For dark darks like my more delicate black t shirts and work polo that I wear on casual Friday, I use the Woolite dark. The black clothes do look better, but I'm still keeping my eyes out for something else.

Whites....Rosalie's Zero Suds + 1 Tide Booster pod

Towels....Rosalie's

Everything else....usually Tide he powder. Sometimes I use Tide he turbo liquid or German Frosch for colours.

Softener....usually Target's Spring Bloom or Kirkland (Costco)

Current Favorites are as follows:

Cold load-(Darks, Lightly soiled jeans, new clothes, etc.) and Delicates-Tide purclean. No OBA's and good performance.

Warm Load-(Medium colors, heavily soiled darks, and greys), Whites, & Towels. -Tide HE Turbo Powder (only Mountain Spring or Clean Breeze)

Hot Load-(Colored socks and underwear, and anything heavily soiled) and Golf Clothing-Tide HE Turbo Febreeze liquid S&R

Fabric Softener- Downy Clean Breeze

Dryer Sheets-Bounce Febreeze S&R

My past and current faves are much the same.

Persil megaperls is the general go-to

Le Blanc for bedding

Vaska Lavender tabs for towels

Perwoll Black for blacks

Persil Color Gel for Colors

Perwoll Sport for Synthetics

Perwoll Delicates for Delicates

I also have Forever New which is sometimes used for clothes with Elastic and it's an all-purpose second tier choice since it's so expensive. It is a superb stain remover. I stepped on a strawberry which stained the white area of a rug. A light paste of FN on a cloth removed the stain in 3 seconds -- literally. You can feel the enzymes go to work as the powder gets hot when wet!

I use no boosters, fragrance crystals or anything else except OxiClean for prewash.

I have many detergent samples that I use, and love, but won't count them because I haven't actually purchased them (Bubble Bandit, for example, is very good). So, what do I use regularly?

Colored clothing: All StainLifter pod, vintage Tide powder, or Tide TotalCare HE liquid (this is a cheat; I didn't buy it but Larsi gifted me an ENTIRE bottle).

Whites: Persil Universal powder or Tide w/ Bleach powder

Bedding: LeBlanc Linen Wash

Kitchen towels, rags: Tide detergent pod or Persil Universal powder. The green German gel cleans extremely well but I find it doesn't rinse well and leaves things sticky. Could be a dosing problem. YMMV.

Same choices on-hand for months: Era liquid, Tide Ultra HE with Bleach powder, Foca powder, Persil ProClean 2in1 liquid, and have a small stash of Fresh Start powder but don't use it much. OxiClean powder, Biz powder, STPP.

I used to use Fresh Start. Wish that was still around.

Mrs Meyers lavender for cold lights, cold darks and lightly soiled. Tide HE or Percil Proclean for gym clothes and heavy soiled. Chlorine and liquid color bleach on hand if needed as are pretreatments. Mrs Meyers fabric softener and dryer sheets, plus dryer balls. I don't use powders or pods. I have a water softening system so I reduce the recommended label amount by 1/2, based on soil, cycle and size of load. If you have regular city water, you may want to stay with the recommended label dosage. I really don't have much in the way of whites but do use Allergen cycle for bedding. Mrs Meyers, of course.

Does anyone know if I can use Fresh Start in a FL?

Yes it's low suds isn't it? I am thinking it used to be so I'm sure it still is.

Mine is vintage Fresh Start. Our friend Joel sent it to me last Fall, I hoard it lol. Hi Joel!!

Yes, it'll work OK in a FL or HE toploader, except it can be ornery to dissolve. Fresh Start went NLA months ago. I have two bottles remaining of a 6-bottle case. Google search brought up a "replacement" product name of Start Fresh, says it's without the blue coloring agent.

Jeans and brightly colored shirts washed in cold with Tide Coldwater. The He Turbo Fresh Scent variant is strongly scented, so I use about 2/3 vintage Tide Coldwater F&C with 1/3 of the fresh scent he turbo liquid.

For everyday colored t-shirts, underwear, etc. I've been using the Honeydew flavor of Ecos with Enzymes. I wash these in "hot" though I'm not wild about its cleaning performance, so I will likely discontinue when the bottle is empty. Tide F&G he liquid is excellent for everyday loads.

For bedding, I use Seventh Generation Ultra Power Plus with a 1/4 cup of a homemade blend of borax, sodium carbonate, and baking soda. Also washed in "hot" and do an extra rinse.

For whites, I use either Tide F&G he liquid or an All StainLifter pod (thanks to Alex for introducing me to these). I also add a scoop of All F&C oxi laundry booster. Of course, these are washed in "hot".

Tragic loads from my elderly mom, Tide Ultra Stain Release he Turbo is awesome. It doesn't let me down and it works really well in the quick wash cycle. I always wash my mom's clothes in hot.

Tide Coldwater F&C....now that's a great detergent. I love that stuff for soaks in cool water. It will remove even stubborn stains. If any of you run across it in a discount store as I think its been discontinued..I highly recommend you try it.

When I had my frontloader, I would use Purex(before I knew better) and Tide. That is one of the things I love about a TL, you can use whatever detergent you like and how ever much you like.

I use Persil Pearls or powdered Tide HE with bleach for whites & sometimes bedding. Tide HE powder for most stuff & Cheer powder for nice dark stuff. No other additives. White vinegar in the rinse.

FOCA

Where do you find Persil at? I've never hear of it before.

Persil is a long-time European brand. It was introduced in the U.S. initially as a Walmart exclusive, but now is available at some other sources. The manufacturer claims the U.S. formula is identical to the European formula. That has been disputed by users of both but it's still a good product.

Oh, sorry, you're getting an FL. FOCA makes a liquid form, but I think you have to order it online.

Persil smells like vomit, to me.

I discovered FOCA last year; I'll never use another detergent. For whites I add OUT/White Brite.

I think my crown jewel is Euro Persil Color Megaperls

As a pretext, I generally avoid OBAs, lean to 'green', and keep fragrance to nil or very light (at least for doses that I use). Generally, my clothes are too stained, but will use a pretreater, typically Ecover or Puracy when I do

Whites: Ecover Zero Powder or BioKleen Premium Plus

Colors: I rotate this most frequently. Currently going through BioKleen Cold Water, but also Mrs Meyers Rosemary, Euro Persil Color, Puracy, Miele Color, Cheer, Seventh Gen Ultra Power, Ecover liquid...so many great options

Darks: Perwoll Dark for light soil, but the fragrance is borderline

Towels and other items that are suds factories: I'm sold on Rosalie's

Bed Sheets: Some rotation, but LeBlanc is great.

Synthetics/Sports/Fleece: Charlie's Soap liquid with liquid non-chlorine bleach.

Additives: STPP for powders, Sodium Percarbonate for Whites and Powder, H2O2 with liquids

Softeners: Not my thing generally, but occasionally Vaska or even other 'green' ones (except Mrs Meyers Lemon Verbena..artificial smell)

Doesn't anyone else use Charlie's Soap? It was recommended to me here on the Laundry Forum quite a few years ago. I still use and like it. Most times I use white vinegar for the rinse, except for the bathroom towels. I need more softener and like Seventh Generation for them.

Speer, I LOVE Persil Color Mega Perls..I only ever had one box, but they did an outstanding job on darks and colors, and at least for me there was very little to almost no sudsing. The color of the Perls were also a fav of mine pink and white LOL.

Compumom, I think since the day of everyone using Charlies things changed, people were finding stiff, scratchy clothes and whites were becomming, dare I say it...dingy.

Compumom,

I use powdered Charlie's Soap to wash all our clothing every day and like it quite well. It is all that my skin will tolerate. I add STPP, sometimes Nellie's, sometimes Borax, and use citric acid powder where fabric softener usually goes, as I learned years ago that fabric softener is a no-no for me. I tried all the regular brands free and clear versions, but they did not work well for my skin. Also Vaska, Method, etc. Charlie's works better and cleans better for me. Our clothing is neither scratchy nor dingy.

On this list it is quite popular to trash Charlie's Soap, but we each have to find what works for us and ignore the naysayers.

Hisown...have you considered you have good results with Charlies because you use STPP? Or other boosters? The normal outsider probably never heard of STPP so they wouldn't be boosting their Charlies with a powerful phosphate that in all probability will ensure cleaner and softer clothes regardless of the detergent used.

The average person probably wouldn't prefer Charlie's to most OTC detergents

Charlie's appeal is what's not in it. It has 3 ingredients compared to over a dozen in others. Some people can't tolerate or care to use many of those other chemicals, but most do have a function. Plus, we're talking about 1 Tbsp of CS compared to like a 1/4 cup of Tide. Chemistry is chemistry. I don't think it should be shocking to have to add a little something back into it to give it more kick.