...used to wash her feather pillows, down comforters and old quilts with made with wool batting in cold water with some Fels Naptha soap. She used it for her delicates all the time. She hardly ever used the hottest setting, she liked a warm setting. It comes in a bar form and you shave a bit off with a sharp knife to put in a washer where it melts while the washer is filling. She said the reason she used it was that it was (for her) the best soap because it cleaned better than any detergent and it was gentle on her delicates.
My mom was always proud of her wash, because it made clothes last longer and they were always fresh and smelled amazing, like fresh air. Her whites were gleaming, lol.
As a side not of interest she could get 8 loads ready to hang in under 2 hours. I will say that while she learned her washing method with a wringer washer, she had an ingenious method of using the wringer to wash the clothes, then put them through the wringer once, then rinse in her automatic washer while the next load was washing. As most people do not have a wringer and you need an extra tub for rinse water, you can skip this method, the washer will also do fine. An automatic however, does wear out your clothes a lot sooner, plus it saves the hot water and soap to use for washing a lot of times. She would begin with the hottest water in the wringer, then wash her whites and on down to the darkest colors last in the coolest the water got. I wish at the very least most automatics had what they called a "suds saver" which used the same wash water over a few times. Saves electricity and your wash is cleaner, even using the soapy water more than once. Much more ecological and economical IMO.
The quilts and pillows she laid out in her grass yard in the sun as she said sunshine is also the best cleaner for germs and mites. It might stay out there for days because it took that long to dry (mostly the pillows).
Here is where you can fine Fels Naptha at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Fels-Naptha-Laundry-Soap-Bar/dp/B01N1ZHU12/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3OR1JZMC5YDGL&keywords=fels%2Bnaptha%2Bsoap&qid=1698590065&sprefix=fels%2Bnap%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-2&th=1
(brushing hands together). Whelp, that is my story and I am sticking to it!
Love, Cat in Seattle
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