washing clothes without detergent

[ebony_vbac]

does anyone know something i can use? the stepkids run through soap like water

[wonderwahine]

baking soda and vingear are good.

[lioralourie]

B.S in the wash cycle and cheap white vinegar in the rinse.

A few drops of Essential Oil if you like, in the vinegar rinse too, is nice.

has worked for me for years. Diapers and everything.

[Ruthla]

I haven't found baking soda to be any cheaper than using detergent. When I had my big machine before we moved, I found that half a cup of BS got my clothes clean, vs 1/2 cup of detergent. Now that I have a tiny front-loader, I still need at least a 1/2 cup of BS to get anything clean, but if I use detergent I only need about an ounce.

In your situation, I'd suggest making homemade laundry soap (I got the recipe on MDC, it must be here somewhere) or teach the stepkids how much soap to use in your machine. Maybe put up a huge sign on the washing machine with instructions so they don't forget?

[NoMariposa]

I use baking soda in a big bag from Costco for about $3. I also will use Borox on whites like sox and towels. Vinegar rinses and buy the gallon and a half size at Costco for less than $2 each.

Another helpful idea is a "pump" on the detergent and tell the stepkids 1 pump worth. Charlies Soap has a pump, I find 1 pump too much. But the idea is what I mention that for (so you can search Charlie soap and look at a picture if you need).

My MIL uses a full cap full of detergent in our FL machine when she is here, I tell her all the time not to use more than a Tbsp but she refuses to listen to me. I think for the next visit, I'll just not have any detergent sitting in the laundry room! There is so much soap in her clothes she won't need detergent!!!

You might also get powdered detergent and ration out 1 baggie per load for the stepkids to use. Make them come to you for the baggie of powder in the amount you know your machine works well at.

[annethcz]

I use 1/4 to 1/2 of the recommended amount of laundry detergent, and this is enough to get our clothes clean.

[acupuncturemomma]

Order a 5 gallon bucket of Charlie's Soap. It comes out to 9 cents per load!

[ebony_vbac]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

I haven't found baking soda to be any cheaper than using detergent. When I had my big machine before we moved, I found that half a cup of BS got my clothes clean, vs 1/2 cup of detergent. Now that I have a tiny front-loader, I still need at least a 1/2 cup of BS to get anything clean, but if I use detergent I only need about an ounce.

In your situation, I'd suggest making homemade laundry soap (I got the recipe on MDC, it must be here somewhere) or teach the stepkids how much soap to use in your machine. Maybe put up a huge sign on the washing machine with instructions so they don't forget?

they're not forgetting how much to use, just outright ignoring what i say. sometimes i water it down, some times i ration it out, right now i'm hiding it and telling them to do whatever they can without soap. i forgot about powder soap we havent bought that in decades literally. i was trying to find containers to store the liquid soap but this would work much better, thanks all