House Management – The UnderToad

Confessions, House Management, Parenting

Pumpkin Bread

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Morning-Time Sanity Savers

Kids are back in school full swing, pumpkin spice coffee and donuts have officially been released (and given away free), and Saturday we watched Duke eek out a win against Baylor. A little more than my Baylor Line jersey reminding me of 1999, and it was fan-tastic, you guys.

I also (finally) got my Fall garden in, a little late, and again, with fingers crossed that something actually grows. North Carolina is notorious for one amazing September week of crisp Fall weather, followed by one or two weeks of hurricane season rains, and then, blammo, it’s winter.

But this year is looking up.

And I am looking inward.

At the scary dark places of my house that are hiding hoards of stuff that just needs to go.

I’m in clean-out mode like I haven’t felt since pregnancy, and it has me itching to up my efficiency game.

Remember my magic muffins post from 2015?

2015 was the season for hearty muffins. This gave way to the hearty pancake season of 2016.

And now? I’m in breakfast bread mode.

[clickToTweet tweet=”I’m gravitating away from high-prep tedious clean up to high efficiency, high yield food. ” quote=”I swear I don’t plan these things, but I’m gravitating away from high-prep, tedious clean up to high-efficiency, high-yield food. ” theme=”style6″]

You know I’m a ~~slacker~~ ~~sucker~~ advocate for sleeping-in, so much so, that last year my girls ate breakfast and lunch at school every day, and many days of the week I didn’t even see them off to the school bus.

Hashtag parent hacks, hashtag winning.

Well, after much complaint from one kid about cafeteria lunches and the other kid about cafeteria breakfasts, I concluded that I could (and should) probably be able to handle the task of feeding all four of my children. Daily. Three times a day. Plus snacks.

You know. Because I am a stay at home mom after all.

Listen. It’s really hard. It’s really hard to keep food in the mouths of what often feels like four baby birds, forever with mouths open, cheeping for more food. It was hard all summer and guess what? It’s still hard.

So I’m forever on a quest to make it easier. (I’m forever on quests, period, but especially quests of life ease.)

Stick with me here.

easy pumpkin bread — The easiest yummiest breakfast or snack yet.

Breakfast breads. Pumpkin bread. Banana bread. Dreams of zucchini-straight-from-my-garden that has become zucchini-from-the-grocery-store-because-I-grew-exactly-one-zucchini-total-this-year bread.

I know what you are thinking. Doesn’t that have a lot of sugar and fat? I thought you didn’t eat anything you wanted even though you can, you skinny….

No but seriously, you know I tweaked it to make this stuff healthy. Healthy-er. Healthy-ish.

Basically, this is an all-in-one meal that will perk me up in the morning, not give me a headache, and keep me and my kids full until our ten o’clock mandatory-no-matter-what-we-had-for-breakfast morning snack. It is a little sweat, a little nutty, and a lot hearty. And if it isn’t sweet enough, no shame in smearing it with some butter and honey, or sprinkling a little extra cinnamon sugar on top. I won’t tell.

My kids love it so much, I feed it to them again when they get off the school bus, with a Cutie, outside, and make them compost the peels.

You should know by now that when it comes to cooking, I rarely use recipes. Also, I kind of fabricate measurements, so, in the recipe below, hold me to exactly nothing if yours doesn’t turn out. Generally speaking, when it comes to measurements, I eyeball everything, which is why I had to hold my tongue in Eliott’s 5th grade classroom while her teacher gave a lesson about “things that cannot be estimated” last Monday.

It turns out she is not lying when she says she does not bake.

Anyway, I said I was upping my efficiency game, and I wasn’t lying. I decided to go ahead and make several loaves at once, and I’ve documented the process for your enjoyment. You will notice that instead of one big bowl, I actually went ahead and used four different bowls.

The thing about doubling or tripling recipes is that it is even harder to figure out how much of everything should go in, when I don’t even measure in the first place. So though it goes slightly against efficiency mode, this time I went ahead and just made 4 separate batches. I do have a plethora of loaf pans, however, and so all of them were baked simultaneously. Also, I ended up with some leftover batter, with which I made pancakes.

Waste not, want not.

Ingredients

2c. flour
2c. oatmeal
½c. sugar (white or brown or both)
¼c. ground flax seeds
¼c. wheat germ
1t. baking powder
1t. baking soda
½t. cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and/or allspice
2c. milk
2 eggs
¾c. pumpkin, banana, or zucchini purée
1t. vanilla extract

Optional add-ins: any chopped nuts, pumpkin seeds, raisins, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, fresh apple chunks, poppy seeds, chia seeds.

Optional subs: any non-dairy milk substitute; any gluten-free flour alternatives; any other squash family (or similar) purée.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°

1. Mix dry ingredients.

Mix dry ingredients first. — Like my bowls? They’re 60% off on Amazon right now!

2. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Blending zucchini and milk. — I blend zucchini with milk in the Ninja first.

3. Stir until well blended but don’t over stir.

pumpkin bread batter — Pumpkin bread on left; zucchini bread on right.

4. Fill prepared loaf pans.

how to prep loaf pans — Prepped pans with parchment paper and well-greased sides makes for easy removal and cleanup.

5. Bake until knife comes out clean (about 55 min for large loaf pans, 45 min for small).

baking pumpkin bread — Let the smell of fresh baked bread fill your entire kitchen.

The UnderToad’s Kitchen Efficiency Tips

Get out all ingredients first and put each away after adding it. This keeps me on track for what I’ve used, you know, since I go sans recipe.
Prep loaf pans with a piece of parchment paper on the bottom, and well greased sides only (I used coconut oil but any kind of oil, lard, or butter works.
Allow bread to almost completely cool before removing from pan. Just slide a knife around all four sides and the bread should pop right out, with a nice parchment paper base easy for sliding in and out of the gallon ziplock I used to freeze extras.

pots and pans cleanup — Did I say easy cleanup? Just kidding.

No but seriously.

Enjoy. Enjoy that extra 10 minutes of sleep tomorrow morning. Enjoy that minute your kids burst through the front door and declare they are starving this afternoon. Enjoy that cup of coffee tomorrow at 10am, when you realize you haven’t had anything to eat yet.

Maybe your kids don’t need pumpkin bread. But you need pumpkin bread.

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House Management, Parenting

Summer Survival: 5 Ideas to Save Your Time and Sanity

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.

We’ve just wrapped up the first month of summer vacation and a lot is going on around here.

Like every summer, I realized within the first week that I could easily spend the majority of my day planning, prepping, executing, and cleaning up meals and snacks. (What is with the child-brain connection between boredom and hunger, huh?)

My summer survival basically revolves around four imperatives: keeping kids fed, entertained, and active enough to be tired at night, and keeping my house functionally tidy. If you are a mother of even two children you know that the food situation during the summer is easily the stupidest and most surprising struggle of them all. Like, I could be in the kitchen all day long and still hear, “Mommy we’re hungry,” at least six times a day if I don’t wrangle this beast to the ground, quick. Can I get an amen?

I very quickly decided that if I could minimize the amount of time I spend on the first two, above, I could actually maximize all four. You can tell from how often I’m posting just how well I’m doing on the mom-freedom part. But I’m not complaining, actually. The days are long, the crock pot is plugged in more often than not, and we truly are getting the most of this season of free Vitamin D.

And for the first time all year, I’ve felt pretty good.

Get excited.

I’m about to share with you some pretty genius things I’ve done over the last few weeks that have infinitely improved my daily life with four children who are home from school.

And so, in no particular order, I give you an organic list of ideas that can be applied immediately (or with minimal prep) and adapted to various ages. I’m sure many of these were in some way originally stolen from Pinterest or an education class at Baylor. Whatever. Here’s what’s working in my house. You’re welcome.

1. Schedule Chart w/ Chores and Treat

I picked up this hanging schedule chart from the Carson Dellosa Warehouse Sale for about $5 last May, and the first day I brought it out to use it was a game-changer. No more asking what we are doing or what we are having for lunch, dinner, etc. This was huge.

It wasn’t until a couple of days later that I added the Chores/Treat section to the bottom of the chart. A friend randomly mentioned that when she started putting “Ice Cream for Dessert” on her calendar, once a week, her child stopped asking every single day when was the next time they’d get to have ice cream.

It worked the same on my kids.

So, for summer, we do dessert every single night, which is a little different from the rest of the year. It is both a behavioral incentive and something to look forward to. I make them do all the chores of the day before dinner (usually right before) which includes picking up the house. If they get them done early, they get to watch TV. We are currently electronic-free with our kids, and they get only very limited TV. Putting it at the end of the day ensures that I get a break when I am the most ready for it.

This little chart alone has vastly improved imperatives 1 and 4. It also has helped me to relax for most of the day (about the messes all over the house) because I know by dinner time, things will be back in place and settled down.

2. Sticker Charts

Activity Sticker Chart Made on Microsoft Word

If I had known that this was all Avery needed as incentive to use the potty, I might have tried it last Christmas. The funny thing is, I didn’t even promise a prize for filling the thing up (to any of the kids). I just posted them on various walls in the house and started rewarding them with stickers.

Amazing how well it has kept all four on track to accomplishing one thing or another. (For Avery, it even worked when we traveled to my parents’ house in TN and she was afraid to use a foreign toilet.)

I created those JUNE sticker charts for Eliott and Carter kind of loosely. I wasn’t really sure how much was going to be possible, and I kept the expectations pretty low. The best part was that I basically allowed them to choose their own adventure. For the most part, everything on the chart (with the exception of cooking) was something educational and independent. They actually have really stuck with keeping up and making plans to accomplish things. This was no surprise for Eliott, who is motivated by check-lists and goal-setting. But it has been a very pleasant surprise with Carter, who could not care less about all things school. She’s been getting up the earliest all summer and reading chapter books without prompting.

3. Paper Plate Assembly Line Meals

Say what you will for the environment, I reduce, reuse, and recycle better than most. Also I compost. But sometimes I have to revert to Mama-Survival-Mode, and there’s really nothing better than having at least one meal a day where dishes are the least of my worries.

Another meal tip: produce is cheap right now, so my fridge is stocked with containers of ready-to-eat everything, including pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, berries, grapes, cucumbers, green peppers, and baby carrots. I am not a “snack-drawer” mom who lets my kids eat all day from a pre-arranged area of mostly healthy foods. That is totally cool if you are, I simply am not. But I have adapted this exact idea by keeping easy snack foods handy, and simply controlling when and where my kids get to eat them.

4. Quiet Time with Melty-Beads and Audio Books

I hope you played with Perler Beads as a kid. These things are the best in so many ways. Even my preschooler can be entertained by them for an hour at the minimum, but usually longer. I invested in a pretty good starter set from Amazon, years ago, and we’ve added to it slowly as I find smaller sets, usually on clearance. When Avery goes down for a nap, this is a favorite activity. I put them all at the kitchen table and then pop an audio book into the CD player. We’re currently listening to The Chronicles of Narnia.

5. New Chores

This kid cannot wait to use the lawnmower.

Call me crazy, but anytime I make a significant schedule or life-change, I really prefer to do it in the summer time. Summer offers the most forgiveness for kids (and Mom) adjusting to something new. I know you aren’t surprised to hear that more often than not, I’m pretty resistant to change. I hated the dropping of the nap for my first 3 kids. I was naturally reluctant to push bedtime back for my big girls. And I’m never really sure when is the right time to introduce new responsibilities.

It turns out, I haven’t discovered a wrong time to do it.

If there is one thing that cannot be denied in my house, it is that all four of my children cannot wait to be grown-ups.

Though it is a bit sloppy, both my 8 and 10 year olds have been folding laundry for at least a year, a task Carter surprised me with (at 7) one day when she snuck upstairs and did it all without prompting. Isaiah has been taught how to unload anything in the dishwasher he can reach to put away. And yes, this means the silverware drawer isn’t pretty, but the forks are with the forks and the spoons are with the spoons, and I didn’t have to do it.

That’s why, this summer, I’ve decided that any job that needs to be done, I’m going to see if a kid can do it. One of these new responsibilities was allowing my 10 year old to cook. Last winter (when she was still 9) I taught her what I would consider a very important kitchen survival skill: browning ground beef. As a result, she can now fully prepare chili and tacos, and almost fully prepare spaghetti and other pasta dishes.

People. This is huge.

As the days grew increasingly hotter, I sort of let the grass get a little out of control, until one day I had just had enough. At 4:30pm, I went outside with Isaiah and told Eliott she was in charge of keeping Avery inside, and making dinner.

And you know that because I wasn’t in there hovering, she actually managed both, pretty wonderfully.

I had allowed her to brown the meat and prep black beans for tacos at lunch time (under my lazy hands-off supervision), which were staying warm in the crock-pot. She got an entire dinner on the table and nobody complained.

The independence and pride alone made it worth it for Eliott. I’m not sure how long this time will last, but I figure if we keep going with a pretty lax attitude toward the perfection of things, eventually our kids will get better at these life skills. Crossing my fingers they also continue to actually enjoy doing them.

So that’s it for now. Please keep in mind that every day isn’t a picture perfect as I paint it on social media, but on the whole, it becomes increasingly easier to enjoy my kids as they get older. I hope you can use and adapt some of these ideas with your kids.

If you have any ideas to add, or would like a template of the big kid sticker chart above, leave me a comment below and I’ll email you the document.

Confessions, House Management

Hello, Stranger

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.

Today is the first day of March, the first day of Lent, and the first day in 6 months that I’ve felt the inclination to publish a blog post. Something in the weather, the clean calendar, the early release day, and several rooms of my house turned upside down, have me in a contemplative mood.

I’ve been busy.

First, the Blog

A few weeks ago I decided to switch from a WordPress dot com site to a self-hosted WordPress dot org site. I took a computer science course in college which was predominantly focused on using the basic functions and programs of a Mac, a machine that I loathed at the time. This is particularly dumb because that was right about the time most public schools did away with Apples and introduced PC’s, and even dumber because now I’m a full blooded Mac convert and nothing I learned in college is still applicable to what I’m doing today. What I didn’t learn in college was anything about web-design, HTML, blogging, CSS, or social media.

The process of teaching myself these things has been as arduous as it has been rewarding. Anyone who has ever done it (especially without prior knowledge) knows exactly why people pay someone else big bucks to design and manage their personal or company websites. Who has time for this?
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What you are seeing is a work in progress, but I feel like it is finally at a point that I’m no longer hiding the lose ends and wet paint. I have a lot of ideas. Organizing and then translating them into Internet language just isn’t happening overnight. That said, I’m fully in favor of crowd sourcing when it comes to creativity, so if anyone has advice, questions, complaints, criticism, or thoughts, I’m truly all ears.

Kid Life

Meanwhile, life with four kids keeps chugging along, at a faster pace than ever. As our last child is likely nearing the time when the afternoon nap will be a thing of the past, John and I have opened up several extra curricular doors we previously had adamantly left locked, without guilt. The big girls are playing piano and soccer. Eliott is in the Elementary Battle of the Books club (EBOB for short) at school and will compete with her team in just a few weeks for some honorary title of nerdom to which John and I can only attach ourselves distantly by association.

Three out of four kids joined the choir at church, which is a little less like the singing practice on Sunday nights I remember it as, and a little more like forget you have a life outside of the Baptist church cause baby, we got shit to do and people to bless. I don’t actually say this to complain. It has been nothing short of fantastic. Carter got to sing the National Anthem at a Wake Forest basketball game. She and Eliott have both had trips to sing at nursing homes and they both have parts in the Spring musical.

Isaiah will also play organized soccer for the first time this Spring, and though the preschool church choir is only a Sunday night one-hour commitment, he loves it. It is difficult to express the level of adorable this boy has reached in his unabashed enjoyment of all things musical.

Couple all of this with four children and an equal number of birthday parties, school parties, field-trips, family visits, and summer plans. (Oh, and public school homework. The insanity. Shoot me now.)

Lent, Spring Cleaning, Longer Days, and Lists

I love school. I do. I love the stay-at-home-mom life now that all four of the kids are in school for at least part of the week. But I long for summer and its lack of schedule, longer days, warmer weather, minimal wardrobe (and lack of laundry that comes with it), and fresher produce.

Today I found myself in list-making mode, and because it is the first day of Lent, I started with a 40 Day theme. There’s no telling whether I will actually tackle any (let alone all) of the ideas I put down on paper today, but sometimes a little mental decluttering is all I need to feel like I can wake up more purposeful tomorrow.

If you are in a similar boat and need some inspiration:

List 1: 40 Days of Organization

The idea here is to make a list of 40 places in your house that need to be organized. Ideally these would be less-than-an-hour to tackle jobs (and let’s be real, coming up with 40 was actually pretty difficult until I broke a few into smaller parts). My list isn’t perfect, and some would realistically take me a weekend, while others I could group and finish 3-4 in one day. Again, starting place.

Confession: I actually tailored this after a goal I made a few years ago called the 52 Weeks of Organization challenge. (As the name implies, make a list of 52 things to organize and tackle one a week.) I’m not sure I did 52 tasks that year, but I did do a couple of tasks so well that they have remained organized. I should post pictures. I did re-list these areas to remind myself to check them and make adjustments if necessary, but I know for a fact a few areas are as close to perfect as they can be.

List 2: 40 House Projects

This list is really for John and me both. Like all homeowners, there is always a number of things that need to be done (fixed, updated, decorated, painted, repainted, hung, rehung). These are all non-emergencies, and many are 10 minute tasks. Several, however, require a lot of time in the planning stages, which is often why they get relegated to the back of our priorities on the weekends. This list was easy to write because most of it is already jotted down and shared with John on Quip.com.

Quick note: if you are not using Quip, go to the app store and look it up right this minute. This is how John and I share grocery lists, this list (known by some as the honey-do list), and talking points for future conversations that might involve specifics. Eliott comes by her nerdom as about as honestly as she does her awesome hair and long eyelashes. Also, Quip did not pay me to say this. I did get a free t-shirt, but I’m endorsing this app all on my own because it is exactly that good.

For me, this list also included some arts and craps things that serve no other purpose but to kill an afternoon at my sewing machine. This is one of those self-love secrets I don’t necessarily show off.

So that’s pretty much it for me right now. Hoping the time between this post and the next is shorter. Also, if you are so inclined to take on a 40 day focus in celebration of Lent or something else, please tell me what you are doing in the comments below.

House Management

Help, My Towels Smell Bad!

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.

A few weeks ago I was chatting with my neighbor at the bus stop about our laundry habits. She has one child. I have four. She runs at least one load of laundry a day for her three-person family. When I told her I do 5-6 loads per week for my six-person family, she admitted, “I have to wash my towels every couple of days or they start to smell musty.”

That’s when I gave her my secret.

Why Do My Towels Smell?

First of all, that musty smell that makes towels reek like feet, even when they’ve been recently washed, is mildew. Have you ever left a wet load of laundry in the washer over night, and had to re-wash the entire thing the next day because of the smell? Same thing. You might not be able to see it, but it is there.

Many people add vinegar to the rinse cycle to combat this problem. And vinegar does help. (It also acts as a natural fabric softener.) But what most people do not know is that mildew is alive and it eats soap. In fact, it thrives in warm, moist, soapy environments. This is why you see it growing on your shower walls in splatters. The mildew grows wherever a soap residue has been left behind.

If your towels suffer from that musty smell within a day or two of washing, you might be surprised to hear that it is the washing that is causing the problem. Your towels are coming out of the laundry with a lot of detergent residue left in them and putting them back into the machine is only adding more. Sure, they smell fresh when they are dry, but the minute they get a little bit wet again, the stink is back.

In my experience, front load washers and stemless machines are the worst for leaving detergent residue behind. They simply do not agitate the laundry enough to get the detergent out. And let’s face it, most of us are probably using far too much detergent in the first place. Combine this unseen detergent residue with moisture and warmth, and you have a perfect recipe for mildew to thrive.

It will become a never ending cycle.

How to Get Rid of Mildew in Laundry

Don’t throw your towels away and start over. There is a way to get them clean, fresh, and soft again, if you can believe it.

First, ditch the liquid fabric softener forever. Liquid fabric softener is like leave in conditioner for your laundry. It makes laundry soft and fresh after the first couple washes, but then it builds up making laundry more susceptible to stains and stink.

Second, you have to get all the detergent out of your laundry.

What?! Wash my towels without any detergent?! How will they get clean?

The following is a product that does just this. And it works!

Super Wash Balls Review

Super wash balls are environmentally-friendly laundry balls. They were originally made by “Bio Cera” and sold only on QVC at a slightly higher price than they are now available for on Amazon.

You simply put them in the washing machine, add dirty laundry, and run the cycle. NO NEED TO ADD DETERGENT.

A few notes:

These laundry balls work by changing the PH of the water. This is all I know and I don’t even understand it.
They are made out of bioceramics, which is a common material used in prosthetics and surgical implants. I think this means they are pretty dang safe, in addition to long lasting. You do not have to worry about the balls “exploding” in your machine and leaking out the little pieces inside. Not a single review on Amazon has talked about this ever happening.
For the first couple washes you will notice your laundry suds up as if you had added laundry detergent. This is the leftover residue that has been building up in your clothes or towels. My towels went through two full wash cycles before the suds stopped showing up. In a front load washer, it could take up to five washes.
The instructions recommend using the balls with warm water, but I always run all cycles cold and have noticed they still work.
These are good for 1,000 washes. Once you reach this number you can put the balls in direct sunlight for half a day and they will be good for another 1,000 washes. If you use them all the time, you might just put them in the sunshine twice a year.
The sheets on my daughters’ beds are white. The Super Wash Balls did not even touch some light blood stains on one sheet, which have now faded but still show up. Also, after wearing red flannel Christmas PJ’s the sheets of my sweatier daughter turned a bit pink. I never treated this stain and it never fully came out, it is significantly faded however, after about a year. (Again, no detergent on these sheets has been used ever.)

Do They Work?

I have been using these Super Wash Balls exclusively for my loads of sheets and towels for about two years. I am speaking only from personal experience here to say, yes, undoubtedly, this product has rid my towels of that musty smell. In fact, my towels not only smell fresh but they have maintained much of their original softness.

Currently, I wash all my sheets and towels every two weeks. I have not used detergent on them in over two years. After washing them with the Super Wash Balls, I dry sheets and towels on medium heat and add a fragrance-free dryer sheet to prevent static.

The Super Wash Ball has saved me money on laundry detergent, but more than that, it has saved me money because I am not doing a load of laundry a day. I am not replacing my towels every year. And I’m saving tons of time by not doing so much laundry.

What Will My Laundry Smell Like?

If you were to use the Super Wash Balls and absolutely nothing else, your laundry would smell fresh and clean, but essentially scentless. No, you will not have that fresh laundered aroma that you have become used to from your Snuggle fabric softener.

If you are looking for some scent, I highly recommend using scented dryer sheets. The residue left behind from these is significantly lower than residue from liquid laundry detergent and liquid fabric softener. You will be able to feel the difference. Your laundry will no longer have that somewhat slippery, soapy feel when it comes out of the dryer.

If you hang dry your clothes, then you know how sheets smell after an afternoon of basking in fresh sunlight. While it isn’t quite as fresh as that actual fresh-air smell, my laundry comes out of the dryer smelling similarly clean. I do hang dry many of my clothes, and these Super Wash Balls have significantly reduced the usual amount of stiffness associated with hang-dried laundry.

How Do Super Wash Balls Work on Clothing?

Because several have asked, I’m including a note about how these Super Wash Balls work on things other than sheets and towels.

First, it is important to note that I am moderately-high maintenance when it comes to MY laundry. I am slightly-lower maintenance when it comes to my children’s laundry. And I’m virtually no-maintenance when it comes to my husband’s laundry. (He does his own.)

Of course I separate lights and darks. I use bleach for whites very sparingly, if ever. I hang-dry about half of my own clothes so that things do not fade or shrink. I turn lots of things inside-out to prevent wear. Delicates get their own separate extra-gentle wash and my bras go in delicates bags so they don’t all hook on each other and twist.

So, keeping all these things in mind, I have a few thoughts on using the Super Wash Balls for regular laundry. I still use detergent for about 4 out of every 5 loads of clothes. For my own laundry, I tend to use whatever I can find on sale. For the last year that has been Arm and Hammer with OxiClean and All Free and Clear. I also pour about a quarter of a cup of vinegar in the slot where liquid fabric softener goes on every load. I use homemade wool dryer balls in my dryer and a dryer sheet.

Forgive me, this is very disjointed, and listed in no particular order, but here are my thoughts on Super Wash Balls when used for clothing:

They do not remove stains very well, if at all. Grass stains and food stains, particularly, as this is what I deal with most often. I will always and only use OxiClean powder for my children’s clothes.
When used in a load of my whites I’ve noticed mild ring around the collar (sweat and dirt, some make-up), dirty cuffs, and even armpit discoloration comes out just fine, maybe even better than laundry detergent alone (without pre-treatment). Super old white undershirts with permanent yellow pits or my husband’s ring around the collar? Well, let’s just say these things aren’t that magical.
They did completely remove the red clay mud out of my husband’s yard-work khakis when I threw the pants in on top of a load of towels without pre-treating them. The mud was dry but had set for less than a day. This same mud has stained at least one out of every three pairs of pants or skirts of each one of my kids, so go figure.
The balls are too big and too heavy for me to trust with my delicates. I’m simply not sacrificing any $50 bras to the nubs, plus, they are pretty heavy. Woolite and extra-extra-gentle cycle it will be for my undies, forever.
Regular old unstained but possibly stinky adult laundry: Super Wash Balls totally work. In fact, much like the towels, clothing seems to come out a little softer and smells fresher even if hang-dried, which many of my shirts require.
Once I let a load of my children’s clothes soak over night with OxiClean in the water. I didn’t realize until I moved them to the dryer that I had left the Super Wash Balls in the machine. It was decidedly the cleanest I’ve seen my kids’ clothes in a long time.
I’ve read where some combine the laundry balls WITH detergent to get clothes extra clean. This would obviously null and void the idea of perfect mildew removal, but if your clothes are not musty like your towels it seems like the combo is fine.
From time to time, wet laundry gets forgotten in the washing machine overnight. It used to be that the entire load needed to be rewashed, as the mildew smell was immediate and impossible to ignore. If I forget a wet load of towels over night, I don’t even think twice before I throw them immediately into the dryer. And I can say that I haven’t noticed my clothes stinking of mildew, even after a wet night, in a very long time

My husband has recently begun using the Super Wash Balls along with about a quarter of the detergent he used to use and claims his laundry is coming out just as clean.

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Bottom line: these laundry balls could conceivably replace all laundry detergent in your house if you have mostly unstained clothing that isn’t too delicate. I’d be curious to know how well they do for clothing that comes home from a day of work at Starbucks or IHOP. If anyone can leave notes in the comments about that kind of smell removal, it would be awesome.