Has anyone tried the Pure Essentials - Tide, Downy and Bounce? I used some samples and it smells great! What do you like?

I use Tide Simple Pleasures - Lavender Vanilla. It means putting on clean laundry gives me just a little bit of joy.

I love the lavender vanilla too!

I'm allergic to everything. Also, I have eczema and I have environmental concerns so I use Seventh Generation unscented (liquid.) It gets my clothes clean and I don't get itchy!

I'm curious about something else laundry related. I don't use fabric softener of any kind (due to the allergy thing) and honestly, my clothes are never static clingy. Are softeners and dryer sheets something that the soap companies want to make us think are necessary or does it relate to how hard/or soft your water is? Or does it have nothing to do with static to begin with? I'm just curious.

My city has incredibly mineral-ey water. Dryer sheets fall into the category of "essential" if I don't want all of my clothes clinging to my legs/arms/stomach/etc.

I don't know if they are necessary everywhere, and fabric softeners themselves never solved the problems. But dryer sheets work for me.

I have no idea. When I run out of dryer sheets, the only thing that's noticeable is the fact that my clothes don't smell like anything.

I use Method laundry detergent. I also use Ecos and other all natural detergents. I never touch the other stuff, it's bad for the environment.

Method smells great!

Where can you purchase Method laundry detergent?

I've seen method at target. I use Purex Natural Elements Apple & Melon, it's the only thing I have found doesn't bother my eczema.

I must have the weirdest skin on the planet. The Method stuff makes me break out something terrible, while the super-scented Tide doesn't. I've always had skin that is very choosy about laundry detergent, but why on Earth would my skin be so much more offended at the more natural product?

Tide does that to me, I just break out with a nasty rash all over. I have never personally tried method because we don't have anywhere close that sells it, unless I want to drive the hour to Madison just for laundry detergent... lol

Yes, I think Method is Target's brand so you can probably only find it there.

I've been using Tide's Clean Breeze. This is probably the strangest thing, but I was using Tide's cold water detergent (all I can find is "Fresh" scent) when I had morning sickness with my first baby. I can barely smell that stuff now without gagging. It took forever for us to get through that whole bottle.

I think I'll give some of those fancy flavors a try, I'm ready for something new. If I could, I'd wash stuff in Dreft forever. It smells like baby powder. But it just doesn't work that well.

OK, it's official, I care way too much about laundry detergent.

I can't have a lot of smelly stuff. My sinuses let me know in no uncertain terms that they will hate me and make me suffer.

I got these round containers with some sort of mineral balls in them. It's been working great. I just throw it in the washer and leave it for the entire load. I could fish it out before the rinse cycle but I don't want to spend that time sloshing around the washer. One ball has lasted almost a year. I have another one to start when all the little balls in this one are gone. Also, the clothes don't fade like they do with powdered detergent.

I have to use dryer sheets. Our water is hard.

Method is available at a lot of stores and is also online at drugstore.com and amazon.com. It may look like it costs more, but it requires much less per load. I think Target has the best price. They have a website at www.methodhome.com where you can learn more about their products.

Cooks Illustrated just rated dish detergents last month and they rated the natural brands like Method and Seventh Generation as being better than Dawn or other regular dish detergents CI said "Quite simply, these companies say they spend the money to load their products with high concentrations of effective surfactants, which ensures a high-performing detergent. We'd have to say this approach works." Maybe that same comment applies to their laundry detergents.

Maybe it is the higher level of concentration my skin dislikes?

I was all set to go to all-natural, earth friendly laundry methods and then got all rashy. I've tried a couple of different brands and have had to give the leftovers all away...miserable!