Laundry Product Junkie

Can we talk about laundry for a minute? It is definitely not my favorite chore, but there are things I care for even less. It is never ending! Especially when you have a child who takes her socks off every chance she gets. Then can’t find them when you tell her to put them back on, so she just gets out a new pair. We have incentives in place for her to keep her socks on during the winter months, but she rarely gets them.

How were you taught to do laundry? Do you separate lights and darks? Do you wash in cold or warm? Or a combination? Do you ever question if you are doing your laundry right? I did! Until my husband began working for a home builder and the appliance rep told him that detergents are all meant to be used with cold water. I rarely using anything but cold water now. (Only occasionally for towels.) Because of this I never separate my clothes. I just wash what needs to be washed. After all those white clothes are all dyed white anyways. No fiber is naturally that white! So… every load of my laundry gets a dose of Clorox2 color booster. My darks stay dark, my whites stay white, and my colors stay bright. I haven’t had fading in years because of this.

My chosen detergent is All Mighty Packs Free and Clear. I love detergent pods! I use the dishwasher ones and the laundry ones. I love the ease of just grabbing one and throwing it in. They have always been kept in a cupboard safely tucked away out of kid reach. These ones also aren’t colorful, so not very enticing to little eyes. Going on 7 years with them and unless they stop making them, I won’t stop using them.

A couple years ago I noticed that my clean clothes didn’t smell very good. It was right around the time that in-wash scent boosters were becoming a thing. I thought to myself “worth a shot, what’s the worst that could happen?” Nothing bad happened. I have tried multiple brands and scents, but nothing has worked as well as Downy Unstoppables. I like the pink lid the most, I never knew what a shimmer smelled like before, but I haven’t found a Downy scent I don’t like.

Then recently my drainpipe started overflowing with bubbly foam during the first drain of the cycle. A little research and I realized I needed to be using fabric softener. Luckily, I had some on hand and it solved the problem. Now every load of laundry gets 4 different products added to it and I feel like a junkie as I prep each load. Does anyone else feel like they add a lot of things, maybe too many things, to their laundry? Am I the only one?