Oh! My! God! What, where and how much please?!

Thanks anyway Mitch but I will have to stick with my $20 drying racks-insert sad face here

@Mitch Where's the price of that awesome drying cabinet. My pets couldn't help by taking things off the line. Oo, oo, I want one too.

I've heard that in japan the bathroom vent fans have a "blow" setting just for drying clothes because everyone hangs them over the tub when they can't do it outside.

THe liquid Cheer for colors I think has a small amount of tint dye in it,I think its there to counteract fading, because as we know sodium percarbonate is not stable in liquids. Mich, I don't doubt you read that enzymes kill chlorine, but it wouldn't be the most common enzymes that we commonly use, but there are enzymes that I don't understand so could be.

I recommended the chlorine kill for aquariums in the past...and if I'm not mistaken Sin (don't you love my nic name for him lol) haha has mentioned anti-chlor in the past. We all do what we can to prevent fading, turning clothes inside out, some go so far as to wash in cold, (I'm biting my tongue lol) but the fact is they are going to fade, how quickly is the question. Remember the better the clothing the slower the fading, usually. Someone over on AW has actually come up with a mixture of different colors of dye, so many drops of each in the wash, every so often and has has excellent results doing this. I just didn't pay close enough attention to guide you in this process. Another thing if your line drying outside hang colors and darks in the shade, the sun will fade them quickly.

Jean I love my clothesline, and for those of you that throw them in the dryer afterwards to fluff up, try drying them for 15 minutes first, believe me it works wonders and the clothes don't lose that fresh outdoor scent, and are so much softer than fluffing them afterwards.Jean I did hang clothes out today, now they are all back in the hamper. I was indoors cooking and the jerk across the street started a bon fire. Hes been doing this all day and thru the nite even though I respectfully adk him not to, I have a 6 yo with acute adthma this is hurting him. I have to contact the township monday, I'm sick to death of this. Anyway now I have 2 additional loads to do tonight and hang on the indoor retractable line lol. Remember my dryer died and my new Queen won't be here till wednesday. I actually will have to take towels to the laundramat tomorrow, no way I'm letting my beautiful white towels line dry with a fire next door. Anyway yes Jean I normally love the clothes line

Roc can probably inform you about laundry in Japan.

Pinky does your town still allow open burning? In the rural area around me, no burning until 4PM or later and NONE when they post the fire warning (i.e. no rain, brush like tinder). That's in the farm area. big fields. NO open burning is allowed in residential area. Some idiot burned poison ivy vines and managed to inflict torture on many people in the smoke's path a few years ago. He said he didn't know. Yeah, right. There was nothing the law could do, but public opinion and the local moms sure got on his case. If your local pyro is creating a public health hazard or at least a nuisance, your police department may be able to help. Go get 'em Mama!

Gosh MamaP neighbors like that should be, well I won't say, but what a jerk! Will try that towel technique tomorrow. Your old dryer is my dryer that I have now. Had it for 6 years how long did yours last? I am slowly rebuilding my towels with nice new WHITE towels.

MamaP-I will look up that dye-ing thread on AW. I have never done that

@poppy, IRRC, that one is like $6,000. Definitely an "investment", lol ;)

With that said. I know there are some in the more reasonable 1-2k range. But... it's also my understanding that, in some countries they use drying cabinets or "drying closets" instead of clothes dryers.

Quite frankly though.. I think they'd make a laundry lovers dream ;)

@Jean.. if you can wait a few months, and deal with the crazyness... Black Friday is coming up ;)

What better time, to buy a whole set of new towels & sheets? :-)

Excellent idea Mitch! That is what I will do! I like how you think!

@mamapinky0, I'm with poppy214 on this. You need to contact your town counsel, and raise cane. And... become a tattle tale, and try to find code violations. Then get the code enforcers on him. Sometimes, the best vengeance... is just making them follow the rules like everyone else.

I don't mind craziness when I shop. For me it's therapy.

All of you will be like... ewww. But.. if you live in a area without a lot of pollution, leaving your clothes out, to get soaked in the rain (... I did this once) will make them EXTREMELY soft ;)

And with them being rinsed so well... they'll be able to absorb more of that wonderful, outdoor breeze.

Mitch that is so true about the clothes out in the rain or heavy morning dew!

Jean the dryer was my moms she died the summer of 2008 got the dryer the summer before so 8 years. It was a good dryer though except for sheets and blankets/ comforters I would have to stop it every 15 minutes to fluff them out of the ball they were in. Lol. But I think that probaby happens with all basic dryers. Ahh I have a thing for white towels lol. Thats all I buy is white now I've never used chlorine bleach on my white towels but do my long very hot soaks with mostly Tide/bleach, STPP and 1or2 tablespoons FS ..I have a large load and a medium load everyday with 7 of us here and I use 2 one for my hair as does Amiee so thats 9 bath towels 9 face cloths& at least 4 hand towels a day. I only have 20 white towels, but for a cheaper towel i think these came from Target, and i bought them when i moved into moms house going on 7 years, they have really held up great. I have really pricey pink towels that are showing some dramitic wear and tear but I used to use chlorine bleach on them. Jean isn't it amazing how there can be so much to say about washing a towel. Lol

Target still has some great towels with white on the clearance table. I just got some. I use their house brand cheap towels for the grandchildren. They come through the Sanitary cycle fine, but i don't expect them to last forever.

I think it's fascinating Mama. I promised myself no Clorox on the new towels. My old ones have holes thanks to my overuse of bleach.

If I owned... nothing but colored towels, I'd wash them, at 50c with Two Tablespoons of Sun or Another Clean Rinsing/No Enzyme Liquid & STPP. And I guarantee you, I'd have the softest towels, of all of you :P And... they'd probably look pretty good.

Now.. Nice White Towels, on the other hand. Well.. that'd probably be a recipe for disaster overtime.

Oh I plan to contact the township supervisers monday, actually I emailed one of them earlier. There is a ordinance, burning is allowed tues, thur, sat, from 10am -5pm no smouldering fires after dusk, no ground fires, all fires must be contained. This guys building large bon fires on the ground, he starts them around supper time keeps them going thru the nite, his friends leave around 4 am, he goes inside, comes out the next afternoon and starts all over again, so during the day that wood burning bon fire is smouldering. Today he had the b...s to tell me I don't take proper care of this child, otherwise I would have him outside running a mile or two everyday to strengthen his lungs and his asthma would be cured. I don't really bother with the neighbors, and I'm not one to draw attention to myself, but I let him have it and I used some colorful words. I did call the police barricks..they said they can't help me. Geesh.

All I'm saying is... I think everyone, tends to overdo it a little with towels. I mean, there bath towels, we come out of the bath/shower, C-L-E-A-N. They don't get really dirty, honestly. They just need to be refreshed, in hot water. You don't really need a bunch of heavy duty pre-treaters or enzymes in the load.

Just something with minimal ingredients to clean, and rinse away ;)

Ok Mitch now you've got me changing my mind about white towels! I want to hear-see-your recipe for white towels, pretty please.

Gotcha, thanks Mitch.

Keep in mind, I'm fairly young, and didn't live through the 80's, or really the 90's... so I my knowledge of Detergent's from then, are only so-so. But... to be honest, from my research... I don't think there we're even that many "Free & Gentle/Free & Clear/Scent Free" Detergents, until after the Phosphate Ban.

I've always felt like, post-ban... suddenly the carbonates & phosphate-alternatives, have caused poor rinsing, and caused the need/market for these Free & Clear, and Scent Free Detergent's. Although... I could be very wrong.

Enzymes from what I can tell.. weren't that much of a big thing either... The Phosphates seemed to make everything clean most of the time. I just think, sometimes, going back to the basics, and adding STPP, works better :-)

The camera shoots a bit yellowish tinge but these are brilliant white and going on 7 years old. No chlorine ever

Wow! Mine are flat, rough and full of holes. Yours are fluffy and bright white!

Jean I think it has to do with chlorine bleach plus didn't you say once you used to add the chlorine bleach along with the detergent, before you realized it goes in last 5 minutes of the wash cycle?? Was that you that said that? My pink towels are not in such great shape and they were much more expensive, chlorine bleach I think eats the loops off the towels lol

I am starting to see some flat spots on the white ones now, and usually when that starts they go quickly.

Yes Mama-I use to add Clorox at the very beginning of the wash cycle. I have reformed but it's too late for the towels.

Yes for those towels but not for the gorgeous ones you will get on black friday. Hehe

@Pinky I hope the cameras are rolling for the bonfire construction, operation, "containment" and putting out. Time stamps are very useful features.

No, they always had scent free detergents, or at least they have since the late 80s. My parents bought them sometimes.

Antichlor and aquarium dechlorinator are both sodium thiosulfate. It's a reducing agent that neutralizes the chlorine by turning it into chloride ions, which are harmless ;)

Speaking of Towels... ;)

Holy towels Batman! I haven't owned that many towels in my entire life! Beautiful white towels.

Mich..do you own a hotel?

@mamapinky0, No. I reference to that pic at times, wishing, I had the closet space ;) . That's one of Martha Stewart's many, linen closets.

THAT'S ONLY PART OF THE CLOSET THOUGH. I want a huge closet, like that :P

Ya me too and half the towels

And Jean.. if your looking for a reason, to use less bleach...

I found this, poor, poor soul in a Inn's Laundry Room. Countless splashes & over-pours, eventually led to this. So, sad. :/

Umm so Mich can that happen to washer parts if chlorine bleach is used often, or is that just because it wasn't diluted?

@mamapinky0, This was countless.. occurrences of someone pouring in too much (causing a overfill) & someone... allowing it to splash, on the surface of the machine.

While I'm sure... it wasn't a overnight, transformation. I still do wonder, how someone didn't see it coming.

But.. it does bring up a good point... if that can happen from a few weeks of Bleach loads, what could weekly use do to a machine, over the course of years?

I have used lcb all of laundering life and have never had a rust issue. Always careful not to get it on the machine or drips, splashes on the clothes. I add 1/2 cup and pour 2 cups of water in at the same time in the dispenser. The only time I had a problem was with the Bosch that left some color bleached spots on some towels.

Call me whatever, but nothing cleans and sanitizes like lcb. I just don't feel they are clean without it. Maybe if I had enough dishclothes and towels for a load and washed separately, but I don't so it all goes in together with hot water, detergent and bleach, added at the appropriate time.

Somebody suggested using Lysol in the brown bottle in lieu of lcb. But man, that stuff smells worse than bleach! Left the bottle in the store. lol.

Anyway, this is just my opinion and I'm not saying anybody else has unclean towels, sheets ect.

Bea, nothing ever will whiten like LCB, that's a proven fact.....Bea, the Lysol in the little brown bottle is just not worth it IMO, I know people that have used it one time and their machine has never got rid of the gosh awful scent.

I use LCB on bedding or clothes if someone's sick, like the boys with snotty noses all over their pillowcases, or hubs or sons positive with the flu, it will disinfect for sure and I know I'm not growing the flu virus in my machines.lol. and trust me Bea, I have a strange household of people here, last year the little boys were real champs getting their flu shots, BUT they ended up testing positive for influenza b....3 times last season. I used LCB a lot last year. Lol. I thought you could only get the flu once, I don't know why I thought that but boy was I wrong, and just as a side note, I took care of all these flu sickos, I did not get the flu shot, and I did not get the flu. I wash kitchen towels seperatly white of course, typically no LCB, but if my son decides to cook I have to use LCB I don't trust him, I've seen him touch meat than wipe his hands on the towels. I don't allow him in my kitchen much lol. So ya Bea I use it for disinfection, as needed lol

Just my two cents about Lysol in the brown bottle...

Yes it has a strong scent that's for sure but for my mom's generation THAT was the smell of CLEAN.

Personally I don't use it but my mom has found some (in some store, I don't even know who carries it anymore) and has recently been using it again.

Remember she's in her 80's so when she was younger, that's what they used back then. I even remember that smell when I was a kid, my mom was still using it now and then (but NOT in the laundry), just for bathroom sanitizing.

Like LCB, it's not a particularly pleasant smell but it cleans and disinfects, deodorizes and kills household germs, prevents mold and mildew. So it has a lot of benefits without harshness of bleach.

I also use bleach on my whites and have learned dosing is VERY important.

I kind of feel, if it's white, it can only benefit to add a little bleach in the laundry.

So I guess the smell is "generational" if that makes sense. Or some people might flat out like it and others hate it.

I agree with all you've said George, I like the scent of LCB, I do add it to my D/W. Yes it will kill enzymes but I add the powdered cascade with my teaspoon of STPP to the d etergent cup, close the detergent door, than I add a smidgen of Finish gel to the prewash, close the D/W start it, when I hear it start to fill up I open it and dump in a shot glass of LCB, its all rinsed away by the time the cascade is released in the main wash cycle, but I have a 21 year old D/W so it uses a lot more water. And what I've found is newer d/w work better with enzyme detergents, and older d/w work better with chlorine based detergent. my d/w always smells terriffic.

Take the names that have been suggested, and then see if there is a way to match them up with coupons.

Also, don't forget that hanging towels or other whites on a line to dry is extremely helpful as far as killing germs. I think it was the CDC that I found some info that said the uv rays help kill the germs on laundry.