fabric softener: classic or dud?

now i'll admit my mother is from the luann van houten school that says fabric softener is the devil's work, but i have never really understood its function. i've never noticed my non-softened clothes feeling especially, i don't know, stiff? and the few times that i have done the laundry with softener added (in college, when i banded together with my roommate to save money on laundry, he insisted on fabric softener) all i noticed was that suddenly it smelled like girls

haha i just found this thread - Fabric Conditioner : Classic or Dud? - where i also mention milhouse

waste of money and i hate the smell.

leaves an oily feeling on things and cuts down absorbency of towels. If your clothes aren't soft, it's because your water is full of minerals - get a water softener or use washing soda or salt with the detergent.

Yeah, this is pretty much perfume for you clothes. And not applied judiciously.

Don't use it, have never used it. Dislike the coating on fibers, don't care about the "Downy fresh scent", blergh.

so who's buying this stuff??

One more heavy fragrance that we're told we need because we all ordinarily smell terrible, even with good health and regular washing. You may as well buy some Axe body spray.

xp Tons of people. My mom, for one.

because?????

i mean i like your answer about us all being brain"washed" that we all smell bad but it doesn't quite "wash" because you've just cleaned your clothes in an industrial device; i don't think anyone believes they smell bad after that

We don't smell bad after a shower, either, but we put on scented deodorant. Well, I don't. I like the Arm & Hammer unscented.

A word on dryer sheets, as well: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1137/how-do-dryer-antistatic-sheets-work

Because they like the smell, and because their mothers used it. xxpost

I think it *initially* started getting used when everyone in North America still line-dried a lot of their stuff. Sometimes when things dry quickly in the sun they can get stiff. But now everyone uses the dryer and stiffness isn't so much of an issue, but everyone still uses it. Which I don't get, because the comment upthread about the oily feeling and the lower absorbency was OTM.

BIG TIP: white vinegar has a fabric-softening and anti-static effect if you put it through your laundry in place of softener, and there is no smell. And bonus no chemicals.

I personally hate the smell and the thought of covering my cloths in chemicals. Also, dryer sheets are totally awful and just coat your clothes in more crap.

so the bleach and the vinegar go in where? were the conditioner usually goes? ( i dont use conditioner)

i don't have a dryer (most people in the UK don't) and i've never noticed stiff clothes. oh it happens when things dry IN THE SUN.. haha that explains it

If I'm using bleach, I put it in as the washer tub is filling so it gets diluted. Then the clothes and detergent (and washing soda) go in.

The vinegar goes in the place where you normally put the fabric softener. It depends on your machine - mine is a front-loader and has a little bowl for the bleach and another separate one for the softener.

I also run vinegar through my dishwasher instead of the rinse-aid stuff. It works perfectly & again, no smell. So I might just be a weirdo but I really hate spending money on unnecessary pollutants.

Easy with the bleach. I'd say lay off it altogether, unless you have across-the-room-noticeable pit stains. Bleach whitens your clothes the way an eraser whitens paper -- it takes a layer off of it.

White vinegar is otmfm. I wish I'd figured out much sooner that while it smells powerfully like vinegar at first, what with it being vinegar and all, that smell rinses right out and leaves no trace of any other smell at all. This works with most anything -- clothes, garbage pails, your hair, you name it. Vinegar is like shaking the smell Etch-a-Sketch.

i don't have a dryer (most people in the UK don't)

couldn't get by without one this far west tbh

If I'm using bleach, I put it in as the washer tub is filling so it gets diluted

i tihnk you have a yank washing machine, ours are different.

White vinegar is otmfm. I wish I'd figured out much sooner

curious how you might have figured it out. trying a different random household liquid each time?

so i need to go get me industrial levels of white vinegar for cleaning and stuff.

i use it through the coffeee machine myself

xp nevermind i can't read

curious how you might have figured it out.

Finally decided to listen to my grandmother.

Borax is an alternative to bleach for whitening and brightening, btw. But doesn't have that noxious germ-killing free chlorine smell.

Vinegar can be a problem if you have hard water, increasing the amount of gray scum due to freeing up oils to latch onto calcium.

For the past couple of weeks fabric softener has been on my mind a lot. I have a couple pair of pants that are too stiff and crunchy. I went so far as to buy a Downy Ball, but ultimately I went with adding an extra dryer sheet instead. I don't like the overly soft, coated feeling. And I really, really don't like it on towels! I want my towels scratchy.

I'm curious about vinegar, too. But I love bleach so much.

Yeah, darraghmac, I currently have a top-loader. With a front loader over here, there is a special compartment for the bleach so it gets released at the right time.

cool.

so vinegar into the slot for the conditioner. and dont use bleach at all?

Yep. And always remember it must be WHITE VINEGAR. Still embarrassed about the time in uni when I mopped the floor with wine vinegar. Smelled good but was sticky as hell.

Apparently for your hair you should use some other type (maybe wine? I've never done it) but it's meant to be excellent replacement for hair conditioner.

curious how you might have figured it out. trying a different random household liquid each time?

I know this wasn't directed at me, but I was interested in finding eco-friendly alternatives to the more harmful household chemicals, so I think I found it by googling 'fabric softener alternatives'.

heh yeah i got that it had to be white vinegar, i'm not that bad, honestly

how about them magic balls

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/gwblead.jpg

Molly has gone crazy for Borax but I haven't been able to find it yet! It's so old-fashioned that stores are...hiding it??? Also I like cider vinegar too, fyi.

trying a different random household liquid each time?
reminds me of a Far Side cartoon where researchers are trying to pour different things off a duck's back. List on chalkboard reads "orange juice, milk," and next up is "bleach."

Haha ducks.

Wal-Mart carries Borax, or it did a few years ago.

Never heard of that GreenWash ball - the first thing that comes up on google claims to be a 'product review' but is basically an informercial in text form, and there is no info as to what it actually *is*.

I have witnessed those magic laundry balls working. They're kind of creepy, almost. Your clothes don't just lack a bad smell, they almost have a negative smell. Like the dude in the book Perfume. There's something kind of wrong about the way the clothes don't smell.

Or maybe I'm just distrustful of technology, and get off my lawn etc. But yeah, the magic balls work.

But what *are* they?

I mean, I'm interested in whether they are literally supposed to be magic or if is there some explanation for how they work.

'According to the original literature the pellets inside Eco-Balls were ceramic and “produce ionized oxygen that activates the water molecules naturally and allows them to penetrate deep into clothing fibres to lift dirt away”'

think it's just a scam, washing w/out detergent would have the same effect.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/944/do-laundry-balls-really-work

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_ball

After reading this, I'm thinking that the weird non-smell I'm sensing is the smell of clothes that have been washed in nothing but warm water, which of course I'm not used to.

Fabric softener makes things kind of slimy, I don't like it much.
But I will use a dryer sheet occasionally for the stupid acrylic blanket I have to wash once in a blue moon because if there's one thing I hate more than anything in the world is trying to fold a staticky blanket. Chemicals be damned.