How To Do Your Laundry

Detergent Contents

You'll find advice about Allergies, dyes, and perfumes at the end of this page.

Things you'll find in many laundry detergents

Following you'll find description of things commonly found in laundry detergents. While you may or may not agree about the usefulness of these things, there are purposes for all of them, and they're there because the manufacturers think they have to be - likely, if the manufacturers thought they weren't absolutely necessary, they'd eliminate the ingredient to save money.

Don't be too concerned about the actual listing on the side of the box: most laundry detergents don't tell you what all is in them anyway.

Surfactants or Cleaning Agents This is the actual cleanser in the detergent. According to Consumer Reports, Non-Ionic surfactants do not generate ions in the water. They're better in cool water for greasy stains and synthetic fabrics. Anionic surfactants generate negative ions in the water. They work better in hot, soft water, and remove greasy stains and actual dirt. Cationic surfactants generate positive ions. They're usually used as fabric softeners because they neutralize the other detergents.

Enzymes (not in all detergents - check label) Often not mentioned specifically, most detergents have enzymes (they may be considered part of the "surfactants") to help clean away organic dirt and stains.
Silk and wool may react badly to enzymes. It can be safe under correct conditions, but it's easy enough to obtain a detergent with no enzymes (such as, I believe, All), so that's probably a better choice.

Color Safe Bleach (not in all detergents - look for featuring on label) This is not to be confused with chlorine bleach in any way. Generally, color safe bleach is a substance that generates oxygen when placed in water. The oxygen is washed through your laundry and bleaches dirt, but not the fabric.
Color safe bleach generally really is, in most cases, safe for colors.

Water Softeners Water softeners remove salts and calcium from the water, because otherwise they may interact with the cleaning agents and prevent the cleaning agents from acting properly on your laundry.

Anti-redeposition agent This helps prevent dirt from sticking back onto your clothes after it is washed off.

Fabric Whitener This causes fabric to appear whiter when exposed to many forms of light. This can cause your clothes to appear clean even in some cases when some stains were not entirely washed out.

Perfume While many of us don't like perfume in our laundry, and there are perfume-free detergents on the market, you may wish to understand that there is a reason for perfume in most detergents: many detergents, if they were without perfume, may smell unpleasant.

Color Protection Agent There are two types of color protection agents that are sometimes used in detergents, and packaging generally doesn't make any distinction between them. For either, the purpose is to prevent the dyes of one fabric from bleeding onto another fabric and discoloring it. One type accomplishes this by trapping dye as it is bled from the fabric and preventing it from depositing on other fabrics. The other type attempts to permanently set the dye in place on the fabric it's supposed to be on in the first pla ce.
An incidental benefit of the latter type is that properly washing a garment that often bleeds dye with a quality detergent can in many cases set the dye and prevent further bleeding problems.

Washer protection agent This is something added to help prevent the detergent and the water from making your washer rust.

Processing aids or Thickeners This helps adjust the physical consistency of the product in its pre-use form.

Anti-sudsing agent Suds, which we often think of as a sign that things are getting cleaned, are actually a bad thing in laundry, because they can make it hard to wash out all the detergent after the garment is clean. They can also interfere with the washing process in some washers. Therefore, most detergents have something that reduces suds by breaking the bubbles as they form. This is also handy because the stronger the anti-sudsing agent is, the more detergent you can put in for a particularly dirty load without having suds overflow the washer. For example, I recently washed a particularly dirty afghan. Because the detergent I used had particularly strong anti-sudsing agents, I was able to use 4 scoops of detergent to get the afghan clean.

Colorants These make the detergent look the color you expect it to be.

Water Liquid detergents often contain lots of water. (Remember, you're paying for it!)

Allergies, Dyes and Perfumes

You don't like dyes and perfumes? Or you're allergic to them? They give you rashes or make you sneeze? Don't worry, there are products available and things you can do.

First of all, you can get laundry products that are free of dyes and perfumes. Cheer detergent and Downy fabric softener both have dye and perfume free versions. (There are other brands that do as well but I list these because they're widely available.) Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find Cheer with no dyes and perfumes in the largest size boxes or with non-chlorine bleach, but not everything makes it to every store, so you may want to shop around, or call the manufacturer, if you want those extra features in larger boxes.

Also remember that it may not be the perfume in particular you're allergic to: you could try other detergents to see if you may not be allergic to a different brand or a different version (such as without color safe bleach, or a different scent) of the same brand. For example, there is one scent of Snuggle fabric softener which bothers me, but several others that don't.

It can also help if you more thoroughly rinse out all of the cleaning products you use on your clothes. If your washer has an extra-rinse cycle, turn it on. Make sure to add the fabric softener in the *first* rinse. The softener can help the detergent rinse out better (that's it's job), so don't ignore it.

If you find that you're only bothered by the laundry products when doing laundry, you may also wish to consider wearing rubber gloves and possibly a filter mask when doing laundry. You may also find it beneficial to wash your hands promptly when leaving the laundry area. These simple precautions may resolve your problem.

Surfactants or Cleaning Agents	This is the actual cleanser in the detergent. According to Consumer Reports, Non-Ionic surfactants do not generate ions in the water. They're better in cool water for greasy stains and synthetic fabrics. Anionic surfactants generate negative ions in the water. They work better in hot, soft water, and remove greasy stains and actual dirt. Cationic surfactants generate positive ions. They're usually used as fabric softeners because they neutralize the other detergents.
Enzymes (not in all detergents - check label)	Often not mentioned specifically, most detergents have enzymes (they may be considered part of the "surfactants") to help clean away organic dirt and stains. Silk and wool may react badly to enzymes. It can be safe under correct conditions, but it's easy enough to obtain a detergent with no enzymes (such as, I believe, All), so that's probably a better choice.
Color Safe Bleach (not in all detergents - look for featuring on label)	This is not to be confused with chlorine bleach in any way. Generally, color safe bleach is a substance that generates oxygen when placed in water. The oxygen is washed through your laundry and bleaches dirt, but not the fabric. Color safe bleach generally really is, in most cases, safe for colors.
Water Softeners	Water softeners remove salts and calcium from the water, because otherwise they may interact with the cleaning agents and prevent the cleaning agents from acting properly on your laundry.
Anti-redeposition agent	This helps prevent dirt from sticking back onto your clothes after it is washed off.
Fabric Whitener	This causes fabric to appear whiter when exposed to many forms of light. This can cause your clothes to appear clean even in some cases when some stains were not entirely washed out.
Perfume	While many of us don't like perfume in our laundry, and there are perfume-free detergents on the market, you may wish to understand that there is a reason for perfume in most detergents: many detergents, if they were without perfume, may smell unpleasant.
Color Protection Agent	There are two types of color protection agents that are sometimes used in detergents, and packaging generally doesn't make any distinction between them. For either, the purpose is to prevent the dyes of one fabric from bleeding onto another fabric and discoloring it. One type accomplishes this by trapping dye as it is bled from the fabric and preventing it from depositing on other fabrics. The other type attempts to permanently set the dye in place on the fabric it's supposed to be on in the first pla ce. An incidental benefit of the latter type is that properly washing a garment that often bleeds dye with a quality detergent can in many cases set the dye and prevent further bleeding problems.
Washer protection agent	This is something added to help prevent the detergent and the water from making your washer rust.
Processing aids or Thickeners	This helps adjust the physical consistency of the product in its pre-use form.
Anti-sudsing agent	Suds, which we often think of as a sign that things are getting cleaned, are actually a bad thing in laundry, because they can make it hard to wash out all the detergent after the garment is clean. They can also interfere with the washing process in some washers. Therefore, most detergents have something that reduces suds by breaking the bubbles as they form. This is also handy because the stronger the anti-sudsing agent is, the more detergent you can put in for a particularly dirty load without having suds overflow the washer. For example, I recently washed a particularly dirty afghan. Because the detergent I used had particularly strong anti-sudsing agents, I was able to use 4 scoops of detergent to get the afghan clean.
Colorants	These make the detergent look the color you expect it to be.
Water	Liquid detergents often contain lots of water. (Remember, you're paying for it!)