How do you keep clothes soft?

ESTH2000

I use dreft even though I know I should just buy tide free n clear instead of paying extra for dreft but thats another story....

I feels like every time I do a load DD's clothes seem to lose the softness they once had. Is there anything special I should be doing?

Is the fact we have an old dryer that just has an on setting with timing the problem?

I hate that her clothes are no longer soft after 1  or 2 loads..

Oh and I guess it would be nice for our clothes to be soft too

sliz

my clothes and towels come out all rough and i hate it - for DD i guess I could buy free & clear fabric softener but haven't done that yet....even though I use downy and bounce on our towels they are still super rough....

my mom has the SOFTEST towels ever - and not because they are good quality - she is super frugal and buys them on sale at kmart - the same towels or worse quality than we have and yet they are super soft - they have one of the old washer/dryers (not high efficiency). Her secret is to buy the cheapo fabric softener (like the dollar store non-brand kind) and FILL a downy ball with it (not to the fill line, she fills the whole ball) and chucks it in with the wash....she also uses a wrinkle ball in the dryer....