Thursday, 18 March 2010
-
Are You Using Too Much Laundry Detergent?
A posting on ConsumerCommentary.com made me consider how much laundry detergent I was using on my clothes. Sure enough, when I put my clothes in the washer with no soap at all, there were suds, meaning there was still soap in them from the last however many washes. Thinking about how much soap I had been wasting, I realized this could save a lot of money in the end.
This posting was actually a response to an article in the New York Times that says using too much soap in your washing machine and dishwasher can cause serious damage to the machines. Apparently, most people use 10-15 times more soap than is necessary. The reason for this is
washers and dishwashers are now made to use much less water than the old ones, so less soap is needed. Soap has also become more concentrated. So haven't the instructions on soap containers changed in accordance with these new developments? Apparently not. Vernon Schmidt, a repairman for 35 years and author of Appliance Handbook for Women: Simple Enough Even a Man Can Understand, recommends using one-eighth to one-half of what is recommended depending on how hard or soft your water is. If you have hard water, you would need more soap, but still not nearly what is recommended on the detergent bottle.
If you are seeing suds at all, you may think your clothes are getting clean, but really you are using more detergent than you need.
If you want to save even more money, check out this previous Dollarish post on how to make your own laundry detergent. Or you might want o try the Eco-laundryball described in another post.
But tell me, how much detergent do you use? Do you think it's too much?
-
recommend
- recs 1
-
share
-
email
- sent 0
Related Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to dollarish's Dollarish Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in dollarish's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
About the Author
-
- From: Kat
- Name: Kat
- About Me: I am a recent college grad, originally from Gainesville, Florida, and I'm in New York trying to break into the world of publishing - not finding it too easy in this economy.
Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 73 Views: 0 47719 Comments: 0 908 View all posts by Kat
Comments (10)
I heard about this, and I started using half the amount of soap I normally did in my laundry and for the dishwasher. Neither has suffered for it.
Damn. Probably way too much. I never thought about it, just grabbed the cap and poured. It makes total sense that a detergent company would want us to use more of their product. I'll definitely be reducing the amount I use from now on.
I've just been following the guidelines on the detergent container. Maybe I need to rethink that.
I use just enough laundry detergent to cover the bottom of the cap. This also keeps the scent from being too strong on my clothing.
We're "supposed" to use a full cup of liquid detergent for every large wash, but I only use a scant half cup, and then when the jug gets about halfway empty, I put a bunch of water in it. It makes the soap last way longer, and I don't see any difference in the cleanliness of my clothes.
Test to see how much you need. My sister uses some kind of ball that supposedly uses static electricity to clean. Public washers probably need none because the last person used too much. I tested my washer and found that 2 tablespoons of powder worked well. After that, I made my own scoop to match what was needed.
The thing is... those of us who cloth diaper already knew this long ago. Detergent build up causes liquid to repel. That often makes cloth diapers unusable, so we have to run the load a few extra rinses to get all the soap out. Perhaps I'm just used to using a lot less than most people do.... I don't know.
Back in [December? January?] I made "laundry slime" that is a variant of this recipe and found that maybe 1/3 of what I used in store-bought worked just fine with our loads. We would use dryer sheets to put in the familiar scent we've all gotten used to associating with "clean clothes", but, essentially, the clothes turn out great.
Yes, we use a dryer - whenever we tried to line-dry, things would go awry.
a&F a&f clothing Abercrombie & Fitch abercrombie and fitch abercrombie and fitch uk a&f sale a&f sale uk Abercrombie Jeans Abercrombie Pants Abercrombie TeesAbercrombie Shorts Abercrombie Sweaters Abercrombie Outerwears Abercrombie Hoodies Abercrombie Polos Abercrombie Shirts abercrombie women abercrombie kids a&f Women’s Polos