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It’s worse. Fabric softener is composed of an anti static oil. When you run it in the laundry, it coats all of your clothes with a very thin layer of oil.
Which is why towels dried with fabric softener and dryer sheets don’t absorb water anywhere near as well as plain towels dried without it!!
My mom complained to me for years that I wasn’t “doing it right” by not using fabric softener. But her towels are useless compared to mine! She continues to spends $100/ year on fabric softener while on social security. Over the year she has spent thousands and thousands of $$$. 🤦♀️
How expensive do people think fabric softener is lol. I don’t use it because I don’t care for it, but not buying it because you’re too poor sounds wild.
Just glancing through my grocery app, it’s anywhere from $5 to $15 per bottle, depending on size and brand. For the same amount of money, you could buy enough food for one person for 2 or 3 days. That’s not insignificant since you can get a pack of dryer balls for around the same price, which have pretty much the same effect, and last way longer than a bottle of softener.
And how long does that $5 last? Consider how much money it is per wash, especially if you use less than the quite generous recommendation.
I’m standing in a store right now and they go from 1,5€ to 6€. The expensive brand option with big bottle is 6,26€ and lasts for 110 washes with the recommended amount. The expensive one is 5,7 cents per wash.
6€ isn’t nothing but as an expense over time, considering how long it lasts, even that expensive one is quite literally pennies.
Looking at price-per-use is only helpful if you have it in your budget right then to spend the full amount. For some, they can’t spare that $5 on a frivolity because it’s allocated to a necessity like food.
In my store there was an 1,5€ one, the store brand. And we’re not a cheap country. I’m sure there’s situations where someone couldn’t even save up 1,5-5€ for fabric softener every what, six months or more, because it all goes to necessities, but I doubt that’s at all typical. At least in the sense that the cost of it would be a serious reason people don’t use it.
A much more likely reason is that it’s not at all necessary. It can make clothes smell and feel nicer, but that’s just extra. I personally don’t use it, I actually prefer the “fresh” smell of no-fragrance laundry detergent.
I think you might be more privileged than you think in this case. Making the choice between feeding oneself and buying a frivolity like fabric softener isn’t that uncommon in the US, where a huge chunk of people live paycheck to paycheck.
Not a huge privilege to have 1,5€ to spare.
For you.
That mentality is why I use a safety razor. Buy one and you’ll only spend a few dollars a decade on shaving blades and have a better shave. A lot of things in life are useless fluff that we only do because companies want us to do it since it’s profitable.
I use the throwaway safety razors that you can buy a bag for a few euros. I get a close shave and it costs very little. I’ve wanted buy a more expensive one, that style where you can get cheap replacement blades, but I’ve always hesitated because, you know, what if it is shit. Then I’ve wasted like a few year’s shaving budget on it. Would make for less waste though.
Buy a merkur handle. I have the merkur futur and that’s lasted about 20 years so far.
I use a trimmer now, never really cared for a close shave and I often leave it for a couple of weeks. I found a razor just got clogged up too much between the blades.
Annoyingly the trimmer I have seems to vary in power, the motor charges speeds a lot during use. I think it might be a poor connection on the AA batteries, surface might have tarnished. Did think of soldering some wires on and connecting it to an extra battery, better connection and higher voltage. Overclock shaving!
I found a razor just got clogged up too much between the blades.
You might have better luck with one of those bog-standard single-blade safety razors, i.e. one of these:
I’ve heard from a hairdresser that they prefer the single-blade ones, specifically because the multi-blade ones clog up so much.
I mean, currently I also use a trimmer for my face, as I cannot be asked to do a wet shave every day. But I still use the safety razor for cutting back armpits and groin for hygiene reasons, and it works quite well for that. It’s a lot less scary when you don’t have to cut thick beard hair.
I did also consider that option but I don’t really feel a need for a shave that close. I know using the multiblade razors left my skin feeling a bit uncomfortable after, not sure if safety razors do as well. Trimmer doesn’t at all.
Yeah, they probably will leave your skin feeling uncomfortable. Many seem to consider shaving cream and whatnot a strict requirement. That’s also part of the reason why I still use a trimmer for my face, too.
Just looked at it and I think most shaving creams cost more than my trimmer did
i bought for cheap one pluggable razor much more powerful than those with batteries … also you have to oil the blades and clean them regularly.
I do oil and clean it, I live in the UK so we don’t normally have sockets in bathrooms. Getting one of those special ones installed would probably cost quite a bit.
I have a rechargeable trimmer. Like you, I’m never going for that ultra-close shave. I have fairly light/thin facial hair though, so the 5 o’clock shadow looks works well for me.
Mine uses AA batteries rather than a built in lithium one, my hope was that it would mean it lasts longer as I can just swap NiMH batteries as I feel like it rather than having to throw out the entire thing when the lithium battery dies. Also its cheaper as it doesn’t come with batteries and charging circuitry.
If only i could shave my head with one i would in a heartbeat.
I bought a Leaf Razor from an EU reseller about a year ago now and it was a game changer for head shaving with safety razor blades.
The head of the handle pivots so it’s very difficult to cut myself with it accidentally unlike the regular handle I was using before.
I’m hesitant to share a link because I don’t want to seem like a shill for a company I don’t know much about but just wanted to say there are options out there!
I shave mine with a safety razor. Knobbliness of head is probably a factor though!
I have a mole on the top of my head, multi blade razors glide over it, my safety razor is how i found out I had it: sharp pain and suddenly being covered in so much blood I could smell it.
So yeah knoblliness should not be overlooked.
Ooft, that’s rough. Eyyyy
Isn’t detergent incredibly cheap though? I always buy the cheapest per weight Aldi stock. I think we may have spent less than £5 on it in the past year. Never bought fabric conditioner, wtf would I want that for, deliberately make my towels less absorbent and more flammable?
Are all your clothes towels? Just don’t use it when you wash your towels lol
I often wash towels with other things though. It would be rather wasteful to run a second load just for towels.
I’ve read that the homemade laundry soap is actually soap, not detergent, and that it will over time ruin your machine.
So, I’ve just continued buying laundry detergent and have just used a fraction of what the instructions advise. It’s worked for me. I don’t buy softener or sheets. Couldn’t afford it if I wanted to. But I do have oxyclean on hand only for when I’ve forgotten a load in the washer until it’s stinky or when I wash the dog bed covers or whatever.
Yeah… Especially if you have a high efficiency machine. Washing machines use a lot less water than back when these “recipes” were actually practical. So if you utilize shaved bar soap and borax, you’re not only going to be leaving residue to build up in your machine, you’re going to have it build up in your clothes as well.
Also, a lot of people are sensitive to borax. The reason they don’t use it in regular detergent as an agitator is because it can cause rashes for a large percentage of the population.
Edited: spelling corrections
Regular laundry detergent leaves residue as well, that’s why a lot of washers have self clean cycles.
Vinegar will cut most residues from a washer. It’s one of the reasons it works as a softener, it removes detergent residue and minerals from hard water to make your clothes soft. As a side note a lot fabric softeners does the same thing by coating this fibres of the clothes in refined beef fat.
If you want a really clean machine (specific to most HE washers) put half a teaspoon of TSP(trisodium phosphate) in the empty drum of the machine and another half teaspoon where you put your detergent, fill the bleach cup and the fabric softener cup with vinegar. Set the machine to run a pre wash cycle then a heavy duty cycle on the hottest water temp(if there is a hot tap that is after your clothes washer in the pipeline, you can run that tap until it gets hot before starting the washer. HE washers use a lot less water so most of the time they are filling with cold water before the hot water rescues the machine) and as many extra rinses as your machine will allow.
After the TSP removes most of the residue, it’s rinsed away and then the bleach cup of vinigar is released with the next rinse cycle. Since TSP is basic and the vinegar is acidic they react and the TSP is neutralized, this may lead to some deposits of various salts(depending on the exact reaction ratio, if there is an excess of vinigar then the acidic solution will help prevent the salts from depositing.
When the fabric softener cup of vinigar is released in the next rinse we ensure that all acidic solution is flushed through the machine. This again will help with any salt deposits and help clean any of the remaining residue that reacts better to the acidic solution.
Any extra rinses after that help make sure that anything that can be washed away will be. Your washer will be very clean inside.
TSP can be purchased at the hardware store for cleaning surfaces before you paint them, just make sure it’s actually TSP and not a TSP replacement. Half a teaspoon of TSP in with your dish soap will make you love your dishwasher again. A little goes a long way, and using less TSP is more likely to give you a good result than using more.
That enormous rant aside, I have used homemade laundry soap recipes in several HE machines including two combination washer dryers(where the washing drum is the same as the drying drum, looks like a single HE machine, not a stacked washer and dryer) and in general those machines have more residue problems. I haven’t really had any issues. That might be related to the fact that I do not put an excess of soap or detergent into the machine, again often less is more, and if you need better cleaning it’s better to do a prewash cycle than add more detergent into the main cycle. More detergent =/= better cleaning, just more residue. Try washing a dish by hand with only liquid dish soap, no water, no damp sponge, just soap and a dry brush or dishcloth. While this is an extreme example, it does help illustrate that detergents or soaps allow grease and grime to be dissolved into water, and that’s what allows it to clean effectively, the soap or detergent is just there to get stuff into the water.
Borax sensitivity is a legit concern.
I grew up watching my Mother make “laundry soap” from scratch as a kid. She would make a batch every fall from basically the tallow from the cow we home butchered for the winter and lye. I still remember that brown colored hard lump of soap and the wringer/washer she had. She would carve thin pieces off into the tub while it was agitating wait for a few minutes, then toss the clothes in to wash tub. There was no fancy detergent metering devices or small amounts of water. Even her first modern “spin dry” washer didn’t have detergent dispensers. You simply poured the detergent directly on top of the clothes in the tub.
Modern washers are designed specifically to use liquid soaps or the pods. Though when using powders by pouring them directly into the tub won’t cause anymore harm to the machine than any liquid will. Though you should probably use a longer wash cycle to make sure the powder dissolves completely. Back in the day, wash cycles were noticeably longer.
For those rare times I forget a load in the washer and it sours, I generally use a little vinegar.
I used it for about 10 years. I didn’t notice any difference in my clothes or machine.
Fiance is fussy and wants Tide, so she pays for it.
Fabric softener kills elastic and lots of clothes (including even jeans) have elastic in them. Yeah, you can do separate washes, but ain’t nobody got time for that.
Not heard of that one. The main one I know is it makes towels less absorbent, my partner’s mum uses it and it’s like trying to soak up water with a plastic bag.
Yeah when you coat all the fibers of the towel with slightly modified rendered animal fat, then they won’t absorb water. The long hydrophobic tail on the tallow dimethyl ammonium chloride molocule really doesn’t want to mix with water. It’s almost completely insoluble in polar solvents like water.
Why make things soft by addressing the initial problem(residues and hard water salts in deposited in the fibers when the clothes dry) when you can just coat the whole thing in fat and call it “clean” and “soft”
probably uses too much. it has that effect, but it also makes them more fluffy
You can just use white vinegar instead of fabric softener. It’s significantly cheaper, can be used for other non-laundry things, eliminates odors, and doesn’t gum up your washing machine with residue.
Further advice, don’t use a lot of it. You’ll see videos on youtube of people pouring like three cups of vinegar in their washing machine, don’t do that. You only need a splash of it. If you use too much, the acid will eat away at the rubber gaskets and shit
Meh. I say you need half a cup to a cup. A splash don’t do it.
Yeah if you can use just a splash you might have water soft enough to not require anything.
1/2 cup to 1 cup is the sweet spot for my water, 1/4 cup on a very small load.
I have a water softener and it works great for how the clothes feel from the wash. The half cup I add is mainly for odor eliminating.
O.O
That’s a terrifying amount. I use around 1/4 cup for most mid to large loads. 1/2 maaaybe if it’s a large towel load. Does the job well enough.
You definitely don’t need that much vinigar. That said most new washing machine are using a chemical resistant silicone or TPE instead of more traditional rubber compound. This eliminated the already miniscule risk of acid damaging the seals.
If you add 3 cups(about 700 mL) of standard 5% acetic acid bleach to 4 gallons of water(~ 15000 mL) you end up with a 0.2% acetic acid you will end up with a pH of something like 5.5 or about the pH of healthy skin. A lot of HE washers will use a 5 gallon initial wash so it’s likely to be even gentler than what I came up with in my rough napkin math guesstamate.
While I agree with the general sentiment, the vinegar won’t be released and diluted until later in the load, so it sits in its full 5% acetic acid glory for quite a while.
Most(maybe all) HE washers don’t have mechanical flaps that hold back the liquids, they sit in plastic cups that empty by an overflow or auto syphon system when water comes out of a tube located above that tub or cup. It’s a fancy plastic cup. Every plastic common to appliance manufacturing is resistant to 5% acetic acid. Chemical resistance of plastics chart
I just looked at the fabric softener cup in my washer, it’s HDPE(high density polyethylene). If you look at that chart you will see polyethylene is resistant to even concentrated acetic acid. The plastic bottle the vinigar comes in is made from a lower density polyethylene.
By the time the vinigar leaves the cup is already being diluted by the fill water causing it to overflow or start the auto syphon. It will not damage your washer, but even if it did, you can buy replacements for the entire soap tray for relatively little online. The same can be said for most other appliance parts with the notable exceptions being large motors and some brands control boards. There are tons of write ups, tutorials and videos on how to fix broken appliances and replace parts.
Yes, I was just being pedantic. Sorry to have triggered such an involved response, but thanks for all the information! From what I understand this is more of a problem in dishwashers, if you want to use it as rinse aid.
No worries, I am a fan of pedantry. The amount of involved in the response was just me getting mentally stuck in a washing machine hole.
Is there anything vinegar can’t do?!? Between white and apple cider vinegar, I feel like they cover so many areas of cleaning and household stuff.
Vinegar ain’t basic, that’s for sure.
Ha ha… groan
I have been thinking of making my own fruit vinegar this year. Hopefully good enough to consume rather than just use for cleaning
Please don’t do this. It seems like a hack, but will mess up your machine bc of how corrosive the vinegar is. Learned this the hard way.
If your clothes really need it, just soak them in a bath of diluted vinegar for a while, then rinse and wash.
Isn’t vinegar used to remove fabric softener
How do I make my own fabric softener tho? One of the things it does is condition the fabric like you condition your hair, to keep its strength and retain its shape. Like if your shirt’s neck has become a little stretched out, wash it with some fabric softener and it usually fixes that shit.
I’d DIY my own if I could. I’ll probably start using this detergent recipe, too.
usually they advise vinegar.
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how much vinegar do you use for a normal load?
Just finely crush about a half a bag of salt and vinegar chips and then toss 'em in
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i use vinegar, but it’s not the same. softener contains some oily component that stays in the fabric after washing and makes it more fluffy. vinegar doesn’t do that.
Wait can it fix crew necks that get a little shitty?
Fabric softener mostly just deals with the leavings of hard water on your clothes and in your machine. So anything that does that same job would work. Lot of people say vinegar is a good idea. I don’t know but a little bit of CLR might actually work too.
I’m not sold on that homemade detergent. Soap tends to leave insoluble residue, especially when you have hard water. There is a reason why almost everything uses synthetic detergents (though it might also be because those are cheap).
Yeah, I’ve never understood the point in using a different soap as the base of a different soap. I make my own laundry soap out of basic shit I get from Walmart, and it works great.
Is it actually cheaper than buying dry detergent for cheap?
Good question, but I’ll admit I’ve not actually run the exact figures. I’m actually doing this for health reasons rather than monetary, since one of my partners is allergic tio life.
But to your question,I might have spent the cost of 1.5 large boxes of laundry detergent ($30) for the 4 items that go into it (Baking soda,Epson salt,washing soda,sea salt), but given the fact I can buy in bulk, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being cheaper. In the last 6mo I’ve made the laundry soap twice and haven’t put a huge dent in my ingredient stock. I wouldn’t be surprised to find I get more than 200 washes out of the base ingredients, which would definitely be more economical than the premade stuff.
I don’t know about needing to make your own detergent. But using dry detergent would be a drastic improvement in cost compared to what most people do because if you’re buying liquid detergent, most of what you’re buying is water.
That is very store dependent. Last time I checked, my local grocery store only had premium brand dry detergent but had discount brand liquid detergent that was cheaper than store brand (which is what I use). I did the math, and the price per load on the dry detergent was not that good. Obviously, my math assumes that the advertised loads per package is true (which is assuredly not the case) or, at least, that brands have the same degree of inflation in their figure.
There’s more than one store to buy such things at, try Home Depot for instance, they even carry the stuff in bulk. And online purchasing exists so you’re not relegated to just that option.
If you believe being independent is more important, then more power to you. But even “making your own” you’re dependent on getting the baking soda and soap from stores as well so it’s really just a matter of how much you need to save and how far you’re willing to go to secure that savings.
I started using the dry stuff years ago and it works great. Also, if the clothes are not really dirty i.e. have literally dirt stains on them, you need surprisingly little detergent. Same goes for the dishwasher.
Problem with the powder is not all of it dissolves, especially at 30C. End up with crusty baked on powder around the dispenser. Maybe dissolve in a little water and then treat it like liquid detergent? Might try that
I mix it with a cup of hot water before putting in in my wash. This completely eliminated that issue.
Yeah I’ve tried them multiple times but every time it leaves my clothes with white stains on them.
Hello electricians and safety nerds. Fabric softener removes the fire rating on fire rated clothing protecting you from arc flash hazards.
Yes, and it will even say so right on the tags. At least it did on the 35 year old bunker gear I wore when I was young and a volunteer fireman in my small rural town. They had special washing instructions right on a big tag sewn on the inside to the coat and pants.
I want to know more.
This is pure conjecture, but my guess is that the film of fabric softener left on the clothes would interfere with the fire retardant fibers/may be flammable itself.
From my understanding, the old fire gear I wore as a much younger man, the fabric was treated with special chemicals that could be washed out if not laundered correctly.
I buy a Eco friendly and very affordable detergent from Costco. I need to use such a small amount even for a large load the jug lasts seemingly forever. So I don’t feel the need to do up a homemade detergent.
When it come to softener though. Vinegar. It works, it’s cheap, I can also use it for other household cleaning. Cooking and baking as well of course. You can’t use if for loads that need bleach and use with fabrics that have a lot of elastic material can decrease it’s life span. Overall though it works great dissolving soap and detergent residue that can make clothes feel stiff and scratchy, and less prone to lint and pet hair cling. Can help with odor and colour brightening too.
I will happily continue to be a millennial who ruins industry on that front.
You don’t need dryer sheets if you’re hang drying your clothes, which reduces wear on the clothes and uses less energy, along with requiring one less appliance, unless you have a combo washer/dryer.
I started hang drying my clothes maybe 4 years ago and I’m definitely not going back
For me, nothing beats clothes hung dry that have been drying in the sun. It has its own unique smell to them.
You should enjoy the smell of them after they were freeze dried on the clothes line in the winter time. Growing up, my mother had a wringer/washer but no clothes drier. So she had to hang almost all the laundry outside on a clothes line-- even when it was well below freezing out. My Mother and Grandmother also made our own soap from tallow and lye after we butchered a cow for the winter.
We used it for everything, laundry, hand soap, and bath soap. Stuff would remove to hide off your ass due to the amount of lye used. Ahhh, the life of growing up dirt poor on a small farm.
I’ve been hang drying for a decade. Moved house recently, treated myself to a dryer. My god clothes feel so much softer now. Especially towels.
Yeah, I hang dry most of my clothes, but I use a dryer for towels because they get really coarse otherwise, and bed sheets because I don’t really have somewhere to hang them
If only millennials bought more fabric softener instead of avocados and coffee they would be able to afford a house.
probably most everything is a scam if you look close enough.
