laundry...

...always an area of discussion at our house. I do all the diaper laundry. DieselDaddy does the other laundry (supposedly).

We definitely have different theories on laundry.... I do all the laundry. It might not get folded or put in the proper drawer, but it's all clean. DieselDaddy waits until he's almost out of 'roos and then does just what he needs ('roos, socks, etc). He actually went out and bought me more underwear b/c I kept asking him to do laundry b/c I was almost out of 'roos. He will always fold it, but never put it away. It annoys me immensely. I need my work clothes cleaned every week. Not when there is a big pile. 1) i don't have that many work outfits. 2) doing that much laundry is such an overwhelming task.

When I started using cloth diapers, I became more conscious about what I was washing with. A lot of conventional detergents contain "extra" ingredients (brighteners, enzymes, fragrance). I also switched to using plant-based surfactants vs petroleum based products.

I realized that you do not need a ton of suds to actually get things clean (this took a while for me to grasp...i love suds). I recently read an article about how much laundry detergent we actually waste... Is this a conspiracy from the manufacturers? why do they have 3 marking levels on the cup when they say level 1 will get your clothes clean? why is the top mark not at the top of the cup? why are the markings so difficult to read unless you tilt the cup while holding it up to the light? they know people mindlessly fill those cups. we are filling our cups waaay above the mark that will actually get our clothes clean. washing away our money as we do. Our clothes are not getting as clean if we have tons of suds that just re-settle on our clothes along with the dirt. No wonder we need "brighteners" in our detergent.

I will admit that I still glance in the washer and look for suds. I often get the urge to pour in an extra bit of detergent just to get the bubbles.