath of diluted vinegar for a while, then rinse and wash.
I’ve read that the homemade laundry soap is actually soap, not detergent, and that it will over time ruin your machine.
So, I’ve just continued buying laundry detergent and have just used a fraction of what the instructions advise. It’s worked for me. I don’t buy softener or sheets. Couldn’t afford it if I wanted to. But I do have oxyclean on hand only for when I’ve forgotten a load in the washer until it’s stinky or when I wash the dog bed covers or whatever.
Yeah.... Especially if you have a high efficiency machine. Washing machines use a lot less water than back when these "recipes" were actually practical. So if you utilize shaved bar soap and borax, you're not only going to be leaving residue to build up in your machine, you're going to have it build up in your clothes as well.
Also, a lot of people are sensitive to borax. The reason they don't use it in regular detergent as an agitator is because it can cause rashes for a large percentage of the population.
Edited: spelling corrections
Regular laundry detergent leaves residue as well, that's why a lot of washers have self clean cycles.
Vinegar will cut most residues from a washer. It's one of the reasons it works as a softener, it removes detergent residue and minerals from hard water to make your clothes soft. As a side note a lot fabric softeners does the same thing by coating this fibres of the clothes in refined beef fat.
If you want a really clean machine (specific to most HE washers) put half a teaspoon of TSP(trisodium phosphate) in the empty drum of the machine and another half teaspoon where you put your detergent, fill the bleach cup and the fabric softener cup with vinegar. Set the machine to run a pre wash cycle then a heavy duty cycle on the hottest water temp(if there is a hot tap that is after your clothes washer in the pipeline, you can run that tap until it gets hot before starting the washer. HE washers use a lot less water so most of the time they are filling with cold water before the hot water rescues the machine) and as many extra rinses as your machine will allow.
After the TSP removes most of the residue, it's rinsed away and then the bleach cup of vinigar is released with the next rinse cycle. Since TSP is basic and the vinegar is acidic they react and the TSP is neutralized, this may lead to some deposits of various salts(depending on the exact reaction ratio, if there is an excess of vinigar then the acidic solution will help prevent the salts from depositing.
When the fabric softener cup of vinigar is released in the next rinse we ensure that all acidic solution is flushed through the machine. This again will help with any salt deposits and help clean any of the remaining residue that reacts better to the acidic solution.
Any extra rinses after that help make sure that anything that can be washed away will be. Your washer will be very clean inside.
TSP can be purchased at the hardware store for cleaning surfaces before you paint them, just make sure it's actually TSP and not a TSP replacement. Half a teaspoon of TSP in with your dish soap will make you love your dishwasher again. A little goes a long way, and using less TSP is more likely to give you a good result than using more.
That enormous rant aside, I have used homemade laundry soap recipes in several HE machines including two combination washer dryers(where the washing drum is the same as the drying drum, looks like a single HE machine, not a stacked washer and dryer) and in general those machines have more residue problems. I haven't really had any issues. That might be related to the fact that I do not put an excess of soap or detergent into the machine, again often less is more, and if you need better cleaning it's better to do a prewash cycle than add more detergent into the main cycle. More detergent =/= better cleaning, just more residue. Try washing a dish by hand with only liquid dish soap, no water, no damp sponge, just soap and a dry brush or dishcloth. While this is an extreme example, it does help illustrate that detergents or soaps allow grease and grime to be dissolved into water, and that's what allows it to clean effectively, the soap or detergent is just there to get stuff into the water.
Borax sensitivity is a legit concern.
I grew up watching my Mother make "laundry soap" from scratch as a kid. She would make a batch every fall from basically the tallow from the cow we home butchered for the winter and lye. I still remember that brown colored hard lump of soap and the wringer/washer she had. She would carve thin pieces off into the tub while it was agitating wait for a few minutes, then toss the clothes in to wash tub. There was no fancy detergent metering devices or small amounts of water. Even her first modern "spin dry" washer didn't have detergent dispensers. You simply poured the detergent directly on top of the clothes in the tub.
Modern washers are designed specifically to use liquid soaps or the pods. Though when using powders by pouring them directly into the tub won't cause anymore harm to the machine than any liquid will. Though you should probably use a longer wash cycle to make sure the powder dissolves completely. Back in the day, wash cycles were noticeably longer.
For those rare times I forget a load in the washer and it sours, I generally use a little vinegar.
I used it for about 10 years. I didn't notice any difference in my clothes or machine.
Fiance is fussy and wants Tide, so she pays for it.
It also makes the clothes extremely flammable.
I don't know about needing to make your own detergent. But using dry detergent would be a drastic improvement in cost compared to what most people do because if you're buying liquid detergent, most of what you're buying is water.
That is very store dependent. Last time I checked, my local grocery store only had premium brand dry detergent but had discount brand liquid detergent that was cheaper than store brand (which is what I use). I did the math, and the price per load on the dry detergent was not that good. Obviously, my math assumes that the advertised loads per package is true (which is assuredly not the case) or, at least, that brands have the same degree of inflation in their figure.
There's more than one store to buy such things at, try Home Depot for instance, they even carry the stuff in bulk. And online purchasing exists so you're not relegated to just that option.
If you believe being independent is more important, then more power to you. But even "making your own" you're dependent on getting the baking soda and soap from stores as well so it's really just a matter of how much you need to save and how far you're willing to go to secure that savings.
I started using the dry stuff years ago and it works great. Also, if the clothes are not really dirty i.e. have literally dirt stains on them, you need surprisingly little detergent. Same goes for the dishwasher.
If you have a problem with limestone in your water you can use the cheapest vinegar you can find and add it to the washing machine to make your clothes smoother.
Vinegar is also great at getting smells out of stuff. It's excellent for animal smells. I use a little in each load of laundry because my fave hobby is doing stuff with horses and I also have a beagle with a natural hound stink. It gets out all the animal stank and a 2 gallon jug costs $3 at the local dollar store.
I also used the stuff to deep clean my carpets to help out a disabled cat I owned. He had trouble determining where the litter box was because he was blind and brain damaged and the person who was in my house before me didn't clean up after their cats. Most of the smell was gone, but just enough was there to confuse my boi.
10/10 recommend vinegar.
Ordinary white vinegar is good for a lot of things, but it's too dilute to use as a fabric softener or limescale prevention.
I've used acetic acid (32%) for decades, 30ml or so per wash. It's even listed right on the bottle that it works as a fabric softener, keeps colors from fading and prevents limescale buildup.
And it goes in the fabric softener compartment of course, if you mix it with the detergent the acidity will reduce its washing power(detergent is alkaline).
how much is a cup in non freedom units?
In liberté units.
Haven’t used it for years
This feels like info that should be in the new Anarchist Cookbook.
That brought me back, I was on IRC in 1994 and someone shared the link to a website of the anarchists cookbook. And that is the first site I remember visiting... My brain says it was probably a Geocities site, but so much of the internet was that I can't recall
Baked baking soda is used to make ramen
But it can also irritate your skin
You don't need to go up to 400°F to decompose baking soda into washing soda. Decomposition starts around 122⁰F (50⁰C) and is complete at around 250⁰F (120⁰C)
Depending on the thickness you put in the pan you may want to put the oven around 300⁰F so to speed up the process.
You can safely go to higher temperature as it won't ever be overcooked.
details
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate
Heating to transform (baking soda) sodium bicarbonate into (washing soda) sodium carbonate does remove moisture but also removes carbon dioxide :
When sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) is heated, it undergoes a decomposition reaction to form sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), water (H2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2).
The reaction can be represented as :
2NaHCO3 + heat → Na2CO3 + H2O + CO2I also wonder about the cost of using the oven, and whether it's cheaper than just buying washing soda.
You can also do it in a pan on the stove top. Basically just heat up the baking soda over medium-ish heat. Once it gets hot enough, it'll "bubble" as the carbon dioxide and water is driven off as gas. Once it stops "bubbling", it's done. It's a bit faster than the oven method, but it's more active since you have to stir it regularly.
You can also weigh the powder before and after heating it to see if it's fully converted* to washing soda. The resulting washing soda should weigh about 1/3 less than the starting amount of baking soda.
This thread is so wild I swear. A bottle of softener costs 2 bucks and last you for so many washes (up to 100?). A bar of soap cost one buck, then you have to factor in the time to prepare the softener, the other ingredients and whatnot.
Where is the saving?
https://www.target.com/p/downy-april-fresh-liquid-fabric-conditioner-140-fl-oz/-/A-82823990
Here's a typical fabric softener at Target. $13 before tax. Still not a lot, but it's not nearly as cheap as $2.
Then the problem is with murica not with softener
Sometimes I'll be at the laundry detergent shelf at the shop and see a really low price, only to get disappointed by it being softener and not detergent. Shit be cheap, compared to detergent. Wouldn't even use softener if it were free though, so can't comment on how long it lasts.
Yeah same here
A bottle of softener costs 2 bucks and last you for so many washes (up to 100?).
What kind of fabric softener is that cheap for that much? My experience is that it's way more expensive than that.
Stubby used too much fabric softener on his jpeg.
I buy a Eco friendly and very affordable detergent from Costco. I need to use such a small amount even for a large load the jug lasts seemingly forever. So I don't feel the need to do up a homemade detergent.
When it come to softener though. Vinegar. It works, it's cheap, I can also use it for other household cleaning. Cooking and baking as well of course. You can't use if for loads that need bleach and use with fabrics that have a lot of elastic material can decrease it's life span. Overall though it works great dissolving soap and detergent residue that can make clothes feel stiff and scratchy, and less prone to lint and pet hair cling. Can help with odor and colour brightening too.
I will happily continue to be a millennial who ruins industry on that front.
As you know I am disgustingly wealthy being top 50 richest abigender as seen in shlorbes magazine but I am still going to use this recipe
This is how you save for the superyacht
That mentality is why I use a safety razor. Buy one and you'll only spend a few dollars a decade on shaving blades and have a better shave. A lot of things in life are useless fluff that we only do because companies want us to do it since it's profitable.
If only i could shave my head with one i would in a heartbeat.
I bought a Leaf Razor from an EU reseller about a year ago now and it was a game changer for head shaving with safety razor blades.
The head of the handle pivots so it's very difficult to cut myself with it accidentally unlike the regular handle I was using before.
I'm hesitant to share a link because I don't want to seem like a shill for a company I don't know much about but just wanted to say there are options out there!
I use a trimmer now, never really cared for a close shave and I often leave it for a couple of weeks. I found a razor just got clogged up too much between the blades.
Annoyingly the trimmer I have seems to vary in power, the motor charges speeds a lot during use. I think it might be a poor connection on the AA batteries, surface might have tarnished. Did think of soldering some wires on and connecting it to an extra battery, better connection and higher voltage. Overclock shaving!
I found a razor just got clogged up too much between the blades.
You might have better luck with one of those bog-standard single-blade safety razors, i.e. one of these:
I've heard from a hairdresser that they prefer the single-blade ones, specifically because the multi-blade ones clog up so much.
I mean, currently I also use a trimmer for my face, as I cannot be asked to do a wet shave every day. But I still use the safety razor for cutting back armpits and groin for hygiene reasons, and it works quite well for that. It's a lot less scary when you don't have to cut thick beard hair.
I use the throwaway safety razors that you can buy a bag for a few euros. I get a close shave and it costs very little. I've wanted buy a more expensive one, that style where you can get cheap replacement blades, but I've always hesitated because, you know, what if it is shit. Then I've wasted like a few year's shaving budget on it. Would make for less waste though.
Buy a merkur handle. I have the merkur futur and that’s lasted about 20 years so far.
Isn't detergent incredibly cheap though? I always buy the cheapest per weight Aldi stock. I think we may have spent less than £5 on it in the past year. Never bought fabric conditioner, wtf would I want that for, deliberately make my towels less absorbent and more flammable?
Are all your clothes towels? Just don't use it when you wash your towels lol
I often wash towels with other things though. It would be rather wasteful to run a second load just for towels.
Asking because I honestly don't know, for the laundry detergent recipe, does it matter that I was always told to get HE detergent? I was under the impression that the soap for "high efficiency" washers was different somehow than normal soap. I am ready to admit I was conned by the detergent industry and this is just marketing speak, but I also don't want to fuck up my washer, it cost a lot of money I don't have to replace it.
HE soap sounds like marketing bullshit.
When I was making my own detergent, I used regular baking soda, did not bake it at all, borax, and table salt. 50/50 borax and soda, and then like 10-20% portion of salt.
Absolutely neutral scent.
It's more concentrated.
Washing Soda
No. Just no. Sodium carbonate, you americans!
Also called soda ash.
Also calling Na "sodium" is so god damn dumb. It should be called Natrium
This is unachievable for them. Hard mode mission.
Washing soda is sodium carbonate, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate
Baking soda is sodium hydrocarbonate.
Washing Soda
No. Just no. Sodium carbonate, you americans!
Washing soda is sodium carbonate, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate
So exactly what they said?
What's a dryer sheet, I'm nearly 40 and I've never heard of that
It's a sheet of chemicals that makes your clothes smell better.
Downside is it adds a sort of...coating to clothing which for some types of clothing, like wicking sports apparel, makes them less effective.
They're absolutely useless and when I learned that I stopped using them and there was literally no negative change in my post-laundry output.
If your laundry tends to suffer from a lot of static when you remove it, it can help with that.
no negative change in my post-laundry output
What a beautiful phrase, I'm totally gonna nick the term post-laundry output
If I don't use a dryer sheet in the winter, my clothes literally stick to me and it is uncomfortable. The static is crazy. In summer its not an issue.
I've not used fabric softener or any other substitute for whatever it does in like 10 years. Can't tell what problem I'm supposed to be having that it supposedly solves.
I actually stopped using it because the dryers at my crappy old laundromat tended to overheat and it would occasionally melt the fabric softener sheets and it smelled utterly horrible and left burnt on patches of fabric softener on my clothes. So I figured it was no longer worth the cost, and then I noticed I couldn't even tell what the benefit was. It was just a thing my mom told me to do and I never questioned it.
where the fuck are these people buying detergent that is 80x the ingredients they listed? isn't bar soap also industry made?
also I'm sorry maybe there's legit uses for it but whenever I hear someone say essential oil I assume they're knee deep in grlftland and have fucking crystals and shit all around the house.
Essential oils will not cure diseases or anything, but they are great for making things smell nice. I would give using these in a dryer ball a pass.
fair
So you just saw the words "essential oil" and quit reading? They're using it to make their laundry smell good, not cure cancer.
it was at the end, there wasn't much left to quit
where the fuck are these people buying detergent
I just did the math on mine, I'm paying about 10 cents per cycle for laundry detergent. Even if the ingredients to make my own were literally free, I'm still only saving about $5 per year. Not worth my time.
The price things gets me too. I was actually talking about this with a coworker a couple months ago. I live alone so I'm not doing nearly the amount of laundry that some people are doing but even then that last bottle of laundry detergent I bought cost me like 9 bucks and took a bit over 2 years to go through. I think I'm fine spending 4.50 a year on my laundry supplies.
Want to add in here, that some washing mechanics can't handle the homemade detergent mix. I've damaged one or two with the mix. Not entirely sure as to the reason, but I believe it has something to do with the grated soap bar clogging something somewhere.
Wonder if you could powder it somehow.
Small batches in an old blender. Grated soap mixed with you washing soda, borax or whatever else you are using as a booster. The powders will coat the soap as it gets cut apart and keeping it from clumping back together.
This is hard on a blender so do smaller batches (and don't use a good blender. Get one from goodwill or the like for ~ 10 bucks}. It will also produce very fine airborne power when you open the blender. I promise you that you don't want strong alkaline powers in your lungs, and even if you do it will make the air taste terrible. Do this in a well ventilated place, use PPE, and be careful. I find that after you powder it, the soap in the mixture holds on to the other ingredients and keep them from becoming airborne.
Also use a laundry soap bar, the soap is often stronger so you can use less and it doesn't have ingredients to moisturizer or make the soap easy on the skin. Those often contribute to buildup issues.
I wrote up a big rant with detailed instructions on how to remove residue from washers. A clean washer performed better and it's over of the reasons people get a new washer and it ends up cleaning much better.
EDIT: a link to my washer cleaning and residue removal rant
You don't need dryer sheets if you're hang drying your clothes, which reduces wear on the clothes and uses less energy, along with requiring one less appliance, unless you have a combo washer/dryer.
I started hang drying my clothes maybe 4 years ago and I'm definitely not going back
I've been hang drying for a decade. Moved house recently, treated myself to a dryer. My god clothes feel so much softer now. Especially towels.
Yeah, I hang dry most of my clothes, but I use a dryer for towels because they get really coarse otherwise, and bed sheets because I don't really have somewhere to hang them
For me, nothing beats clothes hung dry that have been drying in the sun. It has its own unique smell to them.
You should enjoy the smell of them after they were freeze dried on the clothes line in the winter time. Growing up, my mother had a wringer/washer but no clothes drier. So she had to hang almost all the laundry outside on a clothes line-- even when it was well below freezing out. My Mother and Grandmother also made our own soap from tallow and lye after we butchered a cow for the winter.
We used it for everything, laundry, hand soap, and bath soap. Stuff would remove to hide off your ass due to the amount of lye used. Ahhh, the life of growing up dirt poor on a small farm.
Am I the only one who likes fabric softener? For me it was a game changer to go from wrinkly, stiff clothes to softer, less wrinkled clothes.
I definitely don't use it every wash, but I do think it makes a real difference.
I wouldn't be caught dead using dryer sheets, though. That's a scam.
I like both softener and dryer sheets ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don't, but dryer sheets are incredibly cheap too.
IDK anything about it, but I've read "softener bad" a few times so I've just stopped putting it in and honestly haven't noticed.
My partner does though so now when she sees or hears me doing laundry she reminds me to use the softener.
Fabric softener / dryer sheets make clothing feel disgustingly slimy.
Been using a set of wool dryer balls from Trader Joe's for years. Haven't had to use fabric softener at all.
How do I make my own fabric softener tho? One of the things it does is condition the fabric like you condition your hair, to keep its strength and retain its shape. Like if your shirt's neck has become a little stretched out, wash it with some fabric softener and it usually fixes that shit.
I'd DIY my own if I could. I'll probably start using this detergent recipe, too.
usually they advise vinegar.
i use vinegar, but it's not the same. softener contains some oily component that stays in the fabric after washing and makes it more fluffy. vinegar doesn't do that.
i have been using vinegar for fabric softening (not as a soap) for a decade and i love it. you very occasionally get a tiny whiff of vinegar when unfolding stuff but it's immediately gone.
There's a noticeable difference in softness without any greasiness or lingering odor.
i use a plain white jug of cheap white food vinegar.
Wait can it fix crew necks that get a little shitty?
Fabric softener mostly just deals with the leavings of hard water on your clothes and in your machine. So anything that does that same job would work. Lot of people say vinegar is a good idea. I don't know but a little bit of CLR might actually work too.
Awfullydull and I are now best friends, I've been saying the same about dryer sheets for YEARS now
FUCK DRYER SHEETS pointless ass waste of money
My MIL swears that dryer sheets are good for cleaning baseboards. You take one and rub it on a baseboard and some how dust just... avoids those annoying little nooks and crannies. I haven't had to clean them again in literal years, but thats the only good use I've heard for dryer sheets. It's a hack on a tiny task I never take time to care about really, not sure if that in anyway justifies the existence of dryer sheets, but there you go.
What's a dryer sheet? I don't think I've heard of it before.
Literally just a thin disposable sheet of fabric impregnated with fabric softener that you throw in the dryer with your clothes. The idea is that it's supposed to make your clothes feel softer, smell better, and reduce static electricity. Waste of money and material, just throw a damn tennis ball in there
A microplastic rag dipped in PFAS.
I’m talking out of my ass bc I don’t use them either, but I’d wager a buck my description isn’t that far off.
You put them in your clothes dryer to make everything smell like chemical clean and make them a little softer. And reduce static? I think? They give me a rash, personally.
Totally in with the 'make your own soap' mentality. I've been making my own laundry soap and liquid hand soap for ~6mo, and I'm still working through the first set of supplies I got for both. Only downside to making it yourself is the time commitment, but I've got it to a point where once I have the batter made, I just throw it and some distilled water into a covered mason jar, put in a covered stock pot with enough water to get around the inner water level and just let it simmer for a few hours.
It's actually super simple to make my laundry soap, it's just a 6:6:2:1 ratio:
Baking soda:Epson salt:washing soda:sea saltWorks great and take the smell out of my potty training son's laundry.
Fabric softener kills elastic and lots of clothes (including even jeans) have elastic in them. Yeah, you can do separate washes, but ain’t nobody got time for that.
Not heard of that one. The main one I know is it makes towels less absorbent, my partner's mum uses it and it's like trying to soak up water with a plastic bag.
Yeah when you coat all the fibers of the towel with slightly modified rendered animal fat, then they won't absorb water. The long hydrophobic tail on the tallow dimethyl ammonium chloride molocule really doesn't want to mix with water. It's almost completely insoluble in polar solvents like water.
Why make things soft by addressing the initial problem(residues and hard water salts in deposited in the fibers when the clothes dry) when you can just coat the whole thing in fat and call it "clean" and "soft"
probably uses too much. it has that effect, but it also makes them more fluffy
The only reason why clothes get staticky in the dryer is because of the heat. If you run the dryer for 10-20min after drying with no heat they'll come out without a trace of static.
Ive stopped using softener and dryer sheets a while ago; just detergent and for the first load of the week (usually towels) a short cycle with vinegar to clear up any mineral deposits left by my horribly bad hard water.
How expensive do people think fabric softener is lol. I don't use it because I don't care for it, but not buying it because you're too poor sounds wild.
Just glancing through my grocery app, it's anywhere from $5 to $15 per bottle, depending on size and brand. For the same amount of money, you could buy enough food for one person for 2 or 3 days. That's not insignificant since you can get a pack of dryer balls for around the same price, which have pretty much the same effect, and last way longer than a bottle of softener.
And how long does that $5 last? Consider how much money it is per wash, especially if you use less than the quite generous recommendation.
I'm standing in a store right now and they go from 1,5€ to 6€. The expensive brand option with big bottle is 6,26€ and lasts for 110 washes with the recommended amount. The expensive one is 5,7 cents per wash.
6€ isn't nothing but as an expense over time, considering how long it lasts, even that expensive one is quite literally pennies.
UK person: dryer?
I’ve used the same three tennis balls in my dryer for about 20 years now. My clothes seem to last well, and towels remain absorbant (fabric sheets can leave a waxy residue making towels less absorbent). After reading those comments maybe I’ll try adding a few drops of a scented oil to one of the tennis balls.
A bit of alcohol vinegar can replace or help fabric softener.
I have a friend that would make his own clothes soap. It looked like semen, but worked.
I hate to be the guy to tell you this, but I think your friend might have washed his clothes with cum.
Could his jeans kinda, stand upright all by themselves?
It helps you stand for long periods of time, you just relax against your clothes which support you.
I use soap nuts for washing and vinegar as the softener. It comes out perfectly clean but has a neutral smell (which might smell weird when you first start doing this). I sometimes add a tiny bit of store bought softener to the vinegar for stuff like more expensive hoodies and tshirts.
I just use Dr Bronners and wool dryers balls.
If the Dr Bronner's your referring to is one of their liquid soaps you're still paying mostly for some water.
I don't mind paying for something that's mostly water as long as it's cheap. It isn't the water that's the problem; it's the price.
Everything related to cleaning and hygiene industry is a scam
Hygiene, beauty, and medicine. All products with literally pennies worth of ingredients charging hundreds to thousands of times what they cost to make.
Medicine has the excuse of going to research at least. But we all know that system is broken.
Tumblr is such a nice place.
You know, when it is.
I'm lazy enough to pay a lazy tax on it.
What.. ? Bar soap? Which coats your skin in wax and makes you feel like a walking crayon when you wash yourself with it?
No thanks, I'll stick to my detergent and dryer sheets.
(which do work btw, I grew up poor without them and HATED the feeling of my clothes, and the static. Pissed me off all the time. Grew up, started making money, and bought dryer sheets, boom problem solved.)
If your fabric needs softening then maybe you just buy the wrong clothes.
I don’t use the shit. My clothes don’t wrinkle and they sure as fuck aren’t uncomfortable so all I can think of is you’re buying shitty clothes.
