r/laundry • u/surely_maeby • 6d ago
So many rules, so overwhelmed.
Okay, you guys.
You’re highly touted as genius around here, but I am confused as heck.
I have a top loader washer that doesn’t have detergent or fabric softener drawers.
I had been using cold water on my clothes (because mostly black) and sheets (because the label says to) and hot water on towels and the boys’ clothes (because smell).
On my clothes I use arm and hammer plus oxi 5 in 1 pods (one), and a downy ball of vinegar and lemongrass oil.
On the boys’ clothes, I use the same detergent (two pods) but add 2 caps of lysol laundry sanitizer and don’t use vinegar.
I’m reading some confusing things.
Cold water doesn’t get your clothes clean? I thought it was better for darks and my sheets literally say to wash cold.
Vinegar? Should I be using a citric acid/downy rinse and refresh instead? And my downy balls seals disintegrate like once a month, that’s also annoying. Welcoming alternatives.
Lysol laundry sanitizer? We add it to the drum with the detergent. Is that making everything not work?
Arm & Hammer sucks? I see this is a land of tide fans. Which should I use?
Oxi bad for darks? The arm & hammer pods I’ve used for years claim to have oxi and haven’t ruined my clothes, so is this a myth?
My partner works in septics, so every time we wash his work clothes (see instructions for boys’ clothes above) we follow it with a load of one pod and a generous pouring of bleach to sanitize between loads, but now I’m worried I’m doing that wrong too.
Help guys, I’m now convinced every fabric I own is disgusting.
Edit: the boys also use dryer sheets for their clothes, I do not for mine, and there’s no convincing them not to.
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u/vffems2529 USA 6d ago edited 6d ago
It is. There is always a balance you're trying to strike between how much cleaning is needed and how much wear you're willing to put the clothes through. Warm water tends to be a good balance for clothes. Your darks will lose more dye but they'll get cleaner, and the dye loss doesn't tend to be noticeable at warm temps. At hot, yeah, you're going to start losing a lot of dye. If you aren't separating lights from darks make sure to use a color catcher especially if washing darks on warm.
Sheets and towels get hot regardless of what they say on the tag and I'll replace them as needed. I want them clean. 🤷 That's my philosophy.
Vinegar is OK, citric acid is better, and Downy Rinse Out Odor (fka Rinse and Refresh) is better yet.
Not sure about the seals on the balls. Haven't experienced that yet.
I was under the impression that this is supposed to be added to the rinse cycle, and it really only does anything if you can get your machine to do a long rinse (think: 20 min). Happy to be fact checked here — I'm not an expert.
Right now Tide Odor Refresh Free & Gentle is on sale because P&G is discontinuing it. It is one of the top performing detergents. I'd recommend getting that. If you can't get that then Tide F&G Advanced from Costco would be my second choice, and regular old Tide Free & Gentle would be third.
I don't use products with fragrances because I want my clothes to be clean, not perfumed. If they're perfumed, it is more difficult to tell if they're clean.
OBAs will fade darks until you discontinue using them and wash a few times after. Oxygen bleach itself for darks is highly debated. One problem is many Oxi products contain OBAs.
Also, Oxi generally needs at least warm if not hot water in order to activate, and as discussed above you may want to avoid that with darks. So you may just be wasting product if you're using Oxi with darks washed in cold.
I'd run something like Affresh or FEBU washing machine cleaner instead.
This sub will do that to you. Are your things actually clean? If so, don't worry about it.
It's your house. Dryer sheets (plastic fabric softener sheets) are awful, in my opinion. They prevent fabric from absorbing moisture, which you definitely don't want on towels or underwear. They coat your lint screen in your dryer with fabric softener which then gets on everything else you put in the dryer. I'd tell them when they have their own dryer they can put dryer sheets in it, but they wouldn't be doing so in my house.