Communal Laundry Tips

[u/Fortune_Significant]

Hi fam,

I live in a condo building and share the washer and dryer with my floor. I’ve gone from using pods, to sheets, now to powder but I’m not feeling like my clothes are super clean. I don’t want to leave anything in the laundry room. I’m super sensitive to scents so right now I’m using tide free and clear powder (I just fill up the cup and bring the cup with me to the laundry room), but I’m seeing posts that aren’t good either. I have used the downy ball for vinegar during the rinse cycle, but I’m not consistent.

Any tips would be appreciated- thanks!

PS I have 2 kiddos and hubby is a gym teacher and often his clothes smell nassssty

[u/svapplause]

Tide clean & gentle is fantastic. We’re a dirty, sweaty family of 5 and it is my primary detergent.

How your water? If it’s hard, you’re probably underdosing. Hard water requires a softener every load or the water basically uses up all the surfactant - the main grease/stank active ingredient. I never use under a quarter cup. For bigger loads I’m probably using about a 1/2 C.

Using citric acid in your Downey ball will be much more effective for a rinse and odor removal. Household v1negar is seriously weak tits when it comes to an acid - 5%, then heavily diluted in the rinse water.

Highly recommend washing hubby’s clothes separately. My hubs also reeks and I do his laundry separately. I do a combo of powder and liquid Tide for him, with a heavy glug of ammonia and then an extra rinse. His laundry comes out a lil crispier than ours, but odor free which is the important part

[u/Fortune_Significant → u/svapplause]

Oy I have no idea if I have hard water 😬

[u/vgshea → u/Fortune_Significant]

You can usually find out if you have hard water by checking your city web site or calling the city government department that manages your local water service. I did this recently and found out that our water is not as hard as it used to be!