I broke down and purchased the ecloth mop, kitchen "sponge" and glass cleaning kit. I wasn't sure which one to buy but snagged a great deal on ecloth. I didn't expect to be impressed but my glass cabinet sparkles. I have never been able to keep streak free and it is spotless. The kitchen sponge works nicely - can't tell if it picks up the germs but works to clean. I also like the mop - best part is I can use the same handle to try Norwax later as the mop heads fit both systems. I bought an extra head so can toss into the washing machine.

@mamapinkey: Abridged answer: arguably any detergent in any temperature will clean better in soft water vs hard water, all other things being equal. Long-winded version: Soft water cleans everything better at all temperatures, by virtue of being soft water. This is due to the lower mineral deposit content in soft water. So the softer the water, the closer it will be to approaching distilled water (which, by way of comparison, is the ultimate soft water, with 0 parts per million (ppm) mineral content, since distilled water is created from condensation formed by steam, so there's nothing in it but pure h2o). The mineral deposit contents of your water hijack your detergents. The detergents latch on to the minerals instead of making their way to their designated destination (the dirt in your clothes), since the minerals will always get to the detergent first as soon as the water touches it. So the higher your water mineral content, the less detergent ends up left over and available to do what it's supposed to do. High mineral content is referred to as hard water (usually 150/200ppm+, depending who you ask). Because soft water has much less interference from mineral content, everything gets cleaner faster, and better, all while using less soap/detergent, and less residue remains after rinsing. Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but figured it'd be good to just put that out there in case anyone is reading who has heard "soft" and "hard" water thrown around, but without much clarification (I absolutely did not know the difference until I started having skin issues due to laundry detergent residue allergies about a year and a half ago). So back to your question: Soft water doesn't really require a detergent as well-built as this one (in any temperature). In either hot or cold soft water, a detergent like this might end up being overkill, as the sheer volume of water softening agents it contains indicates to me that it's designed for use in much harder water. So back to soft water. In soft water, it doesn't even matter, for example, whether your detergent is missing phosphates, which is a huge gripe nowadays (effectively, phosphate is pretty much a glorified water softener...see where this is going?), and you can get your clothes cleaner, in any temperature, with nearly any detergent (all other things being equal). People pay thousands of dollars to have whole-house water softeners installed because it just cleans stuff better (dishes, too), and it's also easier on your washing machine (less mineral/detergent residue). As far as the ingredients go... I'm super excited to see TAED in a US detergent in conjunction with the sodium carbonate peroxide (aka sodium percarbonate), which is the oxygen bleach. The TAED is a cold water bleach activator that's usually just found in Euro detergents (and they've been doing the eco thing so much longer, so their stuff tends to work better, in my experience). I don't use cold water, but think the science behind it is cool, for its own sake. And even though I purchased bulk sodium percarb off of Amazon, I've never been able to get the dosage amount quite right on my own without weakening my clothes (store-bought oxygen bleaches contain too many extra foaming ingredients for me since I use hot soft water)...but I love how well it cleans... And I get excited when a detergent contains a decent amount of it (they've obviously buffered it somehow). Per my original post, the sa8 did not work for me, but I'd recommend it to people who prefer to wash their stuff in cold water, and who also have hard water. I ended up returning my box of it to my dad (braving his disappointed look, lol), since I use hot water and it's very soft @72ppm, so this stuff actually foamed up too much for me for those reasons, which made rinsing difficult (the dark side of soft water haha). And no, I'm not an Amway sales rep. Are you?

Eld, maybe your niece uses Rent the Runway. I hear of people who have to go to formal events who rent a dress to wear. It makes perfect sense since these are often expensive items that you will only wear once or twice. the Stitch Fix quality is varied. Everything in my first box was very nice although one item didn’t fit and another was something I knew I would not wear. I love the cashmere sweater and it’s been very useful. The second box was much more TJ Maxx quality— cheaply made but also overpriced. I may give them one more chance in the spring and give more detail. My last trip to the mall was a nightmare. I dragged myself all over and finally found one pair of black pants. I got in line to pay. There were two people ahead of me. While I was waiting, another woman came up to the counter on the other side rather than getting in line. The salesperson insisted she had been there first. I was so tired and irritated I just shoved the pants at her and said she could keep the damn things — well maybe not quite that rude. So if I can get nice clothes delivered to the door, I am all for it. Now we are in the midst of freezing weather and snow but I have to get those clothes back in the mail within three days. At least they send a postage paid envelope.

The history of laundry is interesting. Wealthy people used to only do a "great wash" once or twice a year as your wealth could be judged by your owning so many underclothes or bed clothing that you didn't need to wash them often. Think festering heaps of composting dirty clothes. Whacking clothes on a rock in a stream loosen the dirt and the water carries it away but we expect our clothes to be degreased and more or less deodorized and whacking with a stick doesn't do that, nor for that matter does whacking with a ball full of beads. It isn't soap. There is a short story out there that describes a woman in France going to a wash house to wash clothes and she soaped the clothes and smacked them with a flat paddle raising a scrum of soap and dirt that she then scraped away. Interesting right. Soap grabs hold of dirt or what ever and then forms flock-the stuff that formed a bathtub ring back in the day but detergents have all sorts of additives that have the ability to connect to a water molecule and so disperse the packet of soap and dirt plus detergents have other fancy things. So no a washing ball isn't going to do more that whack on your clothes but if they aren't particularly dirty you might not notice for awhile. A great pity because it sounds like a nice idea.