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Totally in with the ‘make your own soap’ mentality. I’ve been making my own laundry soap and liquid hand soap for ~6mo, and I’m still working through the first set of supplies I got for both. Only downside to making it yourself is the time commitment, but I’ve got it to a point where once I have the batter made, I just throw it and some distilled water into a covered mason jar, put in a covered stock pot with enough water to get around the inner water level and just let it simmer for a few hours.
It’s actually super simple to make my laundry soap, it’s just a 6:6:2:1 ratio:
Baking soda:Epson salt:washing soda:sea saltWorks great and take the smell out of my potty training son’s laundry.
Awfullydull and I are now best friends, I’ve been saying the same about dryer sheets for YEARS now
FUCK DRYER SHEETS pointless ass waste of money
My MIL swears that dryer sheets are good for cleaning baseboards. You take one and rub it on a baseboard and some how dust just… avoids those annoying little nooks and crannies. I haven’t had to clean them again in literal years, but thats the only good use I’ve heard for dryer sheets. It’s a hack on a tiny task I never take time to care about really, not sure if that in anyway justifies the existence of dryer sheets, but there you go.
What’s a dryer sheet? I don’t think I’ve heard of it before.
A microplastic rag dipped in PFAS.
I’m talking out of my ass bc I don’t use them either, but I’d wager a buck my description isn’t that far off.
You put them in your clothes dryer to make everything smell like chemical clean and make them a little softer. And reduce static? I think? They give me a rash, personally.
Literally just a thin disposable sheet of fabric impregnated with fabric softener that you throw in the dryer with your clothes. The idea is that it’s supposed to make your clothes feel softer, smell better, and reduce static electricity. Waste of money and material, just throw a damn tennis ball in there
Want to add in here, that some washing mechanics can’t hand the homemade detergent mix. I’ve damaged one or two with the mix. Not entirely sure as to the reason, but I believe it has something to do with the grated soap bar clogging something somewhere.
Wonder if you could powder it somehow.
Small batches in an old blender. Grated soap mixed with you washing soda, borax or whatever else you are using as a booster. The powders will coat the soap as it gets cut apart and keeping it from clumping back together.
This is hard on a blender so do smaller batches (and don’t use a good blender. Get one from goodwill or the like for ~ 10 bucks}. It will also produce very fine airborne power when you open the blender. I promise you that you don’t want strong alkaline powers in your lungs, and even if you do it will make the air taste terrible. Do this in a well ventilated place, use PPE, and be careful. I find that after you powder it, the soap in the mixture holds on to the other ingredients and keep them from becoming airborne.
Also use a laundry soap bar, the soap is often stronger so you can use less and it doesn’t have ingredients to moisturizer or make the soap easy on the skin. Those often contribute to buildup issues.
I wrote up a big rant with detailed instructions on how to remove residue from washers. A clean washer performed better and it’s over of the reasons people get a new washer and it ends up cleaning much better.
EDIT: a link to my washer cleaning and residue removal rant
‘Most millennials aren’t buying enough of our shit and that’s a HUGE PROBLEM that all of you definitely care about!’
That’s some pretty useful advice in the comments tho. But also I’m 52 years old and have literally never used fabric softener in my life and have no idea what it’s supposed to be for other than making companies like Proctor & Gamble even more money.
Also, another handy tip: ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ is bullshit, unless you have really thick or really oily hair and don’t wash regularly, you don’t need to wash it twice, the shampoo company just wants you to buy more. Same with fill marks in a washing machine, unless you’re doing a huge load there’s no reason to fill it all the way up.
I gotta wash mine twice(when i do wash it), but that’s because of the extra oils I put in my hair. The first wash absorbs so much of the oil it won’t really even lather.
Obvious solution seems to be to put less oil in your hair? shrug
Then it doesn’t look right. Obvious solution is to just wash my hair twice. So obvious it’s what I do and it works great.
I’ve literally never put oil in my hair in my life (tho now I say that I dunno if shampoo/conditioner has oil in it. Probably.) It’s looked fine this whole time.
I’ve probably had pretty long hair for longer than you’ve been alive. If you have long hair and wanting it to look not crazy without tying it up, you’re putting something in it. Whether it’s leave in conditioner, or fiber or pomade or gel or hairspray or some type of oil or you manage to skip all that by straightening it all the time; you’re putting something in it or doing something to it. Very few people have an exception to this. Namely people who have very straight, limp hair.
I’m in my 50s so color me skeptical on that count, but fair enough. ;) But yeah, I’ve never been able to grow my hair out and keep it that way even though I do have very straight, limp hair just because it was always a pain to wash and care for and I just didn’t care enough.
Was “lather, rinse, repeat” an advertising jingle or something for you guys, or do you just all get taught to wash your hair twice?
It was on the instructions on the bottles and IIRC in the ads for the major brands too.
and don’t wash regularly
Even washing hair regularly is a scam. If you wash once a week your hair will be fine. It’ll look like shit for a few weeks until your scalp gets the message that you aren’t stripping away all the natural oils still and that it can cut back on oil production but afterwards your hair will be healthier.
100%.
Use a shampoo that has aloe as the primary ingredient as well. Can comfortably make it a week and half before it looks gnarly.
Routinely get complimented on it so I know its not nasty.
Huh, I didn’t know that. But I mean I gotta shower every couple of days at most anyway or I feel gross, so might as well.
Hair training is a myth, so take their advice with a grain of salt.
Duly noted, thanks.
Oh, I shower every day with soap. I just don’t wash my hair every day. I also feel gross without a shower.
Soap is also not great for your skin; you don’t need to soap up more than your armpits and underwear area.
I’m sorry to have to say, but the idea of “hair training” is a myth.
The oil glands (which are known as sebaceous glands, and produce an oil called “sebum”) are controlled by genetics, hormones, and stress. Sebaceous glands don’t have any sort of “sensor” to tell them when to produce more/less oil, so washing or not washing won’t make a difference.
Thank you. I have extra oily hair so if I skip washing it even a single day it starts to look like I’m using pomade, and whenever I tell people this they always insist I should just wash it once a week and my head will “adjust.”
I am the exact same, friend. My hair becomes a big oil slick after only a day without washing and it’s really obvious. Which is part of why this particular myth bothers me so much.
First, as teens, we had uninformed randos without oily skin telling us to heal our acne problems by putting nonsense like toothpaste and silly putty on our faces. Now, those same uninformed, non-oily randos tell us that our greasy hair can be solved by not washing it.
But my dermatologist was right about the acne care they recommended, I’m inclined to trust them about my scalp care too.
Yep, I had really bad acne when I was younger and the only thing that worked was isotretinoin, which is rough. My lips cracked and bled while I was taking that but when I was finished the acne was gone.
They made me pledge not to get pregnant while taking it despite the fact that I don’t have a uterus, lol.
I knew /r/nopoo was a lie!
I’m a head-sweater so when I work out my hair gets as wet as it would in the shower. I’m not gonna leave it like that, it’ll be stinky.
Yes, not all advice/recommendations apply to everyone. Specifically: our bodies vary quite a bit and they also change over time.
This is true, but greasy hair looks greasy and makes your pillow smell bad which impacts your ability to fall asleep.
Like sure, it’s not natural to wash your hair every 2/3 days, but imo it’s worth it
No, your hair stops becoming greasy. That’s the point. It gets that way because you’re stripping the oils, so it produces more to replinish it. If you stop then your scalp eventually adjusts and stops producing much oil.
People think greasy hair is just what happens, but no. It’s what happens when you’ve been stripping your hair dry for years and your scalp is trying it’s best to fix the problems you’re causing. Stop causing problems and it’ll normalize.
I wash with water frequently, but when I really need a good clean I wash with conditioner. The oils bind and are removed but your hair will be refreshed. I rarely wash with shampoo, for years at this point, and my hair isn’t greasy. It just feels healthy.
It’s what happens when you’ve been stripping your hair dry for years and your scalp is trying it’s best to fix the problems you’re causing. Stop causing problems and it’ll normalize.
Please do explain how an exocrine gland on the scalp is supposed to know how much oil is on a strand of dead hair cells, located inches away from the skin?
I think that it’s because the scalp itself gets dried out from too much washing, so the glands respond to that.
When the scalp skin “normalizes” the hair slowly normalizes as well, since the oil travels down the strands.
That’s my guess. I went from shampooing daily to every other day and at first I would get an itchy, gummy scalp. But eventually that gummyness worked it’s way out. Every time I shampooed I would get that dry, gummy scalp the next day.
So eventually I shampooed less and less. Now I don’t shampoo at all. I just rinse daily with water and massage my scalp.
I can assure you my gf and I both nvalidated this assumption during the covid19 lockdown. I have a friend who has thick grey hairs and he never washes his hair. I guess we are all different on that matter because I can’t even skip a single day (it gets scratchy and my skin starts to fall appart), as others testified in the comments.
Apple cider vinegar and tea tree oil baby. (I am not a gross hippy, shampoo dries the f out of my hair and Ive gone no shampoo for ~10 years)
Your hair isn’t left smelling of the vinegar after?
It rinses out really well, and the tea tree oil is used to negate any residual smell
Main reason I do vinegar is because it strips out maybe 60-70% of the oils vs shampoo
I’ve had a box of fabric sheets for a decade or so cause my mom got them for me when she house sat, and I didn’t have any. I sometimes use em if there are sparks when I pull something out of the dryer, and i don’t forget i have them.
It reduces static and leaves behind a film that makes things feel softer. It ruins towels because of this.
I use dryer sheets for static. shrug
Same thing just with more waste
Dryer sheets will ruin your towels too, just toss some wool balls in the dryer.
How so?
It coats your towels with a light film that makes them less absorbent.
I learned that from Lizzie McGuire. Ethan Craft, the character frequently noted to have amazing hair, calls the “lather, rinse, repeat” thing a marketting trick.
Cotton and mostly-cotton blends don’t get that much static but nylon, polyester, and bamboo/rayon/microfiber make sparks. If you’re trying to wash pet hair out of something, the softener can help it let go. Although, before you wash, try using a squeegee or a silicone bowl-scraper to remove most of the hair.
UK person: dryer?
Yeah, dryers themselves are a waste of both money and energy.
Depends. They do save on space, which is why it’s so weird that most US people have them and europeans who generally have much smaller homes usually don’t.
My drying rack takes a bit of room for 24h every 2 weeks and folds to non-existence between loads, so I don’t really share that logic.
Plus, it does not try to compete with my water tank on electricity consumption.
I think family size is the kicker. My kids are really active and exploratory. So residue and odor leaves me needing to do multiple loads a week. I know scientifically when it comes to bacteria and odor I could do the deep freeze/freezer thing…but I just can’t.
There are some items we have to hang dry. Those I can keep on the one hanging rack. If I did it for everything though my 3-4 loads a week means my office/desk/craft space is now basically permanently occupied by laundry. Summer is more feasible…that’s only three months of consitent +13 C for my area though. :'(
IDK your living situation, but that “bit of room” might be a lot in smaller homes. My first room as a college student wouldn’t even fit a full-size drying rack, and it was definitely in the way in most of my places since then. And it’s going to be a lot more often than once every 2 weeks if there’s more than one inhabitant, and depending on what how thick the clothes are and the air humidity, 24h is not enough to dry everything.
Whilst I’d prefer not to have to hang my laundry I’m not willing to pay for that much electricity, particularly as I keep my shirts on hangers, so it’s literally a case of moving them from one rack to another.
How does having this massive machine save you space compared to a bit of string?
The machine takes only about half as much space as the rack and it’s easily stackable with a washing machine.
edit: I think you were actually referring to a clothesline instead of a rack? I never had a place to actually put up a clothesline, where do you put that? Straight through your bedroom?
If you want a rack you can get collapsible clothes drying racks that just fold up to almost nothing. As far as a washing line, put it up anywhere, just need 2 hooks. Usually dry stuff outside on a line other than in winter, could have a few lines across the kitchen to hang stuff from if you wanted.
Welsh person: no dryer?
(For our foreign friends - it rains eight days a week here…)
I’m on the southern coast of Wales. I have a dehumidifier.
That just seems like a heat pump dryer with extra steps.
It helps my laundry dry and keeps the house from feeling damp too. Nothing like high relative humidity inside a house to make the cold cling to the skin!
You can just use white vinegar instead of fabric softener. It’s significantly cheaper, can be used for other non-laundry things, eliminates odors, and doesn’t gum up your washing machine with residue.
Please don’t do this. It seems like a hack, but will mess up your machine bc of how corrosive the vinegar is. Learned this the hard way.
If your clothes really need it, just soak them in a bath of diluted vinegar for a while, then rinse and wash.
Further advice, don’t use a lot of it. You’ll see videos on youtube of people pouring like three cups of vinegar in their washing machine, don’t do that. You only need a splash of it. If you use too much, the acid will eat away at the rubber gaskets and shit
Meh. I say you need half a cup to a cup. A splash don’t do it.
Yeah if you can use just a splash you might have water soft enough to not require anything.
1/2 cup to 1 cup is the sweet spot for my water, 1/4 cup on a very small load.
I have a water softener and it works great for how the clothes feel from the wash. The half cup I add is mainly for odor eliminating.
O.O
That’s a terrifying amount. I use around 1/4 cup for most mid to large loads. 1/2 maaaybe if it’s a large towel load. Does the job well enough.
You definitely don’t need that much vinigar. That said most new washing machine are using a chemical resistant silicone or TPE instead of more traditional rubber compound. This eliminated the already miniscule risk of acid damaging the seals.
If you add 3 cups(about 700 mL) of standard 5% acetic acid bleach to 4 gallons of water(~ 15000 mL) you end up with a 0.2% acetic acid you will end up with a pH of something like 5.5 or about the pH of healthy skin. A lot of HE washers will use a 5 gallon initial wash so it’s likely to be even gentler than what I came up with in my rough napkin math guesstamate.
While I agree with the general sentiment, the vinegar won’t be released and diluted until later in the load, so it sits in its full 5% acetic acid glory for quite a while.
Most(maybe all) HE washers don’t have mechanical flaps that hold back the liquids, they sit in plastic cups that empty by an overflow or auto syphon system when water comes out of a tube located above that tub or cup. It’s a fancy plastic cup. Every plastic common to appliance manufacturing is resistant to 5% acetic acid. Chemical resistance of plastics chart
I just looked at the fabric softener cup in my washer, it’s HDPE(high density polyethylene). If you look at that chart you will see polyethylene is resistant to even concentrated acetic acid. The plastic bottle the vinigar comes in is made from a lower density polyethylene.
By the time the vinigar leaves the cup is already being diluted by the fill water causing it to overflow or start the auto syphon. It will not damage your washer, but even if it did, you can buy replacements for the entire soap tray for relatively little online. The same can be said for most other appliance parts with the notable exceptions being large motors and some brands control boards. There are tons of write ups, tutorials and videos on how to fix broken appliances and replace parts.
Yes, I was just being pedantic. Sorry to have triggered such an involved response, but thanks for all the information! From what I understand this is more of a problem in dishwashers, if you want to use it as rinse aid.
No worries, I am a fan of pedantry. The amount of involved in the response was just me getting mentally stuck in a washing machine hole.
Is there anything vinegar can’t do?!? Between white and apple cider vinegar, I feel like they cover so many areas of cleaning and household stuff.
I have been thinking of making my own fruit vinegar this year. Hopefully good enough to consume rather than just use for cleaning
Vinegar ain’t basic, that’s for sure.
Ha ha… groan
I have a friend that would make his own clothes soap. It looked like semen, but worked.
I hate to be the guy to tell you this, but I think your friend might have washed his clothes with cum.
Could his jeans kinda, stand upright all by themselves?
It helps you stand for long periods of time, you just relax against your clothes which support you.
I’ve used the same three tennis balls in my dryer for about 20 years now. My clothes seem to last well, and towels remain absorbant (fabric sheets can leave a waxy residue making towels less absorbent). After reading those comments maybe I’ll try adding a few drops of a scented oil to one of the tennis balls.
That mentality is why I use a safety razor. Buy one and you’ll only spend a few dollars a decade on shaving blades and have a better shave. A lot of things in life are useless fluff that we only do because companies want us to do it since it’s profitable.
I use a trimmer now, never really cared for a close shave and I often leave it for a couple of weeks. I found a razor just got clogged up too much between the blades.
Annoyingly the trimmer I have seems to vary in power, the motor charges speeds a lot during use. I think it might be a poor connection on the AA batteries, surface might have tarnished. Did think of soldering some wires on and connecting it to an extra battery, better connection and higher voltage. Overclock shaving!
I found a razor just got clogged up too much between the blades.
You might have better luck with one of those bog-standard single-blade safety razors, i.e. one of these:
I’ve heard from a hairdresser that they prefer the single-blade ones, specifically because the multi-blade ones clog up so much.
I mean, currently I also use a trimmer for my face, as I cannot be asked to do a wet shave every day. But I still use the safety razor for cutting back armpits and groin for hygiene reasons, and it works quite well for that. It’s a lot less scary when you don’t have to cut thick beard hair.
I did also consider that option but I don’t really feel a need for a shave that close. I know using the multiblade razors left my skin feeling a bit uncomfortable after, not sure if safety razors do as well. Trimmer doesn’t at all.
Yeah, they probably will leave your skin feeling uncomfortable. Many seem to consider shaving cream and whatnot a strict requirement. That’s also part of the reason why I still use a trimmer for my face, too.
Just looked at it and I think most shaving creams cost more than my trimmer did
I have a rechargeable trimmer. Like you, I’m never going for that ultra-close shave. I have fairly light/thin facial hair though, so the 5 o’clock shadow looks works well for me.
Mine uses AA batteries rather than a built in lithium one, my hope was that it would mean it lasts longer as I can just swap NiMH batteries as I feel like it rather than having to throw out the entire thing when the lithium battery dies. Also its cheaper as it doesn’t come with batteries and charging circuitry.
i bought for cheap one pluggable razor much more powerful than those with batteries … also you have to oil the blades and clean them regularly.
I do oil and clean it, I live in the UK so we don’t normally have sockets in bathrooms. Getting one of those special ones installed would probably cost quite a bit.
I use the throwaway safety razors that you can buy a bag for a few euros. I get a close shave and it costs very little. I’ve wanted buy a more expensive one, that style where you can get cheap replacement blades, but I’ve always hesitated because, you know, what if it is shit. Then I’ve wasted like a few year’s shaving budget on it. Would make for less waste though.
If only i could shave my head with one i would in a heartbeat.
I bought a Leaf Razor from an EU reseller about a year ago now and it was a game changer for head shaving with safety razor blades.
The head of the handle pivots so it’s very difficult to cut myself with it accidentally unlike the regular handle I was using before.
I’m hesitant to share a link because I don’t want to seem like a shill for a company I don’t know much about but just wanted to say there are options out there!
I shave mine with a safety razor. Knobbliness of head is probably a factor though!
I have a mole on the top of my head, multi blade razors glide over it, my safety razor is how i found out I had it: sharp pain and suddenly being covered in so much blood I could smell it.
So yeah knoblliness should not be overlooked.
Ooft, that’s rough. Eyyyy
Fabric softener kills elastic and lots of clothes (including even jeans) have elastic in them. Yeah, you can do separate washes, but ain’t nobody got time for that.
Not heard of that one. The main one I know is it makes towels less absorbent, my partner’s mum uses it and it’s like trying to soak up water with a plastic bag.
Yeah when you coat all the fibers of the towel with slightly modified rendered animal fat, then they won’t absorb water. The long hydrophobic tail on the tallow dimethyl ammonium chloride molocule really doesn’t want to mix with water. It’s almost completely insoluble in polar solvents like water.
Why make things soft by addressing the initial problem(residues and hard water salts in deposited in the fibers when the clothes dry) when you can just coat the whole thing in fat and call it “clean” and “soft”
I’m not sold on that homemade detergent. Soap tends to leave insoluble residue, especially when you have hard water. There is a reason why almost everything uses synthetic detergents (though it might also be because those are cheap).
Yeah, I’ve never understood the point in using a different soap as the base of a different soap. I make my own laundry soap out of basic shit I get from Walmart, and it works great.
Is it actually cheaper than buying dry detergent for cheap?
Good question, but I’ll admit I’ve not actually run the exact figures. I’m actually doing this for health reasons rather than monetary, since one of my partners is allergic tio life.
But to your question,I might have spent the cost of 1.5 large boxes of laundry detergent ($30) for the 4 items that go into it (Baking soda,Epson salt,washing soda,sea salt), but given the fact I can buy in bulk, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being cheaper. In the last 6mo I’ve made the laundry soap twice and haven’t put a huge dent in my ingredient stock. I wouldn’t be surprised to find I get more than 200 washes out of the base ingredients, which would definitely be more economical than the premade stuff.
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Am I the only one who likes fabric softener? For me it was a game changer to go from wrinkly, stiff clothes to softer, less wrinkled clothes.
I definitely don’t use it every wash, but I do think it makes a real difference.
I wouldn’t be caught dead using dryer sheets, though. That’s a scam.
IDK anything about it, but I’ve read “softener bad” a few times so I’ve just stopped putting it in and honestly haven’t noticed.
My partner does though so now when she sees or hears me doing laundry she reminds me to use the softener.
Many clothes, especially athletic/athleisure fabrics, should not be washed with fabric softener. Check the label to be sure.
athletic/athleisure fabrics
I really don’t understand the point of that trend. Unless you’re competing at a high level, your clothing doesn’t matter at all.
That said, it makes average women’s bodies look incredible. So maybe that’s why.
Sounds like maybe you do understand the point.
I like both softener and dryer sheets ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t, but dryer sheets are incredibly cheap too.
Gen X here, I only use unscented dryer sheets because if I don’t I will get shocked a lot. My apartment is great because the humidity is super low in the winter, but clothing hurts. Humidifier doesn’t work because if I don’t use distilled water everything gets a rust color on it. Also I’d be going through a gallon of distilled water a day. I can’t afford that, but I sure as heck can afford a big box of unscented dryer sheets that solves my problem.
Tumblr is such a nice place.
You know, when it is.
