If Only They Knew

Teria

I mostly use one of the eco laundry balls, they're supposed to cost about 3p a wash, and I add some ecover laundry bleach for whites, and a few drops of lavender oil in the softener drawer. The lavender makes the machine smell lovely
When my partner comes home at weekends, he uses normal washing powder, either the asda or Sainsburys value brand, on a hot wash (60), and I've started using the washing machine desacaler from Tescos too.
We have terrible hard water. We moved home from Dublin a few years ago, where the water was lovely and soft - by the time we'd been back 3 weeks, both the iron and the kettle were awfully scaly, and I have to descale both quite regularly.

Oh, and here's a tip for ironing in a HW area - if you don't use expensive ironing water- put a couple of cheap tea strainers (29p - Wilkos), boil the kettle, and strain the water into a jug and leave to cool. You'll actually be able to see the flaky bits in the strainers - at least you can around here