laundry detergent

My Laundry Favs: More than Good Smells.

Abby H.Leave a comment

Clean laundry is more than good smells.

Stain removal, like removing the deodorant residue on the underarms of shirts, can lead to a buildup.

Removing smells from body oil and dead skin flakes. Pretty gross!

Using the right kind of detergent, laundry booster, sand tain removal – These can all be hard to figure out.

These days, it’s three of us, plus the cat, but I do one load of laundry a day, sheets and blankets weekly. It’s a lot of work. Thankfully, I have a system worked out.

We’ve had hard and or mineralized water in our area, so I use the following:

Scent Booster. I use the Arm & Hammer brand. I avoid fabric softeners as they are waxy and can leave a film on your clothing that can capture dirt and dead skin flakes.

Laundry detergent. Right now, I am using Arm & Hammer liquid detergent. Some people prefer powder. I prefer Arial for powder. It cleans very well and does not have an overwhelming scent.

Stain Removers. There are many types of stain removal products; some are general-purpose, and there are also some that remove stains based on the type of stain.

  • For blood stains, I use this Carbona Stain Remover. It works better than saliva and hydrogen peroxide.
  • For general stains, I use Spray and Wash 
  • For greasy stains, I use a combination of Blue Dawn and a little bit of rubbing alcohol, scrubbed with a toothbrush. This really helps get grease stains out.
  • For General whitening/stain removal boosting, I add 1/4 cup Biz and 1/4 cup Oxyclean to my wash. Biz is great for overall stain removal. These two products cannot be used in conjunction with bleach products.
  • For my whites: I use bleach. This is usually only on my towels and sheets.

I do not use dryer sheets.

Beyond Laundry:

To maintain my washing machine, I clean it up once a month with these tablets. We don’t have a dog, but a couple of us have longer-ish hair, and Fiona the cat loves to shed. Another thing that helps keep your washing machine smelling fresh is leaving the lid open when it’s not in use. And wiping down the gasket inside the lid once a week.

I maintain my dryer by cleaning the lint trap after every load, and using a brush like this one in the lint trap about once a week. We get the dryer vent cleaned once a year. It is a little costly ($100), but it really cuts down on the time the dryer needs to dry the clothes, and it reduces fire risk in our home.

We also use cloth laundry hamper bags on a hanging system (similar to this one) in my closet. I wash those bags approximately once a month. And for the hard plastic laundry baskets, I wiped them out with a disinfecting wipe about once a week.

And as for all of the hangers, I use a hanger rack like this one.

Walgreens: Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent Sale!

Abby H.

 This deal is only good until Saturday night at 11:59; for me, this is a RUN DEAL.

This week at Walgreens, all 27.5-28 oz bottles of Arm & Hammer Liquid Laundry detergent are on sale for Buy one for $7.49, get two free!!

They are usually $7.49/each, but let’s face it, I’d never pay that much for on bottle. With this sale price, each load of laundry costs .07-.09 per load!

They have 5 varieties:

No coupons are needed, and you can order online and do curbside pick up (with a minimum order of $10.00) so you won’t have to step foot in the store! If you have Walgreens cash, you can use it, and this deal combines with any “Earn $X when you spend $Y” offers you might have in your Walgreens account (check online or in their app).

Got Dirty Clothes? Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent Sale!

Abby H.

 This deal is only good until Saturday night at 11:59, and for me, this is a RUN DEAL.

This week at Walgreens, all 27.5-28 oz bottles of Arm & Hammer Liquid Laundry detergent are on sale for only $1.99/each.

They are usually $7.49/each, but let’s face it, I’d never pay that much. With this sale price, each load of laundry costs.07-.09 per load!

They have 5 varieties:

No coupons are needed, and you can order online and do curbside pick up (with a minimum order of $10.00) so you won’t have to step foot in the store! If you have Walgreens cash, you can use it, and this deal combines with any “Earn $X when you spend $Y” offers you might have in your Walgreens account (check online or in their app).

Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent Deal!

Abby H.

I love Walgreens and their Arm and Hammer laundry detergent deals. This week, 9/24-9/30/2023, selected Arm & Hammer laundry products are just $1.99.

This deal includes laundry liquid detergent, the Clean Scentsations Odor Blasters, or the 5 in 1 laundry Power Paks, in selected sizes.

There is usually a limit per customer in-store. I tend to order online for in-store pick-up. I do not clear the shelf.

I personally love this brand of laundry soap. It gets out all the stains and odors associated with kids and tweens. Those of you with 12-year-old boys understand what I mean!

My friends over at La Mesa Dream Dinners have teamed up with the BLISS Foundation to help seniors in need by holding a laundry detergent drive. You can learn more about it here, and this deal is a great way to help others without breaking the bank.

I’ve already placed my order online, and I’ll be dropping off my donation later this week!

Laundry Detergent Stock up Alert!

Abby H.

If you have Walgreens nearby, checkout this sweet deal on Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent this week!

Through 6/11/22, you can score up to 5 bottles (25 load size) of any variety of Arm & Hammer Laundry Soap for just $1.99 (normally $7.49). I prefer the purple cap variety, but really, it’s a personal scent prefence. No coupon needed, and you can even buy it online or through the app and pick it up in the store!

I’ve been using this laundry detergent for years, but I only buy it when it’s on sale. This is a definite stock up sale price for me.

Great Deal on Tide at Lowe’s!

Abby H.

Screen Shot 2017-08-21 at 6.13.59 PM.pngI love a good deal. And while I’m not big into deal blogging any more, it’s my duty to help ya’ll save money. If you are frugal like me, you wash your laundry with whatever gets your clothes clean and is inexpensive.

Screen Shot 2017-08-21 at 6.14.04 PM.pngLowe’s has a great deal right now on Tide 40-fl oz Refreshing Breeze High-Efficiency Laundry Detergent. It’s $2.00/bottle, instead of $4.28. 53% off isn’t too shabby.

A quick check on Lowes.com shows that the closest store to me is Poway, but because I have a mylowe’s account (that’s their store loyalty card- it’s totally free and you can sign up online immediately prior to your purchase), I can score free shipping. WOO HOO!

In a mere matter of days, I’ll have 50 bottles of Tide. I figure based on how many loads of laundry I do, that will last me about a year. That’s 625 loads. That’s about $.08/load. I can’t make laundry soap that cheap.

I know there are sometimes coupons for Tide, but with the limits on P&G (the company that makes Tide) coupons, that’s two per household, per day for those playing at home, it would take me quite a while to amass a stockpile on laundry soap.

That doesn’t take into consideration:

  • How on earth would  I get 50 coupons? (no, I won’t pay for them)
  • How on earth would I find a store where I could find 50 bottles of Tide?
  • It would take me 25 shopping days (that’s about a month, since I only shop when my big kid is in school), so I’m sure the coupons would expire before that.
  • The gas driving to the stores each day to buy the detergent.

 

If you need Laundry Detergent, check your local Lowe’s via Lowes.com!

And Don’t forget you can save even more by shopping through Topcashback or Mypoints.com!

 

 

 

 

DIY Powdered Laundry Detergent….

Abby H.

IMG_2769So I did it. I broke down after years and years of saying I’d never make my own laundry soap and I did it. If you do a quick search on Pinterest, you’ll see a lot of recipes that makes a 5 gallon bucket of thick white (or off-white) gloppy laundry detergent. With two curious kids under 5 years old, I didn’t think having that around my house would be a good idea. Plus, where the hell would I keep it? Our garage isn’t attached, and my washer and dryer are in a closet in the hallway. 5 gallons of water weighs 40-ish lbs, so 5 gallons of liquid laundry detergent would be about the same, maybe more. That’s a lot more than my poor, flimsy laundry closet shelf could handle!

However, after tons of research and testing out ingredients, I cobbled together a recipe for powdered Laundry detergent. Here are the ingredients I used and the reasoning behind each one:

IMG_26871 Large Bar Zote Soap, grated: My great Grandmother used this soap (as well as Fels-Naptha, but I couldn’t find it in my local store) to wash their laundry in the days before they had indoor plumbing in their farmhouse (BTW, that was the 1950’s). She had an old style washing machine like this, complete with ringer. Her laundry was always super clean, so I knew that starting with a good soap was key. (It makes roughly 4 cups of grated soap) If you don’t care for Zote or Fels Naptha, I’ve seen others use Dr. Bronner’s Castille bar soap.

 

IMG_26864 Cups Borax: This is a pretty controversial ingredient because Borax is toxic if ingested. News Flash: DON’T EAT LAUNDRY DETERGENT. You wouldn’t pop a Tide Pod in your mouth and start chewing, so home made detergent shouldn’t be any different.  Borax is great in your wash if you have gross little boys (or not so little boys).  Here is a pretty good article that talks about how Borax works. I use a little Borax in every load of laundry, with commercial detergent too!

4 Cups Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT BAKING SODA- THIS IS AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION!!): Washing Soda is also another ingredient that people get crazy over. It’s NOT baking soda. It is not to be ingested, it is slightly caustic (I wear gloves and a mask when I work with it). This page tells you about it and how it works. Basically it acts as a solvent to help removes stains, it also helps soap or detergent foam and clean better!

Directions are easy: Grate your soap. I used a hand grater, but you can also use a food processor (I don’t have one).

Mix all your ingredients together and store in clean, dry jars. I used Ball Mason Jars because it’s what I had on hand, but whatever you have will work. A friend re-uses her empty protein powder canisters.

All you need is 1-2 tablespoons per load (for the record I use 2 T. per load because our clothes get really dirty playing outside and exercising every day).

Using 4 cups of each ingredient will yield a little less than 12 cups of detergent (The grated soap settles down once everything is mixed together) which is approx 144 loads of laundry. I paid about $12.50 for all of the ingredients, and I still have leftover Borax and Washing Soda for my next batch.

This detergent will not get sudsy/bubbly, however, your clothes are getting clean. Our clothes have never been cleaner and honestly, it’s one of the few detergents I’ve used (and trust me, as a couponer, I’ve used pretty much every brand of laundry detergent there is!) where I don’t have to pre-treat every single stain and scrub.

Scent: Some recipes call for essential oils or even Downy Unstoppables to add scent. We personally don’t like over scented detergent, so the light lemony scent from Zote is more than enough for us. If you like you clothes to smell like something, you can add 10-20 drops of Essential Oil (lavender is popular), or 1/4 cup of Downy Unstoppables (I REALLLLY don’t recommend this since it has softeners in it too).

About Fabric Softener: We don’t use fabric softener like Snuggle or Downy Unstoppables because it just coats the fabric with a waxy residue and leaves a film on it. After years, towels can stop being absorbent, and clothes can feel sticky or turn another color. If you need fabric softener or something to keep the static down, I recommend a vinegar rinse in your washer (like you would with liquid Snuggle), or wool balls in your dryer.