this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 25 minutes ago* (last edited 23 minutes ago)

Fabric softener / dryer sheets make clothing feel disgustingly slimy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 56 minutes ago

I can't imagine baking baking soda in an oven is cheaper than just buying washing soda? They're both sold in similar size bags (1kg) for similar prices in my area (€9-€10). Seems like a waste of energy to buy the wrong type of carbonate.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago

This new generation can't do anything and spends money frivolously.... This generation is too stingy and resourceful.... Guys pick a damn lane.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 57 minutes ago (1 children)

If you have a problem with limestone in your water you can use the cheapest vinegar you can find and add it to the washing machine to make your clothes smoother.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 26 minutes ago

Vinegar is also great at getting smells out of stuff. It's excellent for animal smells. I use a little in each load of laundry because my fave hobby is doing stuff with horses and I also have a beagle with a natural hound stink. It gets out all the animal stank and a 2 gallon jug costs $3 at the local dollar store.

I also used the stuff to deep clean my carpets to help out a disabled cat I owned. He had trouble determining where the litter box was because he was blind and brain damaged and the person who was in my house before me didn't clean up after their cats. Most of the smell was gone, but just enough was there to confuse my boi.

10/10 recommend vinegar.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

How expensive do people think fabric softener is lol. I don't use it because I don't care for it, but not buying it because you're too poor sounds wild.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

As you know I am disgustingly wealthy being top 50 richest abigender as seen in shlorbes magazine but I am still going to use this recipe

This is how you save for the superyacht

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

This feels like info that should be in the new Anarchist Cookbook.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

This thread is so wild I swear. A bottle of softener costs 2 bucks and last you for so many washes (up to 100?). A bar of soap cost one buck, then you have to factor in the time to prepare the softener, the other ingredients and whatnot.

Where is the saving?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The saving is due to not using a useless softener - the point of this this thread

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (3 children)

Why? It smells good. If you can’t afford a 2 buck softener at lease every 3 months (assuming a wash once a week) I’d say you have got much bigger problems

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 hour ago

Sure, but the point is that fabric softener is not necessary.

At the very least in the case of towels (any type), it is actually counter productive, because it makes the towels less absorbent.

On top of that, it means clothes absorb less sweat, which, at first glance, seems like a good thing, until you realise it means your sweat will now stick to your skin longer, because it can't evaporate from your shirt.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 29 minutes ago

It's not the softener itself. It's the softener plus a dozen other little luxuries that all add up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 35 minutes ago

Oh it smells good? Idc, if I cared enough to perfume my clothes I'd do it at point of use.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 hours ago

im ok with buying a container of laundry detergent every few months

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 hours ago (3 children)

how much is a cup in non freedom units?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

Freedom units should be replaced with something like racist units or genocide units or orange units

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 minute ago

So the metric units? Those were used by racists and genocidal tyrants throughout history.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I tend to use moon landing units.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 28 minutes ago (1 children)

Didn't the Apollo missions use metric, though?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 minutes ago

It is my understanding that a mix of units was used. I do not know how much metric was used in the design of the engines or rockets, the construction was largely done in SAE units because that's what the aerospace industry was tooled up for. It is my understanding that calculations were done in metric but converted and displayed in nautical miles, feet, and feet per second for the crews who, being US aviators were accustomed to those units. The crawler transporter's fuel economy is measured in gallons per foot.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

soon enough it will be nazi units

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 hours ago

The freedom was always sarcastic

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

239.59 ml

Edit: switched out the original number for the correct number

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

Wow I had not even realised that this would actually be a well defined unit. I thought it was like "add a spoon of sugar" in recipes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It happened a lot in our nation's history that folks would have relatively simple kitchens not equipped with scales or even a set of measuring cups, so eating vessels and utensils would be used. A lot of staple American baked goods like biscuits are really more about feeling the consistency of the dough than sticking to a recipe anyway, so laboratory precision is not necessary.

At some point the cup got codified as half a pint, or 8 fluid ounces, or slightly under 0.125L. A tablespoon is 1/2 of a fluid ounce and thus 1/16th of a cup. A teaspoon is 1/3 of a tablespoon.

It works out that tea- and tablespoons are ~ 4.928 and 14.786 mL respectively. The medicine industry, which actually does everything in metric and has for decades now, often writes dosing instructions in metric tea- or tablespoons of 5mL and 15mL respectively. For example, my bottle of Listerine mouthwash says in its instructions "swish 10mL (2 teapoonfuls) between your teeth for 30 seconds..."

Believe it or not we also know how long an inch is, too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Yeah I get why it makes sense to have recipes with "add about a cup of X", but it surprises me that someone decided to make it an official unit of an exactly defined amount

[–] [email protected] 1 points 52 minutes ago (1 children)

It boggles your mind that the units people were actually using became standardized?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 minutes ago (1 children)

not all cups are the same so why would anyone say "this is now the exact amount of a cup"?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 54 seconds ago

The amount measured by a typical tea or coffee cup is approximately 1/2 US Pint, so when it comes time to codify it that's a reasonable place to put it.

Anything else you wish to artificially complicate?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Freedom units were imported from Britan.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 minutes ago (1 children)

And then bastardised.

Chad UK/Irish Imperial pint: 568ml

Virgin US Customary Unit pint: 473ml

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 minutes ago

American and British cups are also different.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

What's a dryer sheet, I'm nearly 40 and I've never heard of that

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

It's a sheet of chemicals that makes your clothes smell better.

Downside is it adds a sort of...coating to clothing which for some types of clothing, like wicking sports apparel, makes them less effective.

They're absolutely useless and when I learned that I stopped using them and there was literally no negative change in my post-laundry output.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

That makes me think of crockpot liners, which are apperently a thing

Like, you cook your food, in the plastic. The most pointless thing I've seen.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 minutes ago

Sous vide style slow cooking, vacuumized in a bag, had it's merits as you can't really do it any other way. This, however is a lazy way to avoid cleaning (like using plastic plates to avoid doing the dishes).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Mmmm that plastic bag taste. Just like mom used to make. Until she died of microplastic poisoning.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 minutes ago

We aren't there yet but soon. GenX I bet you'll see the first person die directly as a result of micro plastics. Boomers, I think cancer has got them for the most part and I'm confident we will solve that riddle in the next few decades

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

If your laundry tends to suffer from a lot of static when you remove it, it can help with that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

no negative change in my post-laundry output

What a beautiful phrase, I'm totally gonna nick the term post-laundry output

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