If you live in a developing country... what kind of laundry detergent do you use to wash your...

[paulamc]

We regularly use Charlies Soap to launder our cloth diapers, but are going to be in the Middle East for the first six months of next year. For those of you living where soaps like Charlies are unavailable, what do you use?

[lifeguard]

When we were living in Costa Rica I just used the cheapest available detergent I could find there. I tried a couple of the more "natural" ones available & had terrible problems with build up on my dipes despite using such small quantities.

[pixiepunk]

is it possible to bring some with you? Charlie's is so compact, and if you'll only need 6 months worth you can probably manage with just 2 or 3 bags. we live on a farm so clothes get grungy and i wash frequently, but even for a family of 5 in those circumstances, and even when i was still washing diapers, we only went through about 3 bags in six months.

don't know if that's feasible, but thought i'd throw it out there. i love the charlie's soap so much, and with a family full of sensitive skin that reacts *badly* to most commercial soaps, i'd be smuggling it in if i had to

[paulamc]

Originally Posted by pixiepunk

is it possible to bring some with you? Charlie's is so compact, and if you'll only need 6 months worth you can probably manage with just 2 or 3 bags. we live on a farm so clothes get grungy and i wash frequently, but even for a family of 5 in those circumstances, and even when i was still washing diapers, we only went through about 3 bags in six months.

don't know if that's feasible, but thought i'd throw it out there. i love the charlie's soap so much, and with a family full of sensitive skin that reacts *badly* to most commercial soaps, i'd be smuggling it in if i had to

So, you use a powder? I didn't know there was one. We use the liquid, and it is super concentrated, it's true. Should I be looking at the powder though? It might be easier to travel with.

[mntnmom]

The powder is great! It even works in our HE machine.

[paulamc]

Originally Posted by mntnmom

The powder is great! It even works in our HE machine.

I doubt there will be an HE machine where we're going, but for when we're home, our HE machine has one of those little drawers you pull out to put in the liquid (I thought) detergent. Do you put the powder into one of those drawers or directly in with the clothes? A disadvantage I find with the HE machines is that you can't dump in detergent or whatever after the machine has filled.

[mntnmom]

Originally Posted by paulamc

I doubt there will be an HE machine where we're going, but for when we're home, our HE machine has one of those little drawers you pull out to put in the liquid (I thought) detergent. Do you put the powder into one of those drawers or directly in with the clothes? A disadvantage I find with the HE machines is that you can't dump in detergent or whatever after the machine has filled.

yep, that's where I put it. I bet you could even use Charlie's to hand wash if you had to. It rinses out so well.

[omelette]

I would definitely bring a bag of powdered Charlie's with you. We got a bag at the beginning of October and have been using it for diapers and baby's laundry and we aren't even half way through it yet. If you're just using it for diapers I would imagine 1-2 bags would be plenty for 6 months.

[paulamc]

Thanks everyone - we'll do that!!!