Fabric softener is a scam

'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.

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.

Yeah I'm not putting all that effort and potentially ruining my washing machine to save me a few cents per wash. That seems ridiculous.

You don't even have to buy the fancy, expensive, in a pod detergent or anything, considering they always contain the same stuff that comes in a box/bottle. Just buy whatever's cheap.

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).

I’ve read that the homemade laundry soap is actually soap, not detergent, and that it will over time ruin your machine.

So, I’ve just continued buying laundry detergent and have just used a fraction of what the instructions advise. It’s worked for me. I don’t buy softener or sheets. Couldn’t afford it if I wanted to. But I do have oxyclean on hand only for when I’ve forgotten a load in the washer until it’s stinky or when I wash the dog bed covers or whatever.

It's worse. Fabric softener is composed of an anti static oil. When you run it in the laundry, it coats all of your clothes with a very thin layer of oil.

Which is why towels dried with fabric softener and dryer sheets don't absorb water anywhere near as well as plain towels dried without it!!

My mom complained to me for years that I wasn't "doing it right" by not using fabric softener. But her towels are useless compared to mine! She continues to spends $100/ year on fabric softener while on social security. Over the year she has spent thousands and thousands of $$$. 🤦‍♀️

If only millennials bought more fabric softener instead of avocados and coffee they would be able to afford a house.

Hello electricians and safety nerds. Fabric softener removes the fire rating on fire rated clothing protecting you from arc flash hazards.

I can't imagine baking baking soda in an oven is cheaper than just buying washing soda? They're both sold in similar size bags (1kg) for similar prices in my area (€9-€10). Seems like a waste of energy to buy the wrong type of carbonate.

That homemade laundry soap made with bar soap would be a nightmare in hard water. I don't even want to think about soap scum in the drains and in my clothes.

I just use the smallest amount of detergent I can get out of the bottle, that works well. And don't wash a garment after wearing it once if it's not underwear. Invested in a lot of Merino stuff which manages to be comfortable even here in Florida and doesn't stink ever. I can wear those shirts and just hang them back up.

My favorite is the Tide Free and Clear commercial where the kid goes "look dad, it's just as clean but without any of the chemicals that harm me!" They're literally admitting their core product contains harmful chemicals yet people are still buying it!

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 don't know about needing to make your own detergent. But using dry detergent would be a drastic improvement in cost compared to what most people do because if you're buying liquid detergent, most of what you're buying is water.

It's worth noting that cat owners(at least, never had anything buts cats) should avoid certain essential oils, As our furry pals' little organs aren't equipped to process them, and they can easily be deadly!

@pseudo@jlai.lu, saw you mention essential oils too, just a PSA.

This new generation can't do anything and spends money frivolously.... This generation is too stingy and resourceful.... Guys pick a damn lane.

I buy a Eco friendly and very affordable detergent from Costco. I need to use such a small amount even for a large load the jug lasts seemingly forever. So I don't feel the need to do up a homemade detergent.

When it come to softener though. Vinegar. It works, it's cheap, I can also use it for other household cleaning. Cooking and baking as well of course. You can't use if for loads that need bleach and use with fabrics that have a lot of elastic material can decrease it's life span. Overall though it works great dissolving soap and detergent residue that can make clothes feel stiff and scratchy, and less prone to lint and pet hair cling. Can help with odor and colour brightening too.

I will happily continue to be a millennial who ruins industry on that front.

im ok with buying a container of laundry detergent every few months

Honestly at a loss here. The title references fabric softener, but the content relates more specifically to DIY laundry detergent while only mentioning that softener makes clothes more vulnerable to wear & tear. What's the nitty-gritty on the fabric softener? Does it actually damage clothing in some way?

As geek analogy, is it like the subatomic bacteria that starts destroying the Klingon ship in Star Trek: the Next Generation S2E8's "A Matter Of Honor", or does it just make the material more susceptible to tearing?

Isn't detergent incredibly cheap though? I always buy the cheapest per weight Aldi stock. I think we may have spent less than £5 on it in the past year. Never bought fabric conditioner, wtf would I want that for, deliberately make my towels less absorbent and more flammable?

where the fuck are these people buying detergent that is 80x the ingredients they listed? isn't bar soap also industry made?

also I'm sorry maybe there's legit uses for it but whenever I hear someone say essential oil I assume they're knee deep in grlftland and have fucking crystals and shit all around the house.

Want to add in here, that some washing mechanics can't handle 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.

probably most everything is a scam if you look close enough.

I'm not convinced about the cost. A kilogram of borax seems to run about $10CAD. 2 cups, at 1.7g/CC, would be about 850g, so $7 just for the Borax. Unless there's a much cheaper place to get it...

A ~5L jug of Tide costs $31, or about $6/L. If they have approximately equivalent cleaning power per volume, Tide wins.

This thread is so wild I swear. A bottle of softener costs 2 bucks and last you for so many washes (up to 100?). A bar of soap cost one buck, then you have to factor in the time to prepare the softener, the other ingredients and whatnot.

Where is the saving?

It's worth wondering how much fabric softener would cost someone over their adult lifetime as an exercise. Let's say 50 years of adulthood, and 12 bottles a year costing $10 each. That's six grand. For something that serves no functional purpose, makes towels less effective and has an environmental impact.

So yes it's a scam. If someone really needs to use fabric softener, at least buy a cheaper supermarket brand and use it sparingly.

If you have a problem with limestone in your water you can use the cheapest vinegar you can find and add it to the washing machine to make your clothes smoother.

Borax gives me rashes, but I’ve used laundry bar soap or just the super sensitive skin liquid stuff. I use vinegar instead of name brand fabric softener because it’s cheaper and the other stuff gives me a rash. Nearly all of the store bought laundry stuff gives me rashes.

All ot does is make the fabric soft? Are yall wearing potatoes sacks?

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.

This feels like info that should be in the new Anarchist Cookbook.

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

Fabric softener is sometime useful for very hard water. You don't have to buy it, though. You can use white vinegar to soften the water to actually soften the fabric mix in a big container one part white vinegar to one part sodium bicarbonate. Wait for it to stop foaming. Add four drops of essential oils per liter of mixture. Stir. Allow to rest a few hour before using. You can make big quantity ahead of time as long as your container is big enough for the big foam of the big batch.

You don't need dryer sheets if you're hang drying your clothes, which reduces wear on the clothes and uses less energy, along with requiring one less appliance, unless you have a combo washer/dryer.

I started hang drying my clothes maybe 4 years ago and I'm definitely not going back

Haven’t used it for years

I've not used fabric softener or any other substitute for whatever it does in like 10 years. Can't tell what problem I'm supposed to be having that it supposedly solves.

I actually stopped using it because the dryers at my crappy old laundromat tended to overheat and it would occasionally melt the fabric softener sheets and it smelled utterly horrible and left burnt on patches of fabric softener on my clothes. So I figured it was no longer worth the cost, and then I noticed I couldn't even tell what the benefit was. It was just a thing my mom told me to do and I never questioned it.

What's a dryer sheet, I'm nearly 40 and I've never heard of that

It also makes the clothes extremely flammable.

Fabric softener is great. Mix a bit with water and use it to clean your shower glass doors/walls. It removes limescale like a charm thanks to the anionic surfactants that are in there. And the Aldi store brand costs hardly anything.

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.

UK person: dryer?

I have a friend that would make his own clothes soap. It looked like semen, but worked.

As you know I am disgustingly wealthy being top 50 richest abigender as seen in shlorbes magazine but I am still going to use this recipe

This is how you save for the superyacht

Nobody's mentioend laundry detergent sheets yet? Super cheap. I buy the Poesie brand. 160 sheets in a box for $9.49. That's just under 6¢ per load. For my two loads of laundry per week, a box lasts me a year and a half.

Bonus: the box takes up almost no space, 6" x 5" x 3".

Also, white vinegar is an awesome replacement for fabric softener!

A bit of alcohol vinegar can replace or help fabric softener.

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.

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.

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 salt

Works great and take the smell out of my potty training son's laundry.

Wool balls do not work with synthetics.

Everything related to cleaning and hygiene industry is a scam

Fabric softener / dryer sheets make clothing feel disgustingly slimy.

Stubby used too much fabric softener on his jpeg.

Washing Soda

No. Just no. Sodium carbonate, you americans!

The only reason why clothes get staticky in the dryer is because of the heat. If you run the dryer for 10-20min after drying with no heat they'll come out without a trace of static.

Ive stopped using softener and dryer sheets a while ago; just detergent and for the first load of the week (usually towels) a short cycle with vinegar to clear up any mineral deposits left by my horribly bad hard water.

Tumblr is such a nice place.

You know, when it is.

Asking because I honestly don't know, for the laundry detergent recipe, does it matter that I was always told to get HE detergent? I was under the impression that the soap for "high efficiency" washers was different somehow than normal soap. I am ready to admit I was conned by the detergent industry and this is just marketing speak, but I also don't want to fuck up my washer, it cost a lot of money I don't have to replace it.

I use soap nuts for washing and vinegar as the softener. It comes out perfectly clean but has a neutral smell (which might smell weird when you first start doing this). I sometimes add a tiny bit of store bought softener to the vinegar for stuff like more expensive hoodies and tshirts.

Baked baking soda is used to make ramen

But it can also irritate your skin

Been using a set of wool dryer balls from Trader Joe's for years. Haven't had to use fabric softener at all.

I just use Dr Bronners and wool dryers balls.