More vintage detergents for daddy!

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gansky1

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Stopped at an estate sale today and found a whole box full of unopened vintage detergents. I was thrilled with the Drive as I've never found any before...

We used that Purex from time to time, but I don't remember Punch it will be a fun one to try in a vintage machine. All but the Purex have phosphates, 8.7%. The Tidy House Spring Rain water softener is "formulated for the Midwest hard water" (made in Omaha) and is almost all phosphates.

The bar of Ivory soap has a mail-in offer for a free sample of Evening in Paris, I remember my grandmother had a bunch of tiny bottles of it - perhaps this was how she got them!
 
Any vintage Tide yet? I know you have a 70s box but it's empty :-( . I'd love to use vintage Tide with vintage Downy in that 63 Kenmore 70. The sights, sounds, smells of my childhood.
 
Vintage Oxydol

Peter,

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves the smell of vintage Oxydol. I remember it from the early 80's, and really wish they'd bring it back. I need to scour some estate sales myself and see if I can find some. That and some Final Touch Fabric softener. I have some great memories of those!

Tex
 
before liquid detergent

i remember the first time I bought detergent when I was like 13. I walked to the store in winter and bought a small box of Tide. And the box was like the size of a small box of Grape-nuts cereal. It had a different smell back then too, didn't it. But there was all these different size boxes of detergent and they all resembled cereal boxes, in shape. None of this plastic handle, easy open with convenient scoop stuff.

And remember when fabric softener didn't have the "no drip" caps, that was a mess if you didn't rinse the top. Although, even now it doesn't always stay in the top. I think Downy had a different smell back then as well. Maybe more mellow, more floral, but with less "bite". Am I wrong here?
 
Tidy House

God, I'd forgotten all Tidy House! My mom used to buy Tidy House products. They had some sort of soap powder you could use for floors as well, but I can't think of the name right now.

Talk about a walk down memory lane - right up there with Butternut Coffee, Mrs. Lynch's Dressings, and Skinner Spaghetti (some other Omaha brands)
 
Great finds

Out of all the things you would think most disposible would be laundry chemicals and their containers.
But you've found these. I have seen in the pix others with detergent boxes but never really thought about how rare that would be as a find. Yet they are as valuable as the machines themselves.
 
Congrats Greg on the great finds!!! And all this time I was wondering why vintage Fab "sudsed up" so much when I tried it in the Hotpoint at the Convention!
 
Jasonl - I did have a huge box of vintage Tide downstairs and I intended for people to use a lot of that stuff, but the box never got opened. I've been playing with some of the wonderful Euro detergents that Mike and Louis brought over, awesome scents and NO SUDS - which aren't needed anyway! (except for the special occaision bubble cake)

Dan - Tidy House brands - I find lots of their stuff around here, one of their early detergent brands was FAST - I found an open box of that once and lists Frigidaire as a front loader. I haven't found a lot of Tide, Dash or Cheer (love the blue) so I keep hoping those will pop up. Next time you're home visiting family, we'll do some washing with Tidy House products and have some toast made with Rotella's or Orsi's bread! BTW, have you heard the 'old' Caniglia's restaraunt on 7th & Pierce street is closing? Sad day that will be...
 
Do you measure?

On the subject of detergents, I'm curious: How many of you measure the proper amount and how many simply eyeball it? As a kid I remember my aunt using "Snap-Top" Tide (it had what looked like a little plastic washer lid that sealed to keep the stuff from solidifying) with a Pyrex measuring cup. Mom on the other hand, on the rare occasions she used powder (Instant Fels or McCrory's "Kleen" brand) would just open the washer, open the box, and shake. I personally measure with a plastic cup I once found abandoned in a coin-op laundry room.
 
Do you measure?

Funny thing about measuring. My mom used to just pour tide around the agitator until it "looked like enough" Suds cake in a belt-drive KM, certainly not a good thing. Come to think of it, that's what probably killed off that machine. LOL.
 
No more Downtown Caniglia's?

Greg, say it ain't so! Peony Park, Indian Hills, and now THE Caniglias? What's next - King Fong's is becoming a Burger King? I am seriously bummed! (although I still haven't forgiven the Caniglia family for closing the "Top of the World")

Oh Fab (sob)
I'm glad (sob)
there's lemon scented Borax in you!

(Now Where's that bottle of Amaretto? I'm gonna go drown my sorrows ;-)
 
I always measure the proper amount of detergent before I add it regardless of whether it's powder or liquid; same with Borax and non-chlorine bleach too. Although honestly I'm not worried about using too much, it's not using enough that bothers me!
 
Nebraska hard water

I can understand the need for water softnening stuff, I went to college out in Seward NE, about 70 miles west of you Greg, and the water out there was hard as nails. I bought my 1998 Amana LWA40 washer from Lichti's out in York, and used calgon in it faithfully...
 
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