Laundry detergent help

[Amy loves Bud]

I use 7th Generation liquid laundry detergent and our clothes are just dingey. I do add Borax to the wash, as well as vinegar to rinse, but really, the clothes aren't all that clean.

 

I would rather stay away from the commercial laundry detergents as much as possible. I recently bought Romy some clothes at a local resale shop and after several washes I'm still smelling the perfume from the previous owner's detergent. Blech.

 

So what type of more natural l.d. do you use, and does it get your clothes nice and clean? Thanks!

[Anne Rittenhouse]

My suggestion would be to buy some of the the big brand. Tide is the one that all other detergents are measured against. It works and you will use less. They make it with no scent. Wash the clothes with the Tide and the hottest water the clothes can take and add some calgon to the water also....rinse twice and hang in the sun...do this maybe once every ten or twelve weeks....perhaps four times a year. It helps usually you only have to do the whites and shirts...you don't have to do everything. Add calgon to your water instead of borax will help in your regular wash. Hanging the whites in the sun will help...so will raising the temperature of your wash water.

[Ria]

I make my own. It works extremely well, but then again I have an LG Tromm Steamwasher, and I think the washing machine does make a big difference. Anyway, the link to the recipe I use is: http://plainoldkristi.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-soap-step.html

 

Ria

[Faithseed]

I switched to Charlies soap several years ago.

 

Before that, I made my own, but I found the same dingy that you described. I asked a die-hard make-it-yourself friend of mine if she also noticed the same, and she admitted she did, especially with whites over time.

 

I buy the huge buckets of the charlies. It lasts us close to a year. You only use a tablespoon each load. For particular nasty stuff (we live on a farm, and have small children with potty accidents), I add in Oxyclean.

 

If you go this route, the first couple of times you wash with the Charlies, it won't seem like things are quite clean. This is just all of your old detergent coming out. After that, everything comes out soft and clean. No smell, no harsh chemicals. I'm sold.

[sixpence1978]

I can't stand scented laundry detergent either. And it takes a few washes for the scent to go away.

 

We use All Free & Clear here. No dinginess, but sometimes the occasionally stain doesn't come out. Both OxyClean and Clorox 2 come in unscented formulas, which I use occasionally.

 

You could stick with what you like, but resign yourself to the occasional wash with something unscented and commercial to help brighten them up.

[Sugarfoot]

We use Persil, as it's the recommended brand of Miele. It's made in Germany, so I have to order it, but it lasts a looonnng time, and there is no smell. At all. My skin and my youngest DD's is sooo sensitive. I did just buy those little gel pack things at Costco, though, just to have on hand. I haven't used them yet, but they're phosphate-free, etc., so I'm hopeful.:)

[cjzimmer1]

I've tried Charlie's because I heard such wonderful reviews and I really wanted to like it but ultimately I didn't like it. I ended up with alot more stains on my clothes (I don't pretreat). Then I tried homemade powdered with Ivory but all my whites started getting yellow. Then I went with homemade using fels naptha. I'm happy (1 bar fells, 1 1/2 c each of washing soda and borax). Initially I used 2 Tbsp but I'm down to just one. The only problem is fels does have a pretty strong scent (that I don't like) but I don't smell it after things have been washed and dried.

 

Unfortunately this seems to be one of those area where you have to experiment to some extent. It seems, the water, the machine and the level of dirt really cause alot of variance in the results from one person to the next.

[Katiebug_1976]

I have been making my own laundry soap for almost 2 years. I use 1 bar fels naptha soap, 1c. Borax, & 1 c. Arm & Hammar Washing Soda. If you cant find these locally, you can order them online at www.soapsgonebuy.com . I use 1/2 -1 TBSP per load and have never had any problems. Our clothes come out nice and clean, and the Fels Naptha Soap washes poison ivy oils out of the clothes that my family may come in contact with. This is a big thing for us since My dh and dd are highly alergic to pioson ivy and we have it growing throughout our back field. We have not had a pioson ivy break out since we started using this soap! Totally awesome!

[Oakblossoms]

7th generation isn't rated very high. Have you tried Biokleen? It works well. There is one with enzymes and one without. Some people are sensitive to the enzymes. Country Save seems to work well, too.

 

We've been using Arm and Hammer Free and clear and it's worked pretty well.

[Ellie]

Amway laundry products. Been using them for over 30 years, in all sorts of water and different washing machines, and my clothes are *always* clean, never dingy. Really. :-) And Amway products are completely biodegradeable (degradable??).

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I was going to recommend Amway SA-8 as well. I've been using it for almost 20 years. My whites stay white. My colors pop. You use less than a 1/4 cup per load because it contains no fillers. There is hardly any scent (I can't stand the smell of Tide and the others). The clothes even feel clean -- no powdery, fluffy feeling. Just crisp, clean clothes, every time. I can't imagine using anything else.

[Anne Rittenhouse]

Persil is the brand "de rigor" here. It's available in every color, variety and scent....except no scent! They must send all the no scent to the US. If you think US detergent brands have alot of perfume.....don't wash in Europe. They seem to like to be drenched in it....luckily we don't have sensitivities to it yet....but wow oh wow do things ever smell powerful here....laundry soap, shampoo, shower gel, bar soap.....even dishwasher detergent!

[Carrie12345]

I used to think the detergent was our problem but, after trying many different brands, I realized that it's our water. We finally got a quote on a whole house softener, and we're hoping to have it installed this summer.

 

We're still sticking with 7th Generation. It's the only detergent I can get to fully rinse out of ds's diapers with our water being the way it is.

[LaxMom]

We use Seventh Generation and have great results - never any dinginess, spots come out, etc. As Carrie pointed out, I think the effectiveness (of anything) is dependent on the water. We have extremely soft water (as I discovered last fall, when I tested it as part of a product review) and the Seventh Generation products, including laundry detergent and dishwasher powder, outclean even the standard national brands here. I have noticed, though, when we're on vacation and I do laundry at the laundromat (which I'm pretty sure is on a well) my clothes don't look as clean. Interesting, huh?

 

I would second the recommendation of Bi-O-Kleen. Their products are great. They don't work so well in my house, but I know they work well elsewhere.

[Haiku]

It's probably your water. I ran the whole gamut of natural detergents and even made my own laundry soap, always with the same results: stained, dingy clothes. I now use Method and am very happy with it.

 

Tara

[Bambam]

use white distilled vinegar in your rinse cycle. Your clothes will not end up smelling like vinegar if you use the white distilled vinegar. They will smell like nothing.

[MomLovesClassics]

We add oxyclean for dingy stuff. We use biokleenm they also make an oxygen cleaner like oxyclean for adding to the wash. I have to admit I buy and use both depending on if I have money to shop at the Natural store or not. When we used cloth diapers, we would not use anything except biokleen! We would also use a bit of bacout made by biokleen for the diapers every so often too, not a lot just a little.

[TraceyS/FL]

Persil is the brand "de rigor" here. It's available in every color, variety and scent....except no scent! They must send all the no scent to the US. If you think US detergent brands have alot of perfume.....don't wash in Europe. They seem to like to be drenched in it....luckily we don't have sensitivities to it yet....but wow oh wow do things ever smell powerful here....laundry soap, shampoo, shower gel, bar soap.....even dishwasher detergent!

 

I had to throw a box of it away - my laundry was in my kitchen, and i'd sneeze when i walked in the kitchen. :tongue_smilie:

 

The last few posters are correct - your water really impacts how/what works. The laundry forum has some good threads on how to tell what to add to get it working better.

 

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/laundry/

[HollyDay]

IF you are using "organics" due to skin sensitivities, be careful with brand names. Most of the big brands use brighteners that leave a residue on the clothes.

 

I use 7th Gen for our sheets because of dd's eczema. But, other than that, I use Norwex from Urban Homemaker or one of the "free and clear" brands. I was surprised by how much brighter my clothes became after switching to Norwex (now doesnt that sound like a 70s commercial!). There must be some truth about water quality and detergent ability to brighten clothes.

[Sugarfoot]

Wow, I've never noticed any kind of smell in our clothes after using Persil. It does have a bit of a scent in the box, but our clothes have no smell whatsoever. We have a mega-water-filtering-softener system and a fantastic washer. Maybe that's the key here! I can't stand it when our clothes and towels have any kind of perfumed scent at all.

[SherryTX]

I make my own. It works extremely well, but then again I have an LG Tromm Steamwasher, and I think the washing machine does make a big difference. Anyway, the link to the recipe I use is: http://plainoldkristi.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-soap-step.html

 

Ria

 

Hey thanks for the recipe - and for telling us where to get the ingredients. I have been confused by some of the recipes I have found online. We have 5 kids, so laundry detergent can be quite expensive. I put your blog on my favorites. =)

[TraceyS/FL]

Wow, I've never noticed any kind of smell in our clothes after using Persil. It does have a bit of a scent in the box, but our clothes have no smell whatsoever. We have a mega-water-filtering-softener system and a fantastic washer. Maybe that's the key here! I can't stand it when our clothes and towels have any kind of perfumed scent at all.

 

I have a Miele :D It will get most smells out, but won't remove them from the room.... darn machine :tongue_smilie:

 

But i'm way overly sensitive to ANY perfume, i have to about plug my nose walking into any department store and the "soap aisle" in most stores do me in.

[mom4him]

I use 7th Generation liquid laundry detergent and our clothes are just dingey. I do add Borax to the wash, as well as vinegar to rinse, but really, the clothes aren't all that clean.

 

I would rather stay away from the commercial laundry detergents as much as possible. I recently bought Romy some clothes at a local resale shop and after several washes I'm still smelling the perfume from the previous owner's detergent. Blech.

 

So what type of more natural l.d. do you use, and does it get your clothes nice and clean? Thanks!

My son and I are very chemically sensitive so I have gone through this a lot. Fragrance regardless of where it came from is very difficult to get out but the fragrance from laundry product is major.

If I have something that I REALLY want to use that is contaminated I put the item/s through a proceedure of one scoop of laundry det(I use country save) 1 cup of bk soda, 1/2 cup of borax. Wash on hot if possible. I let the items soak over night in the mixture is together and filled with water. put through rince cycle in moring and put in dryer if possible. Repeat if needed. You can also add white vinegar in the rince cycle, it is a good fabric softner and no your clothes don't smell like pickles.LOL Sometimes you have to repeat this SEVERAL times before you have all of the fragrances out. It is not a job for the faint at heart.

My husband won't let me shop at used clothes places because of this issue. Going in there will make me sick many times and by the time you have the item frag. free you have put so much time and money into it......

For general washing I use the country save as detergent and ALWAYS add 1/2 to 1 cup of bk soda to the wash. If really dirty I add the Borax also and I use the vinegar in rince for fab. softner if needed. I also use hot water on things like my towels and sheets. It helps them come out looking nicer. I also use a non chlorine bleach from health food store to keep whites and light colors looking good.

Hth If you have questions sent a pm.

[Amy loves Bud]

Wow! Y'all have been incredibly helpful. I'm going to sort through all of your helpful info and try a new approach to laundry this week.

 

Thanks so much!

[Ravin]

I like Tide Free and Clear. Though DH's stinky work clothes (he works in a kitchen) sometimes need more, as do W2's clothes when she's been smoking, so when our current bottle runs out, I'm going to try Tide with Febreeze. I'd rather a mild clean scent than gross smoke and grease smells, kwim?

[TraceyS/FL]

I had good luck adding the Febreeze laundry stuff to my regular Tide for DH's super stinky work clothes. Also there is a liquid Oxy Clean laundry treatment too!