charlies-soap

Repeat.

And how is your day?

Whoa, I need to slow down, or I’ll have used up all my Good Times for the week in one morning.

I ordered more laundry soap from Charlies Soap.  Yeah, cuz I’m exciting, I also ordered a gallon of all purpose cleaner (I have plenty of squirt bottles).  Woot!  And yes, this stuff works, or I wouldn’t order it or blog about it.  Ahem.

My son awoke last night having nightmares about girlfriends that turn out to be bloodsuckers.  (I’m not making this up).  He’s only eight, so what does he know?  (don’t answer that).  I think it has more to do with playing several hours of Ratchet and Clank over the course of the weekend than anything else.

In my weekend wrapup, I forgot to say that we went swimming yesterday afternoon.  Or if I did mention it I didn’t give it enough attention.  It was absolutely, hands down, wonderful.  The baby was busy exploring the parts of the pool she could stand in, my wife managed to swim a few laps (both with and without an escort by my son), my boys played with other kids for the longest time in some kind of complicated nerf-ball game.  And it was just.. nice.  No fighting, no crying (except when they blew the whistle to say the pool was closing, my daughter started crying.  She did not want to leave, but we promised that we’d be back very soon).

Back to monday - guess what’s next on the agenda?  Go ahead, guess.

That’s right, suckas - I’m going to the Post Office!  If my life rocked any more, I’d need to be medicated.

Update: 35 minutes in line to mail one stinkin’ letter.  If it wasn’t going to Canada, I could have used the machine in the lobby (twelve seconds, including swiping my credit card).  A true exercise in inefficiency.  Too bad we have such an investment in the USPS that we can’t just let it go and be replaced by a newer, better run business.  Like a lemonade stand run by three year olds.

When the good folks at Charlie’s Soap say it’ll take care of poop? Believe them.

(vomit, too)

Charlie and Tide
Originally uploaded by silly old bear.

Okay, here tis, and to save some of my more casual readers (the one’s looking for Emma Watson’s phone number, among other things) I’ve put lots of notes with the Flickr pictures.

Here’s the deal: I was put in touch with the good folks at Charlie’s Soap. They offered to send me a sample if I would give them some feedback (they didn’t know I was going to write a blog post or whateva). So I guess this is my disclaimer: I didn’t actually pay for the laundry soap I used.

But I will be super clear: I’m ordering more of this stuff. I love it.

You can read at their web site about all the great properties of their soap (they drew me in with the news that it cleans poop. This is always an issue at our place). I’ll just tell you what I think.

Laundry soap is awesome. 1st, you don’t use much (you aren’t just washing a ton down the drain). Second, the clothes really do get cleaner than they get with Tide (I haven’t used anything but Tide in nearly 20 years so I can’t compare to other soaps, sorry). Cost is actually a little less; the big jug of Tide is $17.00 here locally and does nearly 100 loads; the little bag of Charlie’s Soap is $12.00 and does 80 loads. That’s right, you don’t need much of this stuff.

(I’m thinking about when we go on vacation, with three kids under eight there is always laundry to do, even on a short trip, it’s easier to pack a few teaspoons of powder than take a bottle of liquid, for me at least)

Charlie makes a liquid version, too, but I haven’t tried that. But the powder dissolves completely, I haven’t found any on our clothes, after nearly 30 loads of all types of laundry - bedding, clothes, underwear, towels, stuffed animals.

The first load or two, the towels seems a touch ’scratchy.’ Still very usable, but it wasn’t a good sign. I added a rinse cycle (our washer has a cycle to help with fabric softener, I guess) and everything was great. Towels, shirts, and underwear, especially, are cleaner and softer then they have been before. My work pants (think dockers, but cheaper) are super soft. Grass stains, spagettio’s, milk - it all comes out.

Short version - I like the stuff, and I’ll be buying more. In another entry I’ll talk about the liquid soap they also sent me (you can see it in one of the pictures) but I have to get off the computer for now, so it’ll have to wait.

If you’ve tried this soap and like it or not, lemme know. If you have any questions, well, that’s why I’m here.

This ends today’s laundroblogging.

I know. I KNOW.

First, I promised a review of “Charlie’s Soap.” I started on it, I did. But I was so busy USING the darn stuff (laundry and household cleaner) that I didn’t actually sit down to finish the review.

THEN, I promised you pictures. Not just any pictures, but pictures custom made to order. And lots of you asked for them. And I posted a few (see, not a total slacker) and promised the rest and then — nada.

But I have an excuse!

*shuffles feet*

Not really. I’ll blame this on the depression. yeah, why the hell not. I couldn’t be motivated to finish anything I started this weekend. We did manage to get groceries (mostly because my wife insisted, something about feeding ourselves) and I did manage to take out the trash this morning and all that. But the rest? Not done.

Sorry.