I had already been using perfume- and dye-free products for a while, as I had switched the whole family to them after my first child was born. After using them for a few years, it’s pretty amazing how repulsive scented laundry products are to me now. So that was my first requirement of any laundry product—it had to leave the clothes smelling clean but not perfumey by the time they got out of the dryer.

What adds a complication to my routine (and one you don’t necessarily have to replicate) is that my youngest uses cloth diapers now. So not only do I have to watch out about what I wash his diapers with, I also have to watch what goes in the washer between diaper loads because fabric softeners leave a film in the washer that lasts beyond that one wash that they are used in.

So this is the perfected routine and product list:

Country Save Detergent Before cloth diapers, I used All Clear (powder or liquid), but using that on baby diapers would break them down faster and my son’s diaper area seemed a bit red when I used it. All is not considered a HE-safe or residue-free detergent as well. After hearing about all the problems with Charlie’s Soap, I was given a recommendation for Country Save. It works so well that I will be using it on all of my loads, diapers and otherwise, when my current big box of All runs out. The box is not that large, but a small amount goes a long way! It only takes 1 oz to get most loads clean.

biokleen Oxygen Bleach Plus It works great on stains or those superpooper diapers, and it’s safe for colors. It also goes a long way — you only need a spoonful to use it as a laundry booster.

Mountain Green All Natural Fabric Softener Free & Clear Using my old standby, Downy Free, on my loads between diapers wasn’t working — it was clogging up my diapers. The Mountain Green is a lighter formula that doesn’t have the residue problem, but can still be used in the Downy ball. The bottle it comes in is pretty small though, so I cut it with …

Distilled White Vinegar Yes, cheap, gallon-sized, plain white generic vinegar. It makes my towels fluffier than any fabric softener and can be used on occasion to take the static out of cloth diapers without preventing them from absorbing. I use it to cut the fabric softener in the Downy ball (2 parts vinegar to 1 part fabric softener) to cut down on potential fabric softener residue and to decrease my laundry costs. (The small bottle of fabric softener costs 3-4x what the large gallon of vinegar costs.)