which laundry detergent do you use?

eacerna · September 2010

I am planning to wash some of the baby's stuff this coming week (yay!..yeah, one of the very FEW times I am excited to do laundry! lol). We normally use Kirkland's environmentally -friendly detergent. However, it has a fragrance so I'm thinking I do not want to use it for the baby's stuff (at least for now). Has anybody tried Kirkland's Free & Clear laundry detergent?

For CDing mamas, which detergent do you use for CDs? I hate to use different detergents so if there's one that would work for everything (adult clothes, baby clothes, CDs), that will be great! I know Jaime uses Tide for everything (is it regular Tide or Tide free?) but doesn't it have perfume/fragrance? We do the bulk of our grocery shopping at Costco so anything that we can get from there will be great :-). TIA!

ETA: We have a front loading machine.

MrsZiz · September 2010

I use Purex Free and clear for all of our laundry, that includes our cloth diaper laundry. I used purex for years and switched to the free and clear right before we had Bella.

Married2MrWright · September 2010

We use All Free and Clear in our household, but I bought ECOS Free and Clear before Libby was born to wash her things and we still have it! We have hE front loaders and use those formulations. For the CDs we use 7th Generation Delicate (unscented). I have washed her things using All (not her dipes though) and once we're out of the ECOS we'll just use All since she's not had any reaction to it. I'd love to be able to use it for her diapers too...so I need to look into that further. We've had no stink or repelling issues using our method and I don't want to mess that up!

SanHawaii08 · September 2010

we used to used kirkland free and clear, it was fine. now we're using liquid tide free and gentle, only b/c i needed detergent and didn't get to costco. but for diaper laundry, i'm planning to try country save powder. we have a he front loader too.

though - lots of ppl swear by powder tide original for cd's - we may end up doing that, if it's okay for a he front loader (I haven't checked!). all the tide he ones i saw last time were liquid

lelekay · September 2010

At the moment I'm using 7th Generation Baby for his clothes (and all our clothes, really), and Charlie's powder for CDs. They both seem to work well.

redshoegirl · September 2010

I won't bother mentioning the brand because it's Australian, but I'll just say that we used (and still do) a regular ole detergent. Not even fragrance free or anything - I figured there wasn't any point in assuming they'd have sensitive skin (if they did we'd have bought other detergent asap of course), and they'd be rubbed up against our clothes etc all the time anyway. Smile

MrsZiz · September 2010

redshoegirl:
I won't bother mentioning the brand because it's Australian, but I'll just say that we used (and still do) a regular ole detergent. Not even fragrance free or anything - I figured there wasn't any point in assuming they'd have sensitive skin (if they did we'd have bought other detergent asap of course), and they'd be rubbed up against our clothes etc all the time anyway.

I thought the same thing BUT we couldn't use the regular purex on the CD's so I didn't want to be buying 2 different detergents all of the time. So it was an easy switch for me. I think many people assume they should use something special for the baby when it's not really necessary, lots of people use special "baby" laundry soap (Dreft I think) and it's really the WORST for sensitive baby skin.

mrspresley · September 2010

redshoegirl:
we used (and still do) a regular ole detergent. Not even fragrance free or anything - I figured there wasn't any point in assuming they'd have sensitive skin (if they did we'd have bought other detergent asap of course)

this, exactly! we use Tide HE (liquid) for our clothes and her CD's.

i grew up w/my mom using Tide, Wisk, or All, depending on whatever was on sale then I met DH and we used to use All Free & Clear b/c he had some sensitivity issues w/the fragrances in detergents....but then my parents purchased a new washer/dryer and with it came a free "year supply" of Tide that came in the form of 40 coupons for free Tide...so they shared some with us and we made the switch. since DH seemed to tolerate it ok, we kept using it...and continued to do so after DD was born.

for the CD's i fill the cup half way to the 1-line, do a hot wash and then a cold rinse and then dry on hot (i hang the wet bag and covers to air dry). i used to do a cold rinse before the hot wash as well but then Stephanie at Abby's Lane said only to do a pre-rinse if you could set your washer to do it w/warm water ....I was happy to take that extra step out to save time/water and it didn't seem to affect the CDs so i was glad to skip it!

MrsNicole&Brian808 · September 2010

mrspresley:
for the CD's i fill the cup half way to the 1-line, do a hot wash and then a cold rinse and then dry on hot (i hang the wet bag and covers to air dry).

Hey Jaime! So your PUL products have held up well in a hot wash? I've heard some people hand wash them because of concerns the PUL will wear out. I think it will make life easier if I can just throw our Thirsties covers and Wahmies pail liners & wet bags in the wash with the rest of our CDs.

mrspresley:
i used to do a cold rinse before the hot wash as well but then Stephanie at Abby's Lane said only to do a pre-rinse if you could set your washer to do it w/warm water ....I was happy to take that extra step out to save time/water and it didn't seem to affect the CDs so i was glad to skip it!

Why does Stephanie recommend to pre-rinse in warm water instead of cold?

MrsNicole&Brian808 · September 2010

We have a stacked top-loading machine. We used to use All Free & Clear Ultra (for years), but are now using Kirkland F&C Ultra because it was on sale (I have very sensitive skin). I'm still trying to figure out how much detergent to use. We ended up with so much suds the first time I used it and I normally use only 1/2 the recommended amount! I had to do several extra rinses.

I bought some Charlie's powder on Amazon last week to try out with our PFs. I also want to try it out on some funky towels that the All F&C just couldn't get really clean. If we really like the Charlie's, I might completely switch over and give the Kirkland F&C to my mom.

mrspresley · September 2010

MrsNicole&Brian808:
mrspresley:
for the CD's i fill the cup half way to the 1-line, do a hot wash and then a cold rinse and then dry on hot (i hang the wet bag and covers to air dry).
Hey Jaime! So your PUL products have held up well in a hot wash? I've heard some people hand wash them because of concerns the PUL will wear out. I think it will make life easier if I can just throw our Thirsties covers and Wahmies pail liners & wet bags in the wash with the rest of our CDs.
mrspresley:
i used to do a cold rinse before the hot wash as well but then Stephanie at Abby's Lane said only to do a pre-rinse if you could set your washer to do it w/warm water ....I was happy to take that extra step out to save time/water and it didn't seem to affect the CDs so i was glad to skip it!
Why does Stephanie recommend to pre-rinse in warm water instead of cold?

yep, they are just fine, no problems at all. i used the size 1 thirsties duo covers for 10 months too! she is so small that i only just put away the size 1's and made the switch to size 2 this week LOL (though we have been using the size 2 covers for about 7 months now with the goodmamas for overnight) i think it is the dryer that really wears on them, more so than the wash. though honestly hand washing them takes like 10 seconds, i am just lazy and prefer to toss them in w/the diapers

re: the pre-rinse, i don't remember why she said that but you could email her and ask or post on the FB page and find out

SanHawaii08 · September 2010

mrspresley:
this, exactly! we use Tide HE (liquid) for our clothes and her CD's.
...
for the CD's i fill the cup half way to the 1-line, do a hot wash and then a cold rinse and then dry on hot (i hang the wet bag and covers to air dry). i used to do a cold rinse before the hot wash as well but then Stephanie at Abby's Lane said only to do a pre-rinse if you could set your washer to do it w/warm water ....I was happy to take that extra step out to save time/water and it didn't seem to affect the CDs so i was glad to skip it!

ooh, good to know. I haven't prepped yet b/c we only have tide he liquid. maybe i'll try it then, and not buy different detergents - i'd rather not!

myday1708 · September 2010

I just use regular Tide. I got one thing of Seventh Generation Baby detergent that I used for sheets and stuff before A was born and for her clothes as a newborn. But once I ran out, I just started using Tide and she's been fine.

I wash her whites with our whites and the rest of her clothes are a seperate load. I also no longer wash her new clothes before she wears them....

rwright5 · September 2010

all f&c but we were using that before LO anyways b/c I have allergys to the stuff with fragrence and so far he has been ok with it

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