Hello guys,
After having always disregard the topic, in the past days I have been counting how much money I am actually spending in laundry detergent. Even if may look stupid, it can easily overpass the 50 chf/months for the whole family.
I do not buy the fancy eco-friendly small-sized packs, test the family ones, normally sold (in paper…) for 50 washes. I do normally buy them in Lidl or migros
Anyone having any suggestion where to eat good (eventually branded) products at reasonable cost?
In physical shops or online? In Switzerland or abroad?
These are strips that you just add to the laundry directly. I like it because they are light to carry and don‘t take up a lot of space to store. For my taste, they are too heavily scented, but also available without any scent. I usually just take half a strip with and without scent.
Costs are around 30 cents per strip (=load of laundry) meaning for 50 francs, you’ll get 150 loads of laundry. Don‘t buy the triple pack, it’s more expensive than three single pack for some reason.
check if you do not wash “too often”, do not use too much detergent quantity per load or do not fill the washing machine fully
We use softener very sporadically
Otherwise we buy detergent in DM in Germany (DM nature concentrated, 3.95 EUR for theoretically 33 loads).
sportive family of 4, usually 3 to 5 loads per week, so not even one pouch per month
I have read the best thing you can do for the environment (and probably also your pocket assuming you pay for your own electricity supply) is to wash clothes at 30C. Modern detergents don’t need 40C, just make sure not overfill the machine etc.
After our old washing machine went out of order, we bought a machine with an auto dispenser (Use the auto dispenser on your Samsung washing machine). Since then, our laundry detergent usage dropped significantly - with no notable reduction in washing quality. Meaning: We were using (way!) to much detergent beforehand…
We just buy the “common brands” in XXL+ quantities when there are sales.
Same in a review from ABE (only compared bluu), but this product got the second best rating for its eco-toxicity (which I am sensitive to).
I am a happy customer from both bluu & Washo. Their laundry is good enough for my needs, and we have a farmer in the family. If needed (5 times a year), I add some stain-remover to the load or prewash with a stain soap.
Ktipp just tested basic washing detergents = powder, which is usually recommended over liquid products (paywall).
Results in a nutshell: Persil, Tandil from Aldi and Denner’s own detergent came out on top.
Aqua-toxic substances (and ecotoxic ones in general) were not found.
So you can still go shopping for a bargain in Germany or Switzerland, but there are cheap options in Switzerland, as well.
Interestingly, one eco-friendly washing strip (“Washo Fresh Breeze”) that they tested just for comparison basically flunked.
My impression on detergent is that it all seems to be roughly the same stuff (tensides) with different perfumes. So the best thing to do for clothes and the environment would seem to be to use less (and no softener).
Anecdotal evidence: I haven’t seen any change between the “organic” I used to buy in my home country and the Migros one (estimate 30-40 ml for one load with either product). Clothes are clean and clothes are fine.
For environmental reasons, I’ll try reducing some more. (I’m also sometimes manifesting “magical thinking” and add a little more though that obviously seems to be unnecessary as I never had dirty clothes after washing… So ) why spoil the water with detergent for no benefit.
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