Laundry ?'s

[Momof3inMI]

This goes with the question I had about Dr. Bronner's for laundry; How soft are the clothes when dried? Do you need a fabric softner? How about static cling? What do you use for a stain remover? With 3 kiddos things tend to go in (the wash) pretty dirty and come out clean only with the help of things I no longer want to be using.
Does anyone have any other things they use for laundry that get the clothes really clean, smelling great, and not full of chemicals?

[pampered_mom]

I prefer unscented laundry detergent because I have to be really careful about scents or they'll make me feel ill. :

We stopped using fabric softener awhile ago because we ran out, but then decided not to buy anymore because I wasn't too keen on the fact that it coats the fibers of the fabric. We usually line dry so our clothes aren't really all that "soft" when they come off the line. At first that really bothered me so I was very diligent about putting vinegar in the rinse cycle. Now, I've found that it doesn't bother me at all. Most things you can just "rough" up a little bit before putting them on and that seems to help. If things are too stiff, I've occassionally found that it might because we were using too much detergent or it was leaving a residue.

The best thing I've found so far for stains is Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator by Bi-O-Kleen.

HTH!

[fanniefarkle]

I make my own laundry detergent. I use a recipe from this site: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm

I use white vinager as a clothes softener, and I line dry, so static cling is not an issue; however, when I used to use a clothes dryer, I used a ball of aluminum foil to avoid static cling.

I remember someone in another thread mentioned that she kept a bar of Ivory soap in her laudry room and just rubbed it on stains.