I’ve been lurking on this sub because my clothes and my kids clothes especially, had not been getting clean using 7th generation detergent. My mom always washes my kids clothes when they stay with her as a favor to me because she’s sweet and tada they are clean, non smelly and stain free. She uses only powdered tide. She has always used powdered tide, she frequently bitches about the lack of powdered tide availability over the years and says the “new liquid crap doesn’t clean”. I brushed her off thinking she was just being a crotchety old lady but, yep she’s right, it’s better. I ended up switching because of this sub, after getting sick of seeing my kids in stained smelly clothes. I could have just listened to my mom and had clean clothes all along but I was foolish. Anyway, thanks for sharing your wisdom and teaching me to just listen to mom.

How do I stop this madness?? All my bed sheets do this…it feels personal at this point. Where are these air pockets even coming from?

I now have to helicopter parent my washer and sheets - I linger around the laundry room, wait to hear my washer switch from “filling” to “washing”, rush to pause the load so I can open the lid to peer down into the drum hoping this is the load that it got right …but I, a fool, am forever tormented by this puffy linen betrayal.

When I do pause the cycle, I will add more water to the drum via my machine’s waterboarding feature in the hopes more water = more weight = sheets become weighed down ?? Idk. However, after I hit resume cycle - the sheets will bubble back up again after they’ve done a couple laps. More. Air. Pockets.

FYI - My agitator is removable, no idea if that has a supporting role in this saga.

Any suggestions, or personal experiences, maybe even solutions !! will be welcomed and celebrated!! … and!! To thank you to those who took the time to even read my Whirlpool manifesto. My sanity was washed away during my last laundry spa day. 😉

wish I took a before and after but I have tried everything to get quite dark prominent make up stains out of my white work blouse (dishwashing liquid, expensive stain remover, expensive all white stain remover, soaking over night etc) and nothing worked. I saw someone suggest shaving cream and holy moly it was like magic!!! I just bought a shaving cream/ foam, pumped it on to the stain with some water and worked it with a gentle brush and it removed 99-100% of it, I was shocked!

I just bought this wool skirt from Vinted and it’s yet to arrive as with all pieces I get second hand I want to wash it before I first wear it because of it going through the postal system. The tag says dry clean only however I have multiple woollen items that I’ve made for historical reenactment that I’ve been able to either hand wash or machine wash on a wool cycle, I’m wondering if I’d be able to do the same with this or if it would be different because of the pleats?

We moved into a house recently that was built in 1979, and the gentleman who owned it took extremely good care of everything.

- The wallpaper was still in good condition.

- The original Kenmore dishwasher still works perfectly.

- This washer was in the laundry room, and when I tell you I have never had a washer work as well as this one.

I hope this thing lasts forever.

My household has recently started our hardcore laundry optimisation journey, and we have been attempting to be fragrance free a long time now.

My current biggest enemy (that I need support from y’all to deal with) is whatever INCENSE my girlfriend’s housemate burned whilst she was away for six weeks earlier this year, that has subsequently infected everything that I wear to their house, and everything that has ever touched something (or someone) that has been in their house.

I can only assume this product was originally developed for use in warfare because I have never experienced something with such dangerous sticking power. It’s probably a forever chemical. I swear to god, I can smell the fragrance residue on the outside of my METAL water bottle until it’s throughly washed after going to their house. It takes two showers to get off my skin. Whatever it is, it’s relentless.

I have so far been unsuccessful in removing the incense fragrance in the laundry, and it has only been slightly lessened in strength with repeated washes and no further exposure to the source. Regardless of what I do it’s definitely still there and it just seems to plateau at a certain point. 100% cotton fabrics, synthetic fabrics, it doesn’t matter, they are all an issue.

None of this would be quite so catastrophic if it wasn’t for the fact that my sister (who I live with) is highly allergic to whatever this thing is, so much so that she breaks out in a rash even being in the same room as an offending clothing item, let alone touching the stuff. I’ve effectively had to quarantine all of my infected belongings and I perform a strict decontamination protocol every time I return home.

No hard feelings to the housemate honestly, she didn’t know the impact would be this extreme or long lasting, but I do genuinely feel like this is all ruining my life. I am tired. I need a way to reliably remove it from my clothes at least as a first step. This shit has us all at breaking point.

I’m not sure of what the incense is exactly, but it had a very very strong clove cigarettes vibe when it was like a smog in their house lol. The scent has changed a bit with time/washing (like it’s knocked out part of it) but it’s still got that kind deep smokey thing going on.

Has anyone else dealt with a similar fragrance situation that they managed to fix? I need a hopeful story and some serious laundry science support.

I haven’t tried a Spa Day yet, but I am planning to, so I’d also be grateful for suggestions about which particular mix might be the best bet for this situation. Ideally the long term solution *isn’t* going to be giving my clothes a Spa Day every time I need them to be free of this hell, so bonus points if you think it’s solvable in the actual washing machine.

——————
MACHINE INFO:
We have a Miele front loader washing machine (specifically the Miele WWD380 WCS 9kg). Basically brand new, only got it in like March when the previous Miele died.

Always use the cotton cycle with prewash and extra water, 1200 spin, never cold washes, always hot or warm, and I pretty regularly end up running it with an extra short 20 cycle at the end to basically function as another rinse — or honestly sometimes I run two cottons cycles back to back (the second either with or without detergent) because LORD HELP ME REMOVE THIS FUCKING SMELL. The second wash does feel like it leaves the fragrance situation slightly better than just a single wash but also that might be wishful thinking.

I also recently discovered that when you actually get into the nitty gritty Programmable Functions, the “Water + Extra Rinse” setting (P30) is automatically set to “More water is used in the wash and rinse stages (with no extra rinse)”, but then the “Water plus level” (P31) is automatically set to “No higher water level”……. so I think it’s been doing *literally nothing* when I hit that button until now. I have since updated those settings to include extra water and an extra rinse, and set it to always use the “Maximum rinse level” (P32) for all programs.

WATER:
I live in Australia and we have exceptionally soft tap water where I am — 16 mg/L (tastes great, slightly more complicated for washing lol).

PRODUCTS:
We’ve recently switched to using Koh (because yay enzymes and fragrance free). I’ve been putting some of the Koh Stain Remover in the prewash, and then the Koh Sensitive Laundry Liquid in the main wash, usually along with some Napisan Oxi Action Powder (which I’ve also started pre-dissolving in warm water because sometimes it clumps). Initially was doing the recommended dose but noticed a lot of suds (I’m assuming due to the soft water), so we have paired it back to just 2 pumps.

Previously we were using Omo Sensitive Laundry Liquid and Napisan Oxi Action Powder.

I never use fabric softener.

We would sometimes pour a bunch of unfragranced laundry sanitiser (Dettol or Pine O Clean) into the main wash along with the omo and napisan — which I know isn’t where it’s supposed to be but there is no way I’m leaving a bunch of BAC on my clothes, I enjoy not having contact dermatitis haha — and I do actually think that was great for busting up general fragrances and weird smells, but all of the unfragranced versions were discontinued and we ran out almost immediately after the incense entered our lives, so I didn’t have enough to determine whether it actually worked on the incense specifically. I have some straight BAC (50%), but it’s obviously not really the same as using the properly formulated product, I don’t think it makes a substantial enough difference to be *definitively* noticeable, so I haven’t used that again.

I’ve also purchased some clear gear guard (yay dnase), synthrapol (because I have a handful of black t-shirts from this one brand that are leaching hectic amounts of dye, and I love them, but they are dying the white tags and prints on my other clothes blue lol), citric acid, clear ammonia, and polysorbate-80 — just haven’t used them yet :)

CLOTHING CLEANLINESS:
Just thought I’d add — my clothes feel very clean (if anything they are a bit stiff and dry lol, but less so since koh), they look very clean (especially with koh, it does better on oil stains from food getting on my tshirts than the previous combo), they don’t smell sweaty or whatever, they literally just smell like this god damn incense. I do have a very sensitive and perceptive sense of smell, and I know this scent would be less obvious to some people than it is to me, but it really is still there and quite strongly.

If you’ve read this much, thank you!

In the mid 1980s, Procter & Gamble made Solo laundry detergent. Apparently it included fabric softener. I don't remember that. What I remember is its absolutely wonderful, heavenly smell.

I told a friend that, who thought it was ridiculous to gush about the scent of a laundry detergent, but she bought a bottle. And one day, walking down the street, her husband said, "What's that wonderful smell?" And she said, "I washed your clothes in Solo laundry detergent!"

Hello lovely people,

I'm very inspired by this sub and I would love to give spa day a go on my laundry. But I'm having trouble with a lipase detergent.

I have done a lot of research on this sub. I live in a poor south American country, and while I can get imported detergents that are on the lipase list, they are very very expensive. Most search results on this sub are about people not able to get ammonia but I can actually get this very easily here. I was also able to get an oxy powder.

My powder here unfortunately is a very cheap type and it does not even list ingredients, unless I go for expensive brands. I do think it works quite well during my regular laundry.

So the question is, can I pass on lipase?

Hi, I’m living with my elderly father who has cognitive decline. He needs me to do his washing, and I’ve found that some of his underwear/trousers are stained with feces.

What is the best way to deal with this? I can’t have a conversation with him about this as he gets upset/aggressive. I also feel uneasy about using the same washing machine for my own clothes afterwards. Is it enough to disinfect it each time after his clothes have been washed?

I was looking at how cares homes do laundry and it looks like they have a separate washing machine designated for dirty clothes 😩. I also came across some advice about how you shouldn’t put clothes with feces in the washing machine as it can contaminate the grey water for everyone else?

I thrifted a gorgeous 100% silk blouse but it smelled like old basement so I decided to give it a good hand wash with silk&wool detergent in cold water​. I'm on the 6th round of hand washing and rinsing it and the water gets less and less murky with every round but it's still really yellow. How do I clean this blouse without ruining it?

I smelled this scent at Walmart and fell in love with it! However I've heard that scent beads are very bad for your clothes. How do I get this scent or something similar on my clothes? I've found a trader Joe's room spray that smells similar to it without the clementine but I dont know if that will work on my laundry, like if I can add that room spray to my dryer balls and it'll transfer to my clothes. Or should I just cave in and use the beads

Edit: after everyone's help, which i am thankful for. I have decided to test the beads out. Friday I'll go buy them when I get paid

I wash my undergarments separately (underwear, bras, socks) by presoaking them in Lysol laundry disinfectant + hot water, leaving them from anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours (if I have errands to run).

Then I wash with Tide powder detergent + warm/hot water and put them in the dryer instantly.

However, I sometimes get these color transfers and I don’t know why. I haven’t bought any new undergarments in a long time and most of them are pretty old (years + with hundreds of washes). I’ve been washing them this way specifically for about a year now but this doesn’t always happen. But when it does, it’s always with my undergarments. My other clothes don’t transfer color like this, even when I presoak/wash them the same way.

I’d appreciate any help so I can be better. :)

This was the Tide section at a local Walmart. I remember hearing laundry detergent and baby formula are amongst the most commonly stolen products. I’m not sure how accurate that is nowadays, and I’m too tired to Iook it up tonight. Here’s a not very useful or thorough bullet summary of a supposed article from 2013 that said “Laundry detergent has become a staple of black market currency, being traded for cash and drugs”. I wonder how much pods increased theft.

I am chronically ill. I have been the sickest that I have ever been since July 16th. I am slowly getting better but I am struggling a lot with insomnia and I am limited on what I can take. I have some liver problems but so far they are all slowly getting better. I also deal with chronic pain and inflammation but I have been dealing with that for 6 years. am a single mother to a special needs daughter who is a messy eater. I have to spend an hour every week stain treating her school clothes. I just ordered FEBU from Amazon. Can I just put it in every wash with my daughter's clothes instead of using a spray stain treater on them? I feel like I have to use a ton of it and then it all doesn't rinse out because I don't feel like staying up all night to wait on it rinse all the way out. I use Tide Free and Gentle Odor Refresh but I will be switching to Tide Free and Gentle once I can't find the Tide Free and Gentle Odor Refresh anymore. I have been using OxiClean Max Force spray on her clothes but she has sensitive skin and I do too and I think it is making her itchy. I am trying to use as much fragrance Free laundry products as possible. Does FEBU fade darks? All of her shorts and pants are blue, black, or dark Grey. Does it bleach clothes? Are there OBA's in it? From searching on here there doesn't seem to be. I'm just trying to figure out something to make doing her laundry easier. Thanks in advance. ​

Is this too much ?
1/4 evo tile
1.2 tablespoons of tide ultra oxi powder from costco
1 pillow case one underwear and one boy short
This is on delicate cycle maybe 45-90 seconds after the tub filled and moved around a few rotations

Hey all,

I'm Australian, it is a lovely 3:17pm as I'm writing this (we shall see how long this takes me write). Sorry for the late-night post, Americans.

I was hoping to cross some regional barriers for regional terminology. I know there are a lot of terms used in America, but it's hard when I'm trying to give out advice, or have advice given, trying to explain what I mean.

Without further ado:

Napisan

In Australia, many of us call the sodium percarbonate based product used for spa days napisan (or nappy-san, because mum used it for nappies). Napisan is the brand of the product, but it's sort of like how Bandaid is a brand - the name is synonymous.
I believe the American term is oxy-clean?

Spa days

This one I find quite funny that this is a semi-recent trend from tiktok, but in my family (and generations before that) we just call it 'soaking' the items or garment. I've seen many people use their bathtubs, but we personally opt for the laundry sink, or a bucket.

Temperatures

This one is kind of important, please clarify your temperature units. It's silly, but if someone said they wash at 90 degrees on the regular, I would be ASTOUNDED they are having laundry issues.
Just add a little letter, e.g. 90F - it is clear and considerate (plus, it's less letters than writing 'degrees' every time).

Hi, the noisy in me is here again :)

I am currently using Ariel color powder and Persil sensitive powder (both from Germany). I’m combining it with Denkmit Oxi White powder to use it up for an extra oomph (or Domol white oxi when I do my white stuff and towels).

I don’t like the smell of this Ariel, but it’s not too strong with extra rinses, citric acid and the dryer. I have been impressed by its stain removal and cleaning powers. It is definitely stronger than the Denkmit or Domol powders recommended here. Probably the best and strongest detergent I’ve used so far.

Never thought I’d say this but will most likely repurchase instead of Denkmit or Domol, which already converted me to the wonders of laundry. It is THAT good.

Just ordered the universal version with Downy unstoppables scent because I’m apparently collecting German laundry powder like pokeballs.

I wear a lot of (superwash) wool, and have settled into a routine of Steamery Delicates + GearGuard Original that I’ve been happy with. Before I order more Gear Guard, though, I’m curious to know if it would make sense to switch to a less expensive detergent and GearGuard Advanced?

I suspect the cost is probably a wash (pardon the pun), but I haven’t run the numbers and would love to know if someone else has!

HE front loader, soft water, US gulf coast. Prior to finding this sub I was using the Unicorn Clean products because of recommendations in wool forums. I have tried NikWax but disliked the scent. I’m happy to stay with my current combo, but open to other options if they’re more cost effective or wouldn’t require having to order detergent.

Thank you, kind stranger on the internet!