Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Laundry Soap

I keep making the same mistake!

We usually use powdered laundry detergent. It goes in the bottom of the washer, and then you add the clothes.

When Aldi is out of powdered detergent, you buy the liquid. It goes on top of the clothes. At least, it's supposed to. If you can remember.

But habit is habit. Normally, after I throw in the clothes, it's time to turn the dial on the machine, start it, and walk away. But with using liquid detergent currently, I keep finding loads of clothes that were washed with water only, no soap. Sometimes I just let it go, and assume the agitating and washing and rinsing will be sufficient. But gosh darn it, when you do it to the load of underwear last week AND again this week, it's time to throw 'em back in the machine WITH SOAP and run it again.

ARGH!

7 comments:

  1. I have ruined clothes putting the liquid soap directly on them (bleach-like marks). It is best to add the liquid soap to the water as it fills in the washing machine. That's what I do.

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  2. It doesn't matter where the liquid goes! Just go ahead and put in in the bottom.

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  3. I always put the liquid soap in when the washer was filling. I've had the same problem that Erin mentions.

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  4. Kim and Erin, do you have the soap that has bleach in it? Or does this happen with regular detergent too? Hmm. I never noticed the problem, but I don't often use liquids. I guess I just assumed that certain bleached-out marks came from scrubbing the bathtub with Ajax, or some other explanation. Maybe I've experienced what you're talking about, but just haven't realized the origin of the problem.

    EC, I was wondering why I couldn't just dump the liquid into the bottom. I guess I was afraid of its dribbling through the holes in the inner basket, but the powder does that too. And besides, the detergent's going to stay in the outer basket, right?

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  5. I checked my liquid Tide when I used it today just out of curiosity after reading this. It says to put it in as the washer is filling and then add the clothes. I've always done that and never noticed my clothes weren't getting clean. What are you using that says to do it that way? Just curious...

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  6. Kathy, I always put the clothes into the washer dry. That's how I measure how much to put into the machine without overloading it. That whole idea of putting in the water & soap, and then the clothes, well, how do you know whether you're putting in too much? Or running a load with too few clothes, and wasting time and water and detergent by doing 5 loads when it could've been just 3?

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  7. I always start the cycle, put in the soap right away, and then almost right after that put in the clothes. I use the side without the water pouring on it as a measurement of how many clothes need to go into the wash. You could always measure out what you know to be a load first, by putting them into the washer then take them out to run the water. Perhaps use a laundry basket or something as the standard load measurement. Like others have said, I had problems once with putting the liquid in the top and I won't do it that way again.

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