#70 Nappy Leaks Podcast: What detergents to use on cloth nappies

You've done your research and purchased cloth nappies and now you are ready to wash them. As you walk into the supermarket a whole aisle of boxes and bottles of laundry detergent close in around you, "Which is the most economical, what will clean the best, where are the environmentally friendly ones, how much do I use"? To help guide you to finding the best detergent to tick all of your needs, Vashti and Vicki discuss exactly what to look for and be aware of with Amy White. Amy is an environmental scientist who loves laundry and researching the science of how we clean. She has combined these passions to run a successful nappy hire business, Cloth Nappy Hire Australia https://clothnappyhire.com.au. Her business helps new parents with choosing nappies and how to launder them. She also runs a free website: Cloth Nappy Help https://www.clothnappyhelp.com.au; and Facebook groups: #getintocloth Australia https://www.facebook.com/groups/getintocloth and MCN Tips & Tricks https://www.facebook.com/groups/224894171341634/. She's tested almost every detergent on the market and is a wealth of knowledge with curly laundry topics such as: plant vs mainstream detergent; what temperature to wash at; and how to navigate hard or soft water, including how to find out what your water is. After learning from Amy's knowledge, your next trip to the laundry aisle will give you the confidence to make the right choice for your washing and family.

 

Transcription: What detergents to use on cloth nappies

Andrew: Welcome to Nappy Leaks with Vicki Simpson and Vashti Wadwell. How are you doing, Vashti?

Vashti: Good thanks Andrew, how are you today?

Andrew: Not too shabby. How are you doing, Vicki?

Vicki: Yeah, good. And yourself?

Andrew: I’m here. Who’s our guest? Amy.

Amy: Hi Andrew, how you doing?

Andrew: Good, Amy, how are you?

Amy: Really well, thanks.

Vashti: Hey, Amy.

Amy: Hey, Vashti.

Andrew: Your voice kind of sounds familiar. Have we had you on the podcast before?

Amy: Yeah, I’ve been here a few times previously, to chat about various things.

Andrew: Actually other than Jenna, I think you’re our most popular guest.

Amy: I’m not quite sure what to say about that. Thanks for having me back, I guess.

Vashti: Take it as a compliment.

Andrew: Not that we try…

Amy: I haven’t said anything too stupid yet.

Andrew: We can start tracking now. How many times has Jenna been on?

Vashti: Oh, I don’t know.

Vicki: Well see, she buts in so much when she’s actually not on maternity leave.

Vashti: Yeah, that’s it.

Vicki: But, but, but.

Andrew: Yeah, if Jenna wasn’t on maternity leave she’d be… and if you’re missing Jenna, it’s because she’s on maternity leave, because yes, we know that she usually chimes in because we record it while she’s supposed to be working for us. And so why did we get you in, Amy? The reason we got you in, I’ll tell you, is because we wanted to talk about detergents today. And we thought, we need to find somebody who knows detergents. And because your business is…

Amy: So I’ve got a business called Cloth Nappy Hire Australia, and we do specifically, we do mainly newborn hire packages for parents who want to try cloth nappies but they’re a bit overwhelmed about where to start. So we help them get started and also provide them some washing instructions for their washing machine so that they know how to wash their nappies and get best results from them.

Andrew: Cool.

Vicki: And you’ve tested almost every detergent on the market.

Amy: Oh yeah. I’m the secret detergent fiend.

Andrew: Your job is almost basically washing nappies.

Amy: Sort of, yeah. So I don’t actually receive dirty nappies. We just hire, we don’t do laundry for people, but we provide them instructions on how to do the laundry and they wash the hire nappies themselves. And then when they come back, we commercially launder them and sanitise them so that they’re safe for the next customer.

Andrew: Excellent. And so where did you start? How did you get started?

Amy: On the internet. So I’m a scientist and five years ago I had my first baby and went on maternity leave and I was working at a university at the time. I guess I needed something to do, so I got pretty heavily into laundry. And I’ve always liked doing the laundry so it was kind of my thing from way back.

Vicki: I think everyone has their thing, some people cook, some people clean…

Amy: I really like cleaning. Cleaning was my thing. And so I guess I got interested in the science of how we clean and ended up starting a Facebook group with a few friends about how we clean our nappies, and it took off. Five years later, here we are, still doing nappies.

Andrew: What made you want to start renting nappies?

Amy: I just, I really love helping mums get…

Andrew: Is it because you had to wash them when then came back? I could get dirty nappies from thousands of people.

Amy: I probably got satisfaction from that in the beginning, but now it’s just my work, to be honest.

Vashti: I saw your washing pile on the weekend, and I think it covered your entire back deck. I reckon I counted about 15 baskets.

Amy: I got a bit behind. I got really busy in my day job.

Andrew: How many children do you have?

Amy: Sorry?

Andrew: How many children do you have?

Amy: Two kids.

Andrew: Two? How many husbands do you have?

Amy: Just one, and he does a lot of parenting. I’m always busy working. Yeah, so I got really busy at my day job and got really behind on the laundry and sent Vashti a photo of my washing pile, which was just extreme. I folded it for an entire day on Sunday and still didn’t finish.

Vashti: That’s impressive.

Vicki: I’m impressed that you fold. We never fold.

Amy: I should really…

Vashti: I suppose you’ve got to fold the nappies for when you send them back out in the park.

Amy: You do, yeah, you’ve got to check them all out of the laundry and make them all really nice again. And take the fluff off.

Vashti: And check there’s no damage or stains.

Amy: Exactly, everything gets… I have a good look over, exactly.

Vicki: Overseen as you go.

Amy: It’s all part of the process. But you asked me about how I got started in it, and I just, I really enjoy helping other parents to use cloth nappies. There’s so may parents that want to try cloth nappies and they get overwhelmed before they even start and their friends and family tell them it’s too hard, and I want to show them that it’s not. So I hope that my service can help them to see that it can be easy, you just need a bit of support. And a few nappy friends.

Vicki: It’s the same with, I know this is a controversial topic, but it’s the same with breastfeeding. You tend to find somebody who is supported will have a much better success, and it’s the same with cloth nappies too.

Amy: Absolutely, yeah.

Vicki: If you’ve got nothing but naysayers around you, you’re not going to be successful, this is why I’m not teaching my daughter to drive. Don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that. It’s the same thing. It’s not going to give her the confidence to drive and I like my life. So that’s Andrew’s job.

Andrew: Yeah, if you can hear a bit of shakiness in the voice, I took her driving two weeks ago.

Vashti: You’re doing very well for two weeks. You know, I actually did a load the other day and I was shoving stuff in and I went to close the door and I was like yeah, no, that’s too full and I had to pull some stuff out. There was way too much washing in that load.

Amy: Sometimes you have to admit defeat and just do two loads.

Vashti: This is why I like, in our house, family of five, but we do a load every single day, because if we don’t, I’m spending the entire weekend washing. And nobody wants to do that. I think it was easier when I was doing nappies because I was already on top of my washing. I did notice when we went out of nappies, I did let it slack off a little bit. And I’d wait until the weekend. You know, I went out and bought enough school uniforms so that I didn’t have to wash through the week, because…

Amy: I’ve done the same.

Vashti: …nobody wants to be washing all the time.

Amy: I’ve done the same, but I still wash during the week. Because the basket fills up and it just needs doing.

Vashti: No, we’re doing a load. So every morning, just before we leave, so that the panels, we’ve got solar, so that the panels have had a little bit of time. I put a load on before I leave…

Amy: That’s a good idea.

Vashti: …and then if I’m not home during the day anymore, but anyway, if I am home, I’ll pull them out and nine times out of ten, yes I live in Queensland, but I use my clothes dryer very regularly because I have a heat pump and I have solar. So it goes on during the day.

Amy: I got a heat pump dryer this year. It’s been completely life changing.

Vashti: Love my heat pump, love my heat pump.

Amy: Before I got it, I really struggled to even have time to hang out the washing and pull it in off the line.

Vashti: Especially when you’re…

Amy: It was always the thing, and I was just like basically too busy to do the washing. And now the heat pump, it uses a low temperature and it uses hardly any power. So now I just put everything in the dryer. I don’t feel bad.

Andrew: No, don’t feel guilty about that.

Amy: When I was at home all the time, I probably would have felt bad and thought I could do better than that. Now I’m never home.

Vashti: See, that’s the thing. You’re working a fulltime job and running a business, and you also have a free website, Cloth Nappy Help, where you’re providing information and guidance to people in regards to their cloth nappies. So that’s a fulltime job in itself, I’m assuming.

Amy: It could be, if I had time to do it.

Vashti: So you’re running three fulltime jobs and that doesn’t even include managing your house and caring for your children and parenting and stuff like that. Who’s got time to hang washing on the line?

Amy: Not me.

Andrew: So in response, the answer to the question is, how do you know how much detergent to use, read the instructions that’s on the packet. Simple.

Amy: Basically, yeah. And you can assume the instructions on the packet, they’re good for washing machines about the seven and a half kilo mark. So your average family sized machine. If you’ve got a smaller machine, use a bit less. If you’ve got a bigger machine, use a bit more. It’s really that simple.

Vashti: Generally manufacturers wouldn’t be in business if they didn’t provide the correct information, right?

Amy: That’s right.

Vashti: They’re not out there to just gauge us with money and use way more detergent than we’re supposed to, so we buy more are they?

Amy: I don’t think so, because you’ll run into trouble if that happens anyway and it won’t rinse out properly and your clothes will be all soapy out of the wash and you’ll get a rash.

Vashti: I would assume.

Amy: So you know, my experience anyway is that it’s pretty reasonable, what’s suggested, and the amount that’s suggested is enough to get you a good clean.

Vashti: I’ve always been one of these people that are sort of like, I look at the size of the load and how dirty it is and I go, yeah, glug, glug, glug. That’s a really dirty load. And if it’s a lightly soiled load, glug.

Amy: Yeah, little bit less. It’s common sense.

Vashti: So my nappies were always a glug, glug, glug, because they’re a heavily soiled item so they need really deep cleaning.

Amy: They need a bit more than your clothes, that’s right.

Andrew: Do we have a chart to show us how many millilitres a glug is?

Vashti: A glug? No, that’s one of the ones you’re going to have to work out for yourself.

Amy: Expert knowledge.

Andrew: I know as the bottle becomes emptier, the glug size changes.

Vashti: It does, it really does.

Amy: That’s true, yeah.

Vashti: And when you’re down to the bottom and you’re sitting there and you know there’s enough liquid in the bottle to get a load out…

Amy: You mix it with water and give it a shake. I reckon Andrew’s a glug, glug, glugger as well.

Vashti: He probably is.

Amy: He just admitted he knows far more about glugging than…

Andrew: I’m not, I’m not anymore.

Vashti: Are you a measurer?

Amy: Are you a measurer?

Andrew: No, no, even better. My machine does it for me. We’ve actually got a washing machine…

Amy: Do you have the Argos one?

Andrew: Vicki found a washing machine that actually adds the liquid detergent for you and measures how much it wants.

Vashti: Oh my gosh.

Andrew: All you have to do is just keep the reservoir full and the damn machine does the whole thing. So this is, you know how we always say…

Amy: That’s living the dream, really.

Andrew: …the washing machine does the work.

Vashti: Your washing machine does the work.

Vicki: Yeah, but why did I buy that washing machine?

Vashti: So it did the work?

Vicki: Nope.

Amy: So you didn’t have to glug, glug, glug.

Vicki: Nope.

Andrew: Because the 15 kilo one we had broke.

Vicki: Nope.

Andrew: OK, I give in.

Vashti: It matched your dryer. I remember now.

Andrew: That’s right, it perfectly matched the heat pump dryer because it’s the same brand and the doors even open…

Vicki: The Bosch, yeah.

Andrew: …opposite ways.

Vashti: Mine do that.

Andrew: So you can open them up and just go ch, ch, ch.

Vashti: Mine are beautiful. Unfortunately mine are, my dryer is on top of my machine at the moment, while we wait to renovate the laundry, kitchen area, because my laundry is really tiny. The pantry is in my laundry and the dishwasher is in my laundry because there’s no room in my kitchen. There’s just not enough room to have the washer dryer next to each other.

Amy: Mine’s just all under the house, Queensland style.

Vashti: My Mum keeps telling me I need to build a little cupboard type thing on the back deck, because we’ve got a massive back deck. You wouldn’t tell at the moment, it’s so full of crap, but yeah, she says you need to build a little cupboard out there with a bench on top so your washer dryer goes in and then you can use the bench on top to fold. And I’m like Mum, we live next to a forest. The cupboard on top, the bench on top would get filthy and I wouldn’t be able to fold my washing on it. She’s like, wipe it down. And I’m like, yeah, right.

Amy: Every day. The dining table out on the deck has the same problems, but every day, where did all this dust come from.

Vashti: Do you find a difference between powder and liquid, Amy?

Amy: I find they both work fine, actually. I use both and depending on whatever I’ve got at the time, and I’ve always got a good clean from both. I think it’s just whatever you prefer.

Andrew: Do you have a recommended temperature? What temperature should you wash at?

Amy: I wash our clothes at 40, and that seems to work well. Things don’t shrink or fade. And then my nappies, I always do at 60, because to a point, you shouldn’t wash them more than 60, but more is better.

Andrew: I should put a little disclaimer in here, not all cloth nappies can be washed at 60, so check your manufacturer.

Amy: That’s true, check your manufacturer.

Andrew: Some cloth nappies won’t take 60.

Amy: That’s right, but mine can be washed at 60, so I wash them at 60 because that works best for us.

Andrew: So do you use a commercial laundry detergent, or are you using one of the plant based ones?

Amy: So I’ve used all sorts really. I usually use commercial ones because they’re easy to buy when you’re down at the shop and they work well.

Vashti: Well you can get plant based commercial ones these days.

Amy: Sort of a really increasing range of plant based detergents, so they’re really quite good these days. So you can definitely use plant based detergents to wash your nappies as well. Sometimes they need a bit more, so a bit more product or you might need to add some stain remover powder like Vanish or any brand of those laundry soakers is fine, and do a hot wash as well, to get the best results. There’s definitely no reason that you can’t experiment and give plant based detergents a go.

Andrew: Are they really ecofriendly or are they just putting on a label that they’re ecofriendly?

Amy: Yeah, it’s hard to know.

Vicki: How ecofriendly is it when you’re using more detergent?

Andrew: That’s true, that’s true, but if the detergent has zero residue then it wouldn’t really matter how much you use then, would it?

Vicki: Well then it becomes other factor with transport and carbon miles.

Amy: The carbon footprint.

Vicki: Exactly.

Vashti: And you’re still using plastic bottles and lined cardboard boxes.

Amy: Needing to hot wash instead of warm wash and things like this.

Vicki: I was thinking about Trimate the other day…

Amy: The Aldi one?

Vicki: No, not Trimate, that’s Aldi.

Amy: Tri Nature?

Vicki: Apparently it’s a few rogue consultants that say use half a teaspoon.

Amy: I think that’s the Norwex thing as well.

Vicki: Oh Norwex, that’s it, sorry.

Amy: So the packet says use two scoops and then the consultant say use two teaspoons.

Vicki: Yeah, so…

Vashti: I never understood that. How a teaspoon of detergent could wash a seven kilo load. That just doesn’t make sense to me.

Amy: It doesn’t. You’re basically washing it in water.

Vashti: And I have to admit, the sample that I got many years ago, I tried their whole teaspoon that I was told by the consultant, and I was like yeah, no, these aren’t clean. So we went back to using scoops, and then I went back to using liquid because I much prefer liquid.

Andrew: So back on are they friendly for the environment. The ones that you find in the supermarkets, they have to follow a code of conduct, don’t they?

Amy: Yeah, so all detergents that are manufactured in Australia subscribe to a couple of standards. So the first one is for phosphate content. So phosphates, the phosphorus is responsible for algal blooms in water ways, so this used to be a big problem before phosphate content was regulated in cleaning products. Whereas now, pretty much everything that’s manufactured in Australia has no, or low phosphate. Like, really small levels of phosphate. So that’s a non-issue these days. All of them are on a level playing field on that front.

Vashti: Sorry, I’m going to be completely and utterly a…

Vicki: Devil’s advocate.

Vashti: No, I know nothing. Can you explain phosphate in layman’s terms for us?

Amy: Sure, so phosphate is just a water softener. And what a water softener does is it takes the minerals from most water supply will have some minerals in it, which is the stuff that makes scale in your kettle and all of these kind of things, why you need to descale your coffee machine and all of these kind of things. That’s because minerals in your water. And so phosphate is a water softener and what it does is it binds with the minerals in your water and it takes them out of the solution so that the water is free from minerals and that makes detergents more effective. But without phosphate now, most detergents use washing soda, and so that basically does the same thing, it’s just a different chemical compound, it just doesn’t have the same impact on waterways that phosphate did.

Vicki: And what about international brands like, let’s say BioZet, which is made in Japan?

Amy: Yeah, so BioZet, yes it’s made in Japan, and it’s got big transport miles but it’s made to the Australian Standards. But sometimes you can get things, like you can get Greek Omo and weird things that you’ll find at the…

Vashti: Greek Omo? Wow, OK.

Amy: Yeah, they’ve got it at the continental deli.

Vicki: And it tends to be places like the Reject Shop and stuff like that where for whatever reason they’ll get really weird…

Vashti: So would that be in Aldi special buys and things like that as well?

Amy: Generally not, it’s usually just like local businesses that will import it directly. And a lot of those still have phosphates in them. So you can find that just by reading the package. Usually it’s got an abridged ingredients list in it. So if you see phosphates in there, you probably should buy the Australian made version instead.

Vicki: It’s like the Colgate. Have you ever seen the Asian language, I won’t dare say a language, because who knows what language, Asian writing all over Colgate, and you’ll find it in your Two Dollar Shop and something like that.

Andrew: And it’s actually glue, are you saying…

Vicki: No, it’s the same thing, it’s just made…

Andrew: Different packet.

Vicki: Must be an overstock or something.

Vashti: I know when we went to China a few years ago, I found these cute little toothbrush and toothpaste packets that the kids love. They were really cute little toothbrushes and they came with a little mini toothpaste. The kids actually ate the toothpaste. They said it was just super sweet and they loved it, and they ate it rather than used it to brush their teeth. OK, good, fine, you don’t need it to brush your teeth. We’ll use our toothpaste.

Andrew: Did you find it in the lolly aisle?

Vashti: No, I did not.

Andrew: Are you sure?

Vashti: No, no, it was in the bathroom aisle. So when we were wandering through that great bit…

Vicki: At Chendou [? 18:29]

Vashti: It was the marketplace where you saw the child in the trolley with no pants on.

Vicki: Oh yes, no that was in Tiyan. Yes, and it was freezing. It was freezing and I’m looking at this poor little boy. You can’t not look, because they’re coming up and saying, say hello, say hello. And I’m like, my God, how are your balls not falling off?

Vashti: He was in this huge, big quilted jumpsuit thing that had a hole because they do elimination communication.

Vicki: I felt so sorry for the poor kid. The trolley would be freezing. Is it going to fall off? That was an experience, a cultural experience.

Vashti: We were rugged up. It was cold. OK, different language.

Amy: Yes, just a side topic.

Vashti: We do that regularly here.

Andrew: If it doesn’t have English in the packet, stay away from it. Is that what you’re saying?

Amy: If you can see the word phosphate. Some of them are fine.

Andrew: Is there a code word for phosphate or have they just called it something else?

Amy: Phosphate, or P. Sometimes it’s just the letter P.

Andrew: OK, watch for the letter P as well.

Amy: The letter P is the chemical symbol for phosphate. Or NP, no phosphate. Pretty simple.

Vashti: Nice and easy.

Amy: The other thing I was going to tell you about is the surfactant. So surfactant is the actual cleaning product in the detergent. And detergents manufactured in Australia, pretty much all of the companies will subscribe to a code of conduct that’s about how biodegradable they are. So that’s actually, it’s not a compulsory regulation, but basically everyone wants to make environmentally friendly detergent and so they all subscribe to it and they basically manufacture the detergents so that I think it’s 80% of the cleaning product needs to readily degrade within three weeks. Something like that. So it’s enough time for it to get used and go through the water treatment process and not have a really significant impact on the environment. And so that’s the same whether you use mainstream detergent or plant based detergent. You’re going to be using detergents that will readily biodegrade these days as well.

Vashti: That’s awesome. What about soap based detergents, like home made detergents that are based off your Sards soaps or your Sunlight soap, that’s what I was wanting. Not Sards soap, Sunlight.

Amy: Like the grate up the soap and mix it with washing soda?

Vashti: Yeah, in a Thermomix.

Vicki: All the rage.

Amy: And then two teaspoons. Two teaspoons is probably not the amount to clean your laundry. The biggest problem with soap, actually using soap to wash, it’s fine to use soap to pre-treat because it gets washed out in your machine, but using soap to actually wash with is that soap forms soap scum. And it forms soap scum when it binds with the minerals in your water. And that can basically coat things. And then to get things as clean as you do with a detergent formula that’s much more powerful, you’re going to need a hell of a lot of elbow grease to actually get the same quality of clean. So if you’re camping and you’re handwashing or something like that, and you want to use your bar of Sard soap and a billy of hot water, then go for it. But as a regular thing, it’s just not a good idea. The other thing…

Vashti: If you are camping and you’re doing your handwash with your soap that you’ve got there, just to get them semi clean, that’s OK…

Amy: Yeah, yeah, as a temporary thing, yeah. Just give them a normal wash…

Vashti: Just give them a good, hot wash when you get home or a double wash or something.

Amy: Exactly, that’s it, just to get them back into shape when you get home, and they’ll be fine. For a couple of washes it’s really no issue. The other thing is that a lot of washing machine manufacturers will advise that you don’t use soap in the washing machines and that’s because when the water spins out and it’s the soapy water, it gets stuck around the sides of the drum. And if it’s making a build up of soap or soap scum around the drum, that can damage your machine and not a good thing to do to it over time. So check your washing machine manual for that. But really, it’s best to use a product that’s formulated to do what you want it to do. Home made is not always better.

Andrew: Back on the water thing. You say the less minerals in the water the better the washing machine works. What about if you just put demineralised water in your washing machine?

Amy: Suds galore, I think.

Vashti: Well detergent is made to take the minerals out. So if there’s no minerals…

Amy: I think it would just be super bubbly. And it might be really expensive to do that too, that’s probably…

Andrew: There’s two litre bottles…

Amy: If you want to experiment, you go for it.

Vicki: That’s why you find your whites wash foams. It foams if you are using demineralised water versus tap water, it will work for a couple of days and then it will start to go all [noises]. Whereas the demineralised water will keep it nice and frothy, and literally fine for years. So I think suds galore would be…

Amy: An apt description. It’s a strange question.

Vashti: So tell me about the minerals in water, how does your detergent affect say rainwater, if you’re in a country area where you’re using rainwater for your washing machine, or if you’re in say central outback Queensland where you’ve got bore water that’s heavily mineralised. What’s the affect there?

Amy: So basically the minerals will bind with detergent and so they make the same amount, if you’ve got one scoop of detergent in really soft water with no minerals, that will be much more effective than one scoop of detergent in really hard water, because the detergent and the minerals bind together. And so if you’re washing in hard water it’s a good idea to add an extra bit of water softener. So that might be another half scoop of detergent, or a dose of Vanish or something like that, to take those minerals out of the solution so that you’ve got the equivalent amount of detergent available to do the cleaning.

Vashti: So bore water, bump up the detergent? Rainwater drop it down?

Amy: Definitely. I think you’ll find, basically, yeah, you’ll need to use either less or look for a product, some products cause more bubbles than others, so you might like to find one that works well in your machine. And people with bore water, add some Vanish or extra bit of detergent to compensate. You can still get a really good clean.

Vashti: So if you are in those areas, could you contact your machine manufacturer or your detergent supplier and ask for their advice on what additives would help with the water and stuff? Or how would you know what sort of water you have, I suppose is another question.

Amy: So usually, you can find most of this information online actually. Most councils and the water, what are they called? Urban utilities, the water authorities…

Vashti: Water and sewerage.

Amy: The people who look after your water supply. That was highly technical, wasn’t it? So the people who look after your water supply will often publish water quality reports. And so you can look up whatever. I might look up Urban Utilities water quality 2020. And I can find water quality report and that will tell you about the water hardness. So water hardness is usually reported in milligrams a litre. So basically anything under about 50 milligrams a litre is really soft. And then anything between 50 up to about 120 is moderately hard. Anything more than 120 is hard water. So if you want to get really technical, which most people don’t, then that’s how you can do it. And you can also just call them and ask, and they’d know that information as well.

Vashti: Cool, now I want to go and look it up. No, not really.

Amy: No, you don’t.

Vicki: You two live together… [laughter] live close together.

Vashti: Amy and I live two blocks…

Amy: We’re suburb neighbours, not room mates.

Vashti: It still surprised me when I found out you were in Salisbury. Wow.

Amy: When you came to visit me with my ANA pack, and I was like wow, it’s Vashti.

Vashti: And we were doing it up, and like Amy just lives around the corner from me, I’ll drop that off, it’s not going in the post.

Amy: I think I was pregnant and in my pyjamas too when you came around.

Vashti: Probably. That’s OK, I’ve seen it all before.

Amy: It obviously didn’t bother you.

Vashti: Love it.

Andrew: Cool. Any last little words you want to say about detergent? Which one do you use? That’s the burning question.

Vicki: You’ve already asked that, and she said all of them.

Amy: Well I do change all the time. I’ll tell you about my favourite. So my favourite detergent is probably Radiant liquid. I like it because it always works and the formula never changes, so it’s always reliable, whereas some of them seem to change the formula all the time, and so you can get…

Vicki: Omo does that all the time.

Amy: Yeah, Omo all the time, and it makes you, you get different results from every box. And it’s a bit frustrating sometimes.

Vashti: And this is not a paid endorsement, by the way.

Vicki: We use Omo liquid because that’s what at Costco.

Amy: The big 6 litre one.

Vicki: Oh yeah.

Andrew: Is that a cost saving thing, they put crappy ingredients in for a couple of batches to save themselves a few dollars?

Amy: I don’t know, or if it’s just variation between batches. I’ve no idea what goes on really. But sometimes it’s different. Sometimes it smells different, sometimes it bubbles different, sometimes it cleans different. And sometimes…

Vashti: It’s good.

Amy: …it’s fine. So Radiant liquid, never changes. It’s always the same and so that’s one of my favourites.

Vicki: It’s funny, my Mum used to use Radiant powder…

Amy: And so does mine.

Vicki: When I was younger…

Vashti: Is that why Radiant is never on special?

Amy: Well it’s pretty cheap anyway, so I don’t think it needs to be on special really, it costs the same as the other ones on half price. It’s pretty good value.

Vashti: Fair enough.

Andrew: Still not enough. I will contact them. I think that will be it then.

Amy: Sounds good.

Andrew: Thank you, Vashti.

Vashti: Thanks, Andrew.

Andrew: Thank you, Vicki.

Vicki: Thanks, Andrew.

Andrew: Thank you, Amy.

Amy: Thanks for having me.

Andrew: No worries. Bye everybody.

 

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