# Laundry Atrocity? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 28, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948 "2019-09-28T13:53:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/61 "2019-10-03T11:18:55Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > I read an article a while back, in Consumer Reports I think, about laundry detergent, or maybe it was washing machines. They looked at the clothes that came out of the washing machine, and found that there was a lot of soap residue left after the rinse cycle. They used ultraviolet light to detect soap residue. > > As I recall they explicitly stated that you could wash your clothes 3 or 4 times without soap before all the soap was gone from the clothes. > > After reading that, it has been my habit to only use half the amount of laundry detergent that the manufacturer recommends for each load. > > It was a big money saver, instead of spending $30 a year on laundry detergent, I spend $15. Whoo-hoo, I’m rich! The amounts quoted by the manufacturer are usually excessive. And washing machines do not get all the soap or detergent out. BTW, tests have shown that alternatives such as washing nuts, or whatever they are called, seem to be ineffective. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/62 "2019-10-03T11:26:45Z")
> [@GMANCANADA](#): > > When I was first doing laundry with my new wife, similar to you, I was firing clothes in and she got pretty wound up about it: > GF: “What are you doing, don’t you sort your clothes?!?!” > Me: “Yes, of course I do.” > GF: “What are you talking about? They’re all mixed up together!” > Me: “No they’re not, shirts, socks, sheets are all in the same load. Pants, pillowcases go together. Underwear are alone since nothing else starts with ‘U’” > GF: “Oh God, I married a moron!” > > That said, I was also like the OP, I never worried about colours, until a few years ago when a red t-shirt of my daughter’s was in my typical mixed colour load. Everything turned awful shades of pink. I ended up tossing out a few expensive dress shirts after that. > > Expensive lesson learned. Now I sort by whites, darks and reds and double check loads. Generally only natural fibers are dyed in a way that will run. In synthetics the colors are fixed. Except for pantyhose (I don’t wear them, but my wife does). In general, cheap cotton T-shirts seem to be the worst offenders. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/63 "2019-10-03T12:03:47Z")
> [@](#): > > But here’s the thing; I started doing my laundry before I noticed the lack of detergent, so I was doing a load of t shirts and Hawaiian shirts without detergent. I used the long cycle meant for soiled clothing. So, you couldn’t simply stop the cycle (front loaders) or lift the lid (top loaders) to pause the wash and go out and quickly purchase some laundry detergent? Unless you live in a remote rural area where an hour’s round trip would be required to do so, I find it disturbing that you would opt for a “soapless wash” instead. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/64 "2019-10-03T12:24:27Z")
See what she thinks about the no-wash jeans technique–it might be related to the no-detergent shirts. Only wash jeans when they are stained or have a funky odor. The key is rotation. If you rotate through a few pairs of jeans, you can keep going for months without washing any of them. I have several pairs and I put them in the wash at most once a season. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/65 "2019-10-03T12:38:05Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > So, you couldn’t simply stop the cycle (front loaders) or lift the lid (top loaders) to pause the wash and go out and quickly purchase some laundry detergent? Unless you live in a remote rural area where an hour’s round trip would be required to do so, I find it disturbing that you would opt for a “soapless wash” instead. :eek: You say that as if it were a bad thing. And I believe **kayaker** does live in a remote rural area where it would be a pain in the ass to just run out for a box of detergent. And as others pointed out, detergent leaves a residue in your clothes so that several washings without detergent are possible. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/66 "2019-10-03T13:47:30Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > So, you couldn’t simply stop the cycle (front loaders) or lift the lid (top loaders) to pause the wash and go out and quickly purchase some laundry detergent? Unless you live in a remote rural area where an hour’s round trip would be required to do so, I find it disturbing that you would opt for a “soapless wash” instead. :eek: Yeah, an hour round-trip if you include 10 minutes in the store. It had been “one of those days” and I didn’t feel like going out. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/67 "2019-10-03T13:48:58Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > See what she thinks about the no-wash jeans technique–it might be related to the no-detergent shirts. > > Only wash jeans when they are stained or have a funky odor. The key is rotation. If you rotate through a few pairs of jeans, you can keep going for months without washing any of them. > > I have several pairs and I put them in the wash at most once a season. I do this! I also wash my bath towels “every so often”, yet I know people who wash their towels every time they get wet. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/68 "2019-10-03T13:57:34Z")
]My ol’Granny had a bar of Fels Naptha and small grater. Whe rubbed the bar on very dirty spots and put the laundy in the machine, grated a few shakes off the bar and ran the load. She would not have understood Tide pods. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/69 "2019-10-03T13:58:34Z")
Our bodies get exposed to enough surfactants as it is. We really need less laundry soap, hand soap, and toothpaste. It’s okay in my view to coast a few times with water only cleaning and rely on the fact that residual soap is still present. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/70 "2019-10-03T14:38:47Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > ]My ol’Granny had a bar of Fels Naptha and small grater. Whe rubbed the bar on very dirty spots and put the laundy in the machine, grated a few shakes off the bar and ran the load. She would not have understood Tide pods. And yet your grandmother didn’t insist on rubbing the clothes on a washboard and using a manual wringer to remove most of the water. It sounds like she adapted to life with an automatic washing machine. I expect she would have adapted to modern laundry detergents as well. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/71 "2019-10-03T17:05:51Z")
The Lovely and Talented Mrs.\*\* Shodan\*\* does most of the laundry, mostly because of her strong objections to my Darwinian approach to washing clothes. I do separate whites and darks, but that is as far as I go - dump the clothes in, dump in some detergent, turn the dial to hot/cold, hit Start, and let the weakest go to the wall. I have pointed out that my clothes last longer than hers do, but it doesn’t help. I have garments that date back to the Reagan administration, but she insists I am doing it wrong. > [@DPRK](#): > > ETA men have been known to hold on to a pair of shorts until they are little more than loosely-bound underwear molecules. AKA “well broken in”. And don’t bother with that “wear clean underwear in case you get hit by a car”. If I am hit by a car, the undies will likely be ruined anyway from blood, or from being cut off in the emergency room. Save them for a special occasion. Never had the nerve to try machine washing “Dry Clean Only” suits. TLaTM **S** has a dry cleaning kit, along with sponging and brushing that works well with my suit coats, and is a lot cheaper than the dry cleaners. A quick ironing - good as new. I made Barbie clothes out of some of her sweaters early in our relationship, so now I don’t have to do laundry unless she is out of town, or I am out of clothes. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/72 "2019-10-03T17:20:55Z")
Water does most of the cleaning. Soap is just a surfactant with odorizers included so that it smells clean. The surfactant helps lift more of the dirt so that the water can wash it away. Your detergentless wash still cleaned most of any dirt that you may have had on your clothes. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/73 "2019-10-03T17:47:21Z")
Soapless wash is at least eighty percent of the way there, but you might as well put some detergent in to make it cleaner The key is not to use anywhere near as much detergent as the detergent manufacturer suggests. A quarter of that, tops. Anything more than that is a waste of money and unnecessarily damaging to the environment. Stains that cannot be removed through regular washing should be directly treated. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/74 "2019-10-03T19:42:57Z")
I promised my beloved Mum that I would keep my garden tidy, my house clean and wear laundered clothes. 🙂 I didn’t say I would do all these things personally. 😉 So I employ a gardener and a cleaning lady :eek: (who also does my laundry\* 🆒.) \*when she goes on holiday, I use a local laundry that collects and delivers. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/75 "2019-10-03T20:16:20Z")
Quick story - the conversion of American farms from horses to tractors also changed the way laundry was done. In the horse days stains were dirt and manure. Not too hard to wash out. But then came tractors with lots of grease and oil that defy water and scrubbing and required some strong detergents that could remove them. If you look at patents in the US in the early 1900’s you would be surprised how many were related to washing clothes. Nowadays when I’ve got alot of oil and grease on my clothes after work I walk into the laundry and everything goes in at once. With detergent. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/76 "2019-10-04T00:46:27Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > And don’t bother with that “wear clean underwear in case you get hit by a car”. If I am hit by a car, the undies will likely be ruined anyway from blood, or from being cut off in the emergency room. Save them for a special occasion. Whether you hit the truck or not, your underwear will not be clean. First you say it, then you do it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/77 "2019-10-04T04:00:40Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And yet your grandmother didn’t insist on rubbing the clothes on a washboard and using a manual wringer to remove most of the water. It sounds like she adapted to life with an automatic washing machine. I expect she would have adapted to modern laundry detergents as well. She bitched enough about that “fancy piece of crap” that Daddy threatened to remove it and buy her a new wash board. She told him not to, she still had one. It’s hanging in my laundry room right now. She was a master at turning crap around on you. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/78 "2019-10-04T04:02:16Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > That was baad, baad, baad. Hey! ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/79 "2019-10-04T04:39:22Z")
Hmm, I may have missed it, but am I the only one who throws in shampoo or dish soap if there’s no detergent? Soap is soap. All it does is melt grease and make stuff smell better. Heck, for that matter, I’ve been broke and desperate enough to use dish soap _as_ shampoo! Come to think of it, and vice versa. I wouldn’t be too worried about doing a water wash on my after work clothes. Work clothes need soap, or possibly burning! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948/80 "2019-10-04T04:51:07Z")
I put dish soap in a washing machine once, just once. I have to say my laundry room floor was sparkling clean when I got done mopping! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-atrocity/840948.md?page=5)