Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

How I spent my Saturday night.

After a matinee and dinner, Ledcat went to Target and I came home to assume critter care duties, et al. When she got home, we unloaded and I discovered that a large bottle of Tide retailed for $18!!!!!! Thank goodness I had a $2 coupon, but seriously?

So I get onto Facebook and start asking about laundry soap recommendations.

You would think is a boring household discussion. And yes it is true that my friends bantered about stain removal, what defines fragrance free and the never ending borax v baking soda debate. A college friend and I actually chatted for about an hour on this topic. Hmmm. Never would have imagined that 20 years ago.

But it also opened a whole series of interesting side threads that prove we aren’t sitting home letting our minds and souls go by playing games on Facebook. 

We talked about the politics of various retail outlets ( you know which one I mean) and how that factors into decisions about spending money and/or “cost” of an item.

We talked about the effectiveness of “green” products, the ease of access and the mitigating factors of how its packaged and distributed.

We talked about the marketing of laundry soap, the necessary ingredients and who defines what “clean” smells like – us or the marketing teams.

We talked about consumerism – how we all have too many clothes to wash and what we can do about it.

We talked about our culture – I’m too lazy to buy something I have to dilute with water. I should feel shame, but I really don’t. If it were necessary to buy (mostly for the pets), I would do it but the cost per load savings does not make up for the inconvenience.

We talked about warehouse shopping. Many experts now recommend we NOT buy in bulk b/c it contributes to excess waste of food and other products – we tend to buy more than we can consume.

It was an interesting discussion and actually pretty civil for so many political undertones.

Oh, how did it end?

The consensus seems to be that Tide really is the best detergent and most of the folks at least keep it on hand for tough loads. But some use eco-cleaners, some buy from the warehouse stores and others go with the least expensive.

I would tell you my personal plan, but that’s getting too mundane I suppose.