If you love the feeling of a soft clean towel, like a small cloud at the palm of your hands, then fabric softeners will be your best friend. It is considered a staple when you are doing self-service laundry or even when you avail of a wash, dry, fold service from your preferred laundromat. Fabric softeners, or fabric conditioners depending on where you’re from, are chemical concoctions that, when added to your laundry, coat the fabrics to make the fibers feel slipperier and stand more upright, making your clothes feel softer, fluffier, and reducing static cling.
They’re not essential per se, but they do make your clothes feel softer to the touch and can help prevent them from fading as well!
So, if I’ve convinced you enough for you to buy some yourself, here are some tips in choosing your self-service laundry fabric softeners.
Makes your Clothes Feel Softer
As with everything in the world, too much of something is bad. The softer your clothes and towels are, the less water they’ll absorb. As much as you want to have a cloud-like feeling with your towels, if you want your towels to do their jobs as intended, a bit of scratchiness is a small price to pay.
Doesn’t Irritate Skin
Fabric softeners are different from detergents as they do not “clean” your fabrics. Fabric softeners linger in your clothes even after washing regardless of whether you wash it at home, do self-service laundry, or avail of wash, dry & fold service from a laundry service provider. As such, they can contribute to eczema, rashes, and other skin or respiratory conditions. If you have sensitive skin, look for fabric softeners that are hypoallergenic or those that have low-irritation claims. However, you may need to experiment with several different softeners to find one that won’t irritate your skin.
Doesn’t Reduce Flammability.
Still being able to close your machine’s door does not mean it can handle that many items. Make sure that you are not going over the machine’s capacity. Your laundry should still be free to move. Overloading is an easier mistake to do with larger items like blankets and sheets. So stay aware of the space available in your machine.
Doesn’t Reduce Water Absorbency of Your Towels.
Fabric softeners tend to reduce moisture absorbency. So, if you’re not planning on waterproofing your towels, we suggest avoiding fabric softeners. But if you must insist on making your sandpaper-like towel a tad bit softer, you should look for a fabric softener that has a good water absorbency score and is ideal for your self-service laundry preferences.
Makes Your Clothes Smell Nice.
The fabric softener smelling “nice” can differ from a person. Since you’re the one using it, you’d have the choice of choosing what smell you’d want your clothes to have, be it lavender or rosemary. In addition to making your clothes fragrant over a long period of time, an excellent fabric softener also reduces fading, helps with the hated static cling, and makes clothes easier to iron. If you want to go on a nicely-scented basket of clothes and sheets after a self-service laundry, be sure to choose quality fabric softeners. Be sure to always check the label.
Self-service Laundry Cost-effective
Just because it’s expensive, it doesn’t necessarily mean it would be the best option. Look for a fabric softener that balances performance with a low cost per wash. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to be spending tens of hundreds of dollars on an item that doesn’t even perform as well as an item that only costs a dollar.
These are some things to consider when choosing your fabric softeners most importantly if you prefer self-service laundry. To reiterate, look for ones that make your clothes feel softer, wouldn’t irritate your skin, doesn’t reduce flammability, doesn’t reduce water absorbency, smell nice, and wouldn’t cost you a fortune. Just because something is more expensive doesn’t mean that it would always perform better than things that are more on the affordable side of things.
