Quick Easy Question

Honestly, whatever is on sale is what I use. I have used All, Gain (my favorite), Arm & Hammer, etc. None seem to really wash any better than another, it usually comes down to me liking the lovely fragrance from one better than another! I have very sensitive skin and can jump laundry detergents without any problems, so I would think for most people, it shouldn't be a problem to do the same! :)

We use Charlies Soap and sometimes BioKleen detergent (unscented).

We have eczema/allergies in the family, and we have to go scent-free/dye-free and both are good for that. Both products are also environmenally (sp?) friendly, and the Charlies Soap, in particular is cost-effective, by buying the larger size and using 1 T per load (which is the amount that is recommended). I sometimes use Dreft or other stain remover to pretreat (my little guy loves blueberries....). I occasionally add 1-2 T of washing soda or borax to the laundry if it's a really soiled batch.

For the cloth diapers, if Charlies doesn't cut it, I'll wash them a 2nd time with the Biokleen, after a baking soda soak and add vinegar to the rinse cycle, and add an extra rinse.

I do occasionally use Febreeze to wash the dog bed covers, and for really grimy stuff, I use Lestoil--it's good for greasy stains.

Honestly while I love Tide and the more expensive detergents, we totally just use the CHEAPEST dye/fragrance free, hypoallergenic ones. They clean fine. I do miss the nice scent though and reminds me of my moms laundry or my MIL's b/c their clothes always smell so nice...but I worry about allergies for ME and MY SON. So - oh well...its the cheap no smell stuff! When my son was a baby though I used dreft.

My sons are allergic to most laundry detergents. I was reading an article that quoted the president of Seventh Generation as saying that the laundry soap isn't really what makes clothes clean: it's the agitator action in the washing machine. Since then, I've been using baking soda and vinegar to clean our clothes. No "nice clean smell," but also no itchy boys.

And when their clothes are really smelly, or when my husband works out and his clothes stand up by themselves, the thing that does the trick is Dawn dish soap. Just a teaspoon, and the odors are completely gone.

I make my own laundry soap (you can find lots of recipes online). I make my own strictly because of price. I can make a 5 gal bucket for less than $5. I also use Oxyclean powder in each load (did this even when I was using store bought soap) and vinegar in each rinse cycle. The reason I use the vinegar is two fold - it gets all of the soap out of the clothing so I don't have itchy kids, and it breaks down uric acid (I have 3 boys and there are always pee spots on underwear). If I want a certain scent, I can add essential oil to my bucket and if I don't the soap has a faint lemon smell which is fine with me too. Because of the vinegar, my clothing has zero smell out of the wash anyways and only smell of the fabric softener after they come out of the dryer.

Good luck :)

Detergent used to be one of the things I wouldn't do generic on, because if I ruined just one piece of clothes, I had defeated the purpose of saving money. But, as you say, it got SO expensive. Now I use generic laundry soap but I am careful to pretreat with a stain remover. Happy to say, I haven't ruined any clothes. The only down side is, we tend to use more because it's cheap. I catch my husband throwing in 2 capfuls becasue he doesn't trust it. So, in the long run, my clothes are clean but I don't know if we are saving money or not. But it doesn't sting near as much in the grocery line! :)

We shop at SAM's CLUB and get the one that is the lowest price or we search for sales in the grocery and pharmacy. They are all good. We dilute or just use a little less and rinse well!

If I splurge on nothing else, I will splurge on TIDE. I also recently started using TIDE stain release gel tabs and LOVE them just as much! Instead of having to go through each article of clothing as I load the laundry, I just throw one gel tab in the wash and it gets out all the stains. It saves so much time not having to go through the laundry looking for stains and then having to spray each stain. It's all pretty pricey (about $10 for 34 tabs) but it's worth it for me. I always use a coupon or look for them to be on sale!

I've had good results with the Target brand laundry detergent and the Costco/Kirkland brand detergent. I usually buy the Target brand when there are sales and coupons. When I run out and I don't have coupons, I buy the Costco/Kirkland one. However, we aren't dealing with skin sensitivities so I can't speak to it being better for that or not.

Tide. Works on our sensitive skin, takes the stains of our my boyfriends mechanic uniforms, and I lllloooooooovvvvvveeeeeee the smell. =) I don't care that it costs as much as it does, I save elsewhere on other things to be able to afford the things I am unwilling to budge on.

We used to get the store brand liquid because it was cheaper. We don't have any allergies or sensitivities to worry about. But then I tried the Purex 3-in-1 sheets and I love how easy they are! Plus, if you add up the cost of buying detergent & fabric softener separately (even store brand detergent), it came up cheaper per load!

Another plus with those is that my daughter can help by throwing one in! If I continue to use them, I won't have to worry about her pouring liquid detergents everywhere when she tries to help! haha

I'm not too rigid on brand loyalty with most things but I use Tide. It doesn't irritate our skin and it gets all stains out. I try to use a coupon.

What ever is on sale or at Sam's. I too do not have any sensitivity in our household, and with three kids, two boys that play baseball 3-5 days a week, I do ALOT of laundry. I was a big Tide mom, but I too discovered that it was just getting tooo expensive, sometimes $10.00 more than the others. I am also lucky that I still have older washer (not front loaders), so I can use anything.

I use Kirkland laundry detergent from Costco and also Cheer when I can find it on sale. Both work very well and are pretty reasonable compared to Tide. I used to use Tide but also noticed the price increase over the last few yrs and don't think it is worth the extra price. Hope this helps.

Kirkland (Costco's brand) because it's cheap.

Tide or Gain. I usually go with the one that is on sale (and use a coupon) when I go to buy it....and one or the other usually always is. (I love the smell and have gotten lots of compliments on how good my laundry smells and I don't do anything special)

I use Borax, as a laundry booster, whenever I think my laundry might need extra help...like extra dirty clothes. and for laundry detergent, I use Great Value brand (walmart brand) powder...but just use 1 Tblspn for not very dirty clothes, or 2 Tblspns for average load of laundry...but for very dirty clothes, like Dh's work pants, or a load of dirty diapers....I would use 2 Tblspns of the Great Value detergent with 1 Tblspn of Borax.

I think this washes very well and lasts a long time.

We really don't have to use as much laundry soap as what's recommended.

I use Purex. I have used other detergents over the years but for the past several, I stick with Purex. I only use half of what it tells me to use and my clothes come out clean. I also use white vinegar so that helps. For stains I use Shout and for my toddlers clothes, I use Shout and Dreft because she can get messy. Doing a presoak really gets out those stains. For really tough stains, I soak overnight in Oxyclean and do a double rinse. We have never had any sensitivity issues and the soaps are much less than Tide and Cheer etc. I could not imagine paying $15 for a bottle of soap on sale.

I recently switched to Seventh Generation because it is a little more natural, fewer chemicals. I also like it because I can buy it at diapers.com and have it delivered rather than have to make a trip to Target in the Bronx which as you imagine can be a hassle. Or pay $20 at my local grocery store.

I use the concentrated ALL HE formula.

I like the way it smells and cleans. I stock up on it when I see it on special, usually at Market Street (my grocery store....$2.99) It flies off the shelf when they have that special. I have about 10 bottles stockpiled right now.

I use Arm and Hammer. We switched around for a while (using even cheaper brands), but in the end we went back. It gets the clothes clean and fresh and I like the added baking soda for odor remover (husband worksout and coaches wrestling and fights fires). Its about 1/2 the price of Tide. I never bought Tide as it is way too expensive, I dont see how people can afford it. Also, I just started using 1/2 the amount as recommended on the package (been doing a lot of research online about wasting money on laundry)...try doing some research online too, you will be amazed!

I buy Gain. Yeah it runs $15 for a large bottle at Wal mart but its worth it. My FH works in the concrete construction business and his jeans are always full of concrete dust and dirt stains. Gain gets the stains out and makes his clothes smell really good. I have tried using cheaper brands, but they just don't work and I dont think its worth it buying cheap stuff over and over. I do dread going to the store to buy laundry soap, fabric softner, and dryer sheets because it will run me about $30 total. But once again, the smell and the stain fighters are well worth the extra money.

I've used Dreft for years due to my sensitive skin. The other's really irritated my skin. Now that I have a LO and another coming, I will continue to use Dreft.

I've been using Tide forever as well and I just can't justify the expense especially when I sometimes have to run two rinse cycles (costing me even more!). Our washer is HE and I use the HE formula. I've been using Target's Up & Up brand, it's not bad but sometimes I feel it doesn't remove odors as well as Tide did especially from my husband's workout shirts. I also tried Arm & Hammer's Essentials and I liked that one a lot more but I can't always find it although I think our regular grocery store (Kroger) carries it now.

tide free--doesn't make me itch---have newLG frontloader---uses small amt. of soap--check magazines ,sunday papers---many coupons available--also website-happy hunting!

We use the Purex free and clear. It's the cheapest free and clear that I can find. My son, age 11 , has had eczema since infancy so we have avoided perfumed products since then