Laundry.......do you sort? Favorite detergent? Fighting stains, what's your secret?

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Cabin Fever said:
Most laundry detergents you buy at the store use a very high percentage of fillers (inert ingredients). Plus the detergent usually comes in a non-biodegradable plastic jug that will last for 100s (1000s?) of years.

Consequently, we use laundry sheets. Laundry sheets dissolve in the wash and come in a biodegradable box.

https://www.earthbreeze.com/
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75% of the packaging for my homemade detergent ingredients are paper/cardboard and are recycled.
 
Mountain trapper said:
We burn our trash. Anything that won't burn we haul to the dump.
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I live in Kommiefornia. If you use a bbq in your own yard you get looks from the libertards.
 
A woman did it!

After their virtual family dinner this Thanksgiving, millions of Americans will be unwittingly thankful that Josephine Cochran overcame the societal hurdles of the 19th century and invented the first practical and effective dishwasher.
In 1883, at the age of 45, an unemployed Josephine Cochran decided, “If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself.” About a month later, her alcoholic husband died. Rather than abandon her idea, her husband’s death prompted her to turn her idea into her vocation.
After her patent was granted in 1885, she founded the Crescent Washing Machine Company and began selling her invention. Crescent was eventually acquired by KitchenAid, which later became a division of Westinghouse. According to Grand View Research, 2020 global dishwasher sales are expected to total ~ $7.2 billion.
 
The only separates I do are when I smell diesel in house. I wash his first, hang on line for 24 hours and wash a second time. I prefer to hang all clothes on line BUT his allergies cannot handle it. Right now my pole is broken so can’t use. I make my own detergent and have for years. Last 2 years I also started to add a box ox arm and hammer detergent. Seems to make a nice mix and helps with body odor. I wash one load a day of everything and see no need to wash my jeans or bath towel daily.
 
Grimm said:
K broke our first washing machine the first time he used it! He jammed 4 handmade heavy quilts into it then wondered why the tub fell off the struts when it spun.
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Hubby did that but it stripped the agitator and it didn't move anymore.
 
I always think that the guys have a better understanding of machines that most women do. I'm not understanding why they haven' figured it out that you can't stuff it full, pour in a bunch of detergent and then wonder why the machine broke or the clothes aren't clean. I really do like a load of clothes that is fairly small. I've noticed with my new larger machine that things seem to be cleaner when I wash my small loads that take about 1/4th of the tub.
I did see somewhere, maybe another forum, that some woman washes her clothes with blue Dawn. I would imagine that would be a great detergent and wouldn't really take much. I do use it for spot cleaning, especially greasy spots on clothing.
 
Wife and I do our own laundry. I don't separate much, unless something is really dirty. Otherwise, everything goes in the wash together......no reason not to. I don't have white clothes so no worry about color spreading....

Saves a lot of time and that is my most valuable asset right now.......
 
Weedygarden said:
Sorry Grimm, I'm laughing pretty hard here. Must have been his first time doing laundry.
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Actually, he grew up helping his mom do the family laundry at a laundromat. The overstuffing of the machine was from his mom trying to save money.
 
Terri9630 said:
Hubby did that but it stripped the agitator and it didn't move anymore.
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It was literally 3 months old and still under warranty.
 
Mountain trapper said:
You do know there are plenty of other states to choose from.
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And our lease is over in November and we will be moving to Texas. I have mentioned this for the last 2 years.
 
I thought of something relative to laundry, odors. I've probably said this somewhere else, but it is relevant here. I had a friend who visited me for a while and I was distracted with visiting mutual friends, etc. Cat peed on a blanket that was folded up on the cedar chest. I threw it into the washer with some white vinegar and baking soda in the morning and forgot it. I got up the next day and added more white vinegar and baking soda, washed it again. I ended up washing that blanket 4 times that way due to my distractions. When I finally got it washed and out of the washer before it started stinking, it smelled fine. No more cat pee odor. I had often heard baking soda or vinegar, but I believe that the combination of the two is very helpful.

Daughter brought a carload of stuff back after her grandparents died in North Dakota. They were smokers, and smoke can make my daughter gag. She washed a quilt that her g grandmother had made and it smelled like cigarette smoke. "Mom? What can I do?" I suggested that she use baking soda and vinegar and it worked like a charm.

How much do I use? I don't really measure, but probably 1/2 cup of each. Like my blanket experience, if it isn't 100% effective, wash it again.
 
Weedygarden said:
I thought of something relative to laundry, odors. I've probably said this somewhere else, but it is relevant here. I had a friend who visited me for a while and I was distracted with visiting mutual friends, etc. Cat peed on a blanket that was folded up on the cedar chest. I threw it into the washer with some white vinegar and baking soda in the morning and forgot it. I got up the next day and added more white vinegar and baking soda, washed it again. I ended up washing that blanket 4 times that way due to my distractions. When I finally got it washed and out of the washer before it started stinking, it smelled fine. No more cat pee odor. I had often heard baking soda or vinegar, but I believe that the combination of the two is very helpful.

Daughter brought a carload of stuff back after her grandparents died in North Dakota. They were smokers, and smoke can make my daughter gag. She washed a quilt that her g grandmother had made and it smelled like cigarette smoke. "Mom? What can I do?" I suggested that she use baking soda and vinegar and it worked like a charm.

How much do I use? I don't really measure, but probably 1/2 cup of each. Like my blanket experience, if it isn't 100% effective, wash it again.
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Back from our cloth diapering days I keep a few bags of Rockin' Green Funk Rock Ammonia Bouncer on the shelf. It works on cat pee and body odors. I also have some of Rockin' Green Athletic Wash. It works on bad body odors and funky stains (deodorant build up even after something has been washed). Expensive but worth having on hand if you have cats or a blue collar job. K's work clothes are the worst so once a month we use the athletic wash to really clean them.
 
Grimm said:
Back from our cloth diapering days I keep a few bags of Rockin' Green Funk Rock Ammonia Bouncer on the shelf. It works on cat pee and body odors. I also have some of Rockin' Green Athletic Wash. It works on bad body odors and funky stains (deodorant build up even after something has been washed). Expensive but worth having on hand if you have cats or a blue collar job. K's work clothes are the worst so once a month we use the athletic wash to really clean them.
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When I was cloth diapering, I used a 5 gallon bucket for dirty diapers. I used to buy a non chlorine beach product called Biz. I purchased the small size and used the whole thing for a bucket of diapers. As I changed diapers, I rinsed them all in the toilet, and then put them into the biz bucket to soak. Diapers were always nice and white.

I recently heard that it costs $100 a month to diaper a child with disposable diapers.
 
Weedygarden said:
When I was cloth diapering, I used a 5 gallon bucket for dirty diapers. I used to buy a non chlorine beach product called Biz. I purchased the small size and used the whole thing for a bucket of diapers. As I changed diapers, I rinsed them all in the toilet, and then put them into the biz bucket to soak. Diapers were always nice and white.

I recently heard that it costs $100 a month to diaper a child with disposable diapers.
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I used disposables on Juju. I only did it because I shopped the sales and got a boat load of diapers free through product testing. I still have our cloth diapers and figure they can be used on my grandbabies in about 10-15 years.
 
Sparky_D said:
When my wife and I first started dating...
She invited me to come over to do my laundry so we could spend time together and I could save my quarters.
...
She said "What are you doing???", I said "My laundry".
She said "Not like that you aren't!" and promptly took over...

Anyway, I haven't touched laundry (with very few exceptions) in almost 2 decades now...
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Reminds me: Shortly after my wife and I started dating, she showed up at my apartment with cleaning supplies. She wanted to clean, among other things, the bathroom. (What can I say?...I was a bachelor living on my own for the first time.)

I said, half jokingly, "Clean the bathroom? You only need to clean the bathroom when you want your deposit back."

She didn't think that was as funny as I did. But, at least she married me. (And, she has told that story occasionally. :)

I think the moral of the story is: If your girlfriend shows up unannounced to clean your apartment, you marry her!
 
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I was taught to sort darks from lights & white, but when I got out on my own, I had two piles whites & non whites.
But now the wife does the laundry & I do the yard work, if she is home she cooks, if not I cook for myself.
 
I did laundry today , and I bet nobody here does laundry like I do....
So we can't hook up water to the washing machine because A there is no hook up for it in the house, and B our water is spring water and the pressure is too low. It would take an hour to fill that way. So I have to fill it up with a hose that is attached to a hydrant. I have to time it, or it runs over, done that several times and flooded the kitchen.
I also have to forward some of the wash cycle
At the moment the washing machine needs a new belt ( I think) so the clothes don't come out dry enough when it spins. My friend gave me a separate spinner so I have been using that but you can only put a few things in at a time.
No dryer, everything gets hung up on the clothes line

Today I washed: load 1 underwear, regular bath towels, t-shirts
load 2: barn clothes ( very dirty, those I rewind the wash cycle and do it over
load 3: kitchen towels and wash cloth ( small load but I do them separate so no dog, sheep, goat or human hair at stuck to any kitchen stuff)
load 4: what I call floor towels , towels we use for dirty stuff like wiping up floor, or drying off newborn goat kids, or dogs after a bath . Todays were really groce, had blood and goo from the baby goats on then and they were wet and stinky . I add a ton of bleach, and borax and wash them twice and rinse them twice. They do come out clean but my washer had a bunch of hay in the bottom
Took all day
I buy whatever laundry soap is cheapest, doesn't matter much in my experience, don't like Tide, it smells too much

oh wait, one more thing: I heat big pots of water ( like canning pots) on the wood stove and dump in one per load because our water is too cold otherwise and the laundry soap doesn't work right
 
Sonya,
You have all my respect. That is more work than most men do in a week.
 
SheepDog said:
Sonya,
You have all my respect. That is more work than most men do in a week.
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Thanks! And that's just laundry, I also took care of the animals, cooked and did dishes yesterday
Taking care of the animals includes pushing wheelbarrows up and down when we clean the barn since husband currently has an injured ankle....
I don't really mind physical labor. It replaces the hours of exercising I did when I had a job that involved no physical labor at all. I don't like sitting
 
This book is part of my library - I'm warped :rolleyes: (She is a talented writer and it's more entertaining than the title would lead one to believe.)
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I'm pretty simple about laundry. #1, I have very few whites. I don't usually sort them out. Work socks get washed with work clothes. Yes, when they get older they're not exactly white anymore. Don't care, nobody sees them anyway. I rarely wear white T shirts and if those I do have need washed they go in with my good clothes.

So, my sorting is good clothes, work clothes, and towels/bedding. I wash most of the clothes cold because I wear mostly cotton and I detest long sleeve shirts that turn into short sleeve shirts after washing. Bedding of course gets hot water. I use whatever good detergent was on sale. Tide, All, etc. If the good stuff isn't on sale I use Purex. For cheapo detergent it seems to do almost as well as Tide. I only use the "Free and Clear" unscented detergent because I do get irritation from the scented stuff once in a while and I also don't like fufu smells on my clothes. And I use unscented dryer sheets for static, whatever is the cheapest store brand crap I can find...
 
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