The nearest boot sale started on Sunday and of course I went to look round and came home with just half a bag of Soda Crystal's for 50p from one of the house clearance people selling random bits.
I use these in the washing machine because as well as helping to clean clothes they do a really good job to keep the washing machine and drains clean - no smells. A bag used to be 99p for 1kg when I could get them from Wilkinsons in Ipswich, now, since the small hardware shop in Stowmarket closed, the only place that sells them seems to be a hardware shop in Diss and now they are £1.99 a kg.
For years I bought Ecover non-bio Laundry Liquid in 5L container (a 15L container when there were 5 in the family)which was fragrance free and mixed a small amount with the soda crystals. Ecover got more expensive and then the Zero Ecover became the only one with no fragrance and was even more expensive. I'd been using Smol dishwasher tabs for 3 years and decided to try their fragrance free Laundry capsules, they do a special offer of a trial for £1 (then, now £2) and then they are delivered through the letter box in a cardboard pack at regular intervals which are easy to change if needed. That was a year ago, so I can now work out what doing the laundry costs me.
Since spring 2024 = £18.40 for the Smol capsules. And £3.98 for Soda Crystals. Making a total of approx £22 for the years laundry. Apparently the average cost for one persons laundry for a year is £60 to £100. So either I do less washing than average or my way is a lot cheaper.
I don't use any fabric softener or - heaven forbid - 'fragrance boosters' - which to my mind are just a gimmick to get people to spend more money.
And as the BBC always (almost) says -"Other ways of doing laundry are available"! This is just what I do and it suits me fine.
This 'fad' for air fresheners and fragranced laundry is all just a waste of money in my mind! How about opening a window and letting the fresh air do the job for free!
ReplyDeleteYears ago we put an airfreshener in a porch where the cats slept overnight; within a week both cats became ill. We threw out the air freshener and hey presto, both cats quickly recovered.
I haven't used fabric conditioner for years. Currently being troubled by a neighbours cat sleeping in our open fronted 'coach house' garage. It walks all over the windscreen, leaving footprints, and on Monday night dislodged all the items on a shelf, and they landed on the bonnet of my car [we have security camera footage]
ReplyDeleteI think I may install an air freshener as a deterrent...
No fabric softener in this house, it ruins towels. Used Smol for a long time, then had a Tesco delivery pass and needed to make up £50 orders so bought some Fairy. Now have a Morrisons pass which allows £25 orders I may go back. Made my own with soda crystals, borax and bicarb. Did a good job but I’m finding 3 full days away from home and the paperwork quite a lot to bother at the moment.
ReplyDeleteSpot on about the effect on towels.
DeleteFunnily enough we were talking about those ridiculous scented fragrance boosting beads last night after seeing the advert for them. We were wondering what ridiculous fourth step will come out next to con people out of their money.
ReplyDeleteLike you I use smol, easy, straightforward forward delivery and simple recycling of the boxes. I use one capsule per wash and have four deliveries per year. Last year cost me the grand total of £32.60 with my discounts.
Air fresheners in any shape or form make me and dd2 itch all over, so regular dusting and opening windows is our only option.
ReplyDeleteFor laundry I only buy large containers on a steep discount, and use less than the recommended amount, using the machine's 'bubble soak' option if the items can stand it.
There's 4 of us in the house; I do about 2 loads of laundry per week in my 9kg machine. My dryer has been out of order for 3 years, so I linedry everything, preferably outside on an umbrella-type thing, otherwise on a rack that hangs over the stairwell's banister and so catches the rising warm air.
I don't like air fresheners, but sometimes it is impossible to open a window here because of rural smells, which are worse than anything inside! I keep an atomiser filled with rosewater to hand in the bathroom and a citrus candle in the kitchen. I hate over-perfumed laundry and would never buy scent boosters.
ReplyDeleteWhat are rural smells?
DeleteFirstly I do miss Wilkinson's, I loved that shop. We still use old fashioned washing powder, where we can use a much or little as we want. I like you think the scent boosters are an unnecessary expense.
ReplyDeleteThat's great value, a real money saver. xx
ReplyDeleteIn recent years I have developed an allergy to most laundry liquids, currently using 'Ineos' laundry liquid and only half the recommended dosage, but after every wash I re-rinse and spin , adding Bicarbinate of Soda to aid softness, especially to towels. Without that extra rinse, I start scratching! Aaaarrrggghh!
ReplyDeleteI think many people do far more washing than is really needed. We did less in the 60s and 70s.
ReplyDeleteWe’re a family who don’t like perfume smells at all in our laundry. I never use fabric softener or those smelly pellet things. Washing soda for cleaning the drains and vinegar for glass. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI make my own clothes washing liquid - half cup grated castile soap, quarter cup each borax and washing soda, to a gallon of water. Then I know what's in it, and it cleans just as well as the expensive stuff. It's better for my skin than even the non scented bought type, because they never seem to be really unscented.
ReplyDeleteWe use the same homemade laundry mix Boud, from the blog and book, Down to Earth by Rhonda Hetzel. We have to use borax substitute in the UK, Sodium Sesquicarbonate, sold as limescale preventer powder. I use a splash of white vinegar instead of fabric conditioner, and now the elastic in clothes lasts for years.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of "fragrance enhancers" for laundry - most of my detergent shopping energy goes to avoiding fragrance not increasing it! Sometimes walking in the evening around here you can smell that someone is drying clothes that have been washed in scented detergent, it's horrible. Now I want to figure out how much we spend doing laundry......
ReplyDeleteCeci
Thank you to everyone above for comments - it seems many people can't cope with the strong smells from washing powders etc.
ReplyDeleteMust be someone buying those scent boosters somewhere!
Those scent boosters are a brilliant example of companies creating a product then trying to persuade us we need it! More fool the people who buy it I say!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, how I hate those 'scent boosters'! Some people use them to the extent that being next to them makes my nose start to tingle and itch. I swear that some of them are so strong I can taste them. I made a triple batch of my own laundry detergent. It is scent free. What interests me is that washing machine manufacturers will often say that the homemade soap may damage your washer. May...! I always wonder how many people are put off by that? I have never heard of actual damage though.
ReplyDeleteI use home made washing powder and vinegar washing mashing going strong for twenty years
DeleteI recently started using Tide for my wash because it was highest rated in the Consumer Report evaluations.
ReplyDeleteYou did well at the sale. All detergents have increased in price with more increase to come.
Put me down as another of those people who loathe fragrance in washing powder.
ReplyDeleteWe had a fundraiser in the church and I had the smart idea of putting hot water bottles in an insulated cool bag to warm cheese scones and flatbreads. You wrap the latter in tea towels and they keep nice and warm. Trouble is a friend had washed her tea towels in Lenor…not only did it give the cheese scones and interesting taste it took several weeks for my cool bag to de-gas.
Really interesting post. I must admit I like certain smells on my washing. I honestly think the washing pods/powder is different over here. If you don't use some sort of fabric softener everything comes out horribly rough and stiff!
ReplyDeleteI buy this kind of thing at garage sales too! And I detest fabric softener. It irritates my skin -- especially my lady-bits. Plus, it's bad for our clothes!
ReplyDeleteI use an unscented detergent - I tried a variety of brands and this one seems to affect me least. We have a BOSCH washer-dryer, 7+ years old, and I guess the dryer has been used twice. There are only two of us, so washing gets hung outside on the line, where it gets a unique 'fresh clothes' smell which we buy in bulk from God. It might get finished off in the hot water cupboard in winter. I'm careful about soaps and shampoos too, or I suffer for it. I'm allergic to the Nightshade family, and had a very nasty reaction when I used a spray starch on a linen shirt collar! Won't make that mistake again!
ReplyDeleteAsthma and eczema in this family so any fragrances etc are out of the question, they're just chemicals. Thanks for the info about Smol, I'm going to research that further. We don't have a tumble dryer, fresh air on the line in summer and a Sheila Maid overhead rack in winter.
ReplyDeletePenny