What laundry detergent brand do you use?

I use Ecover. It has a pleasant smell and isn't too pricey.

I shop at Publix for all my Organic Produce. I also support them by buying their brand of liquid laundry deterent. It's called Free&Clear......WY

ecover

I tried using Ecover. But, since my I'm grateful to have a husband who washes the clothes, he's convinced that clothes are not clean if there are no suds. He over used the soap to try to get the suds. Unfortunately, we used Tide. I am trying to sneak in some Indigo Wild brand laundry detergent. Maybe they have more suds.
[www.indigowild.com]

Right: Whatever Free n' Clear brand is on sale.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Ecover. Its inexpensive and I can find it at the supermarket near my home.

dr bronners all purpose liquid soap.

Maggie's Soap Nuts. They are round and brown and grow on trees. Laundry comes out great!

[www.maggiespureland.com]

You can buy them on amazon.com

davidzanemason Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Right: Whatever Free n' Clear brand is on sale.

I'm with Dave on shopping like this, but since I spend a lot of time "in the field" I usually doctor what ever I purchase with a tiny bit of pine oil based detergent.
By the time the laundry is dry I can't smell it but the bugs can
and hopefully its enough to dissolve Poison Ivy resin.

I've found that if I use anything with an artificial scent in it the bugs are attracted to me thinking that I'm food.

I had to hunt around to find oils of plants that not only were affordable to use as bug repellent and Poison ivy resin solvent this way but that didn't have an adverse affect on my own and the rest of my family's health.
Your milage is probably going to vary.

Dr, Bronner's is fine for washing my body (and if I know for sure I've had contact with Poison Ivy I will resort to rinsing with bleach) but I'd quickly go broke if I used Dr. Bronner's in the laundry.

There used to be ceramic disks one could buy and put in the laundry with dirty clothing that were said to get the clothing clean. I'd use them with about no more than a tablespoon of detergent and maybe some laundry enzymes if the clothing was really dirty, but that was back in the days before I spent my days crawling around in the wilderness.

Their effectiveness wore out after a given amount of using.
I haven't seen them in the stores for a long time.

Here's something I found interesting. If your clothing is 100% cotton and it isn't soft after its dry, what could be causing the stiffness is residual soap. I run my laundry through two final rinses to get all the soap out.

I've been looking into a hand operated spinning devise that I've seen sold in a store that caters to the Amish that builds up a vacuum as you spin it and drives most of the water out (hopefully with most of the residual soap too).

Its not very big and would make my time spent doing laundry quite a bit longer, but its either that, use all that water rinsing, or invest in a very expensive washing machine with an engine way powerful than any washing machine I've ever seen before.

I got Seventh Generation... it was the cheapest all-natural detergent I could find at Whole Foods.

I HAD to quit the regular stuff because it started making my skin itch. I couldn't wear pants and shirts without scratching.

We're taking a break from laundry detergent and just using borax, to see if my daughter's itchy skin could clear up. It has!

I once read that there's enough residual soap left in laundry that you can wash items up to five times and there's still soap in the water. If that's true, it's no wonder she was itching.

In the past, when we've run out of laundry detergent, we've used Dr. Bronner's soap,too. I agree it's too expensive to use all the time for our budget, however.

Just so you know, so far the laundry is all getting clean and smelling fresh just by using the borax. I don't know if this will work long-term, or not, but we'll see. If anyone knows why it's not a good idea to wash with just borax, please let me know. I didn't research the reasons for using/not using laundry detergent before we tried this little experiment.

Lots of love to all of you!

Wendi Dee
XOXOXO

Of course I only use vegan ones since I'm vegan. The one I prefer right now is Seventh Generation.

[utopiankitchen.wordpress.com]

Seventh Generation - baby detergent for sensitive skin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2008 10:53PM by rawangel.

I use the really cheapy off brand stuff. I am poor.

Cocoa nibs, thanks for the soap nuts tip! I'm going to try the sample size.
Love,
Uma

The soap nuts actually last you for a very long time.
I reuse them until just the shell is left. They grow on trees, just like that

[www.maggiespureland.com]

Thank you all for the replies! I read a couple of good things about Charlie's Soap and Shaklee. They are supposedly all plant derived and not tested on animals. Anyone have experience with these soaps? Also My local Costco sells Ecos. ANyone have any experience with it?

For the past year & a half I have been using Bio Pac Ultra Laundry Liquid that comes in a 1 gallon, 128 ounce, plastic jug..This is a scent-free, not-tested-on-animals liquid laundry detergent..The original price at my local health food store in Towson, MD was $14.99..Every couple of weeks it would be on sale for $10.99; which is when I try to purchase it..

After several months of experimentation (and several teeth-pulling conversations with my mother to not waste the detergent by using more than was necessary!!), I arrived at the following methodology in measuring the soap..

Our washer has 4 different water levels that can be set for various size tubs of laundry..They are Mini, Medium, Large, & Super..

I use a Tupperware 2 ounce shot glass that has graduations molded into the sides of the plastic shot glass to measure the liquid detergent..It has graduation lines at the 1 oz., 1 1/2 oz., & 2 oz. levels..I added marks at the 1/4 ounce & 1/2 ounce levels with a permanent marker..

The Bio Pac instructions on the label recommend 1 oz of detergent per load of laundry..I find this amount to be excessive for all but the largest size tub of laundry, & or the dirtiest tubs of laundry..

Accordingly, I use from between 1/8 ounce to 1/4 ounce of detergent for a Mini size load; depending on the amount of clothing that is occupying the Mini amount of water..

For Medium size loads I use from between 1/4 ounce to 1/2 ounce of the detergent..

For Large size loads I use from between 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce of the detergent..With the 1 ounce size being for truly dirty laundry..

For Super size loads I use the full 1 ounce of the detergent..

If any size load is deemed to be dirtier than usual, I use Arm & Hammer Washing Soda or 20 Mule Team Borax to boost the liquid laundry detergent..I use from between 1/8 cup to 1/2 cup of either the washing soda or the borax, depending on the amount of water and how soiled & dirty the laundry being washed is..I keep a set of old, beat up measuring cups hanging on pegboard close to the washer for measuring the washing soda or borax..

As a result of using the Tupperware plastic shot glass to accurately measure the liquid detergent, and using the washing soda & borax as a laundry booster; I now average between 140-160 tubs of laundry per each $10.99 bottle of Bio Pac Ultra Laundry Liquid..With Maryland State sales tax the detergent costs out at $11.54 per gallon..So the cost per load of laundry for the Bio Pac detergent is between 0.082429 to 0.072125 cents per tub of laundry..This rounds up to between 8.25 cents to 7.25 cents per load of laundry..

This is much less than the costs of doing laundry using the major manufacturer's laundry products..

I have not yet taken the time to empty out & accurately measure a full box of either the washing soda or the borax..My best guess is that when using the full 1/2 cup measure I am adding no more than 5-10 cents to the costs for each load..I am due to purchase new boxes of both powders soon..I will try to measure them out & figure out the relative costs per load of laundry, high-to-low; & post the results back here on this thread..

As several others have indicated, I also use the extra rinse cycle to try & eliminate as much detergent from the clothes & bed linens as possible..Since changing to the Bio Pac detergent I have fewer skin issues from laundry detergents..

Hope this helps..

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful information..Especially the soap nuts, the number of times needed to rinse all the detergent residue out of our clothing, & the info on poison ivy..

Bruce



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2008 04:54PM by baltochef.

I've only used All Free 'N Clear, but I'm glad to see this thread because I've wondered this too.

I make my own fabric softener, a mixture of vinegar, baking soda, and essential oil. Does anyone else have a recipe?

baltochef Wrote:
----------------------------------------------------
>
> Hope this helps..
And I thought I was organized!! Back to the
Drawing Board. My method of measuring laundry detergent
is called Guesstimation......WY

Cocoa nibs, I read on the reviews that once wet, the nuts start to go bad within a few days, so to reuse them you would do several loads in a short time and use them again for each load, not store them to use the following week or something. So do you only reuse them for several loads at once or do you store them somehow to reuse later in the week?

Love,
Uma

The soap nuts idea is so cool, I'm going to have to reasearch it! It's so amazing that you can plant different seeds in the same soil and get all kind of different substances produced by the plants. Plant are little factories!

I use ecover/seventh generation for washing and softening. I add white vinegar for bleach. I also add borax and I use less detergent because I'm using borax.

I recently started adding salt as a bleach agent. Does anyone else do this? I got the idea from the concept of using salt as toothpaste to kill germs. I'm wondering if my clothes will wear out faster?

The soap nuts are really intriguing..I'm definitely going to be researching them & possibly incorporating them into my laundry routine..

Bruce

Hi Uma,
Hmm, never read that about them going bad.
I just let them dry in between loads. They come in a little bag to put in, i just take the bag out of the washer (often enough it accidentally ends up in the drier anyways). Never had a problem. Love these things. The wash comes out great.

Soap nuts idea comes from India. In India it is called Aritha and
Aritha has it's origin thousands of years ago. It is used as a shampoo/soap and has other uses too.

We used to use soap nuts as a shampoo.

Soak them overnight or longer for them to become soft and then use the water next day or if you want to wash your hair but didn't soak it overnight then put them in water and boil the water so they become soft then squish them (make sure water is cool by then) and mix everythingr, then strain it and use the frothy water. So some work involved but worth it.

It also takes out oil residues from hair very well.

Me, my sisters and friends made an effort to make Aritha water to wash hair and we had long thick hair then.

Sad to say that now even in India people (specially living in cities) use shampoo as it is easy to use.

Thanks for all the soap nut info! Maybe it helps them last longer to go thru the dryer.. or i could dehydrate them for a bit too.
love,
uma

Anyone use soapwort?

all free and clear powder

Has anyone used a James Hand Washer?

elnatural

Wow - thanks for the Soap Nuts information. I just ordered some. I've been using Free and Clear, but I want something less processed. I also liked the Bio Pac, but I can't find it here in Va. And I also use Borax with other detergent, but maybe now I'll try it alone. I just had a little question about it after reading somewhere or other that they by law put chemicals on new mattresses or else Boric Acid, and this article said that Boric Acid is toxic and poisonous.

[earthfriendlygoods.com]


[www.exoticbird.com]

(Right now I'm looking up Borax and mattresses, and I came across this, which is interesting -- on how to get rid of bedbugs --

[getipm.com]