Tide Laundry Detergent

I've never been obsessed with name brands, but I am not a purchaser of the generic brand either.  I will always choose Oreo over Hydrox, but I've never been picky about my laundry soap.  I've always been of the opinion that all laundry soaps are created equal.  

Until recently, we used the Wal-Mart Xtra soap.  I'm not sure if leaving the "e" off of the word is why it was cheaper or not, but we used that soap for years.  My proclivity for cheap laundry soap is probably based off of my experiences growing up.  We didn't buy Tide because it was ridiculously expensive, and the cheap stuff got our clothes clean.  

The last time I went shopping for laundry soap, I spent ten minutes in the aisle, googling different brands, trying to see if one was really better than the other.  I'm not sure what brought this on, but I ended up buying a small bottle of a more expensive laundry soap to try.  I wanted to see if it was really better.  The next day, while buying groceries at Sam's Club, I discovered some Tide that had been reduced in price.  Of course, I had to buy that too.  Now, I'm a Tide girl.

So, the only real question is whether or not Tide actually gets clothes any cleaner.  As Mark and I lead a pretty sedentary life-style, our clothes are not terribly nasty to start with.  If the soap can get out deodorant and everyday Holly and Mark smell, it's doing its job.  I honestly can't say Tide gets our clothes any cleaner.  They look the same, which is to say not dirty in the first place.  The cheap soap didn't leave behind any lingering odors either.

Some detergents claim to use less product than others to clean your clothes.  Having not actually measured them out and compared, I'm just going on the perception of which lasted longer.  More time passed before running out of Tide than the Xtra brand would allowed.  Of course, that could be based on my own perception.  Perhaps knowing that Xtra was the cheap brand led me to over-soap my loads of clothing.  Perhaps knowing Tide was expensive led me to believe I needed less.  Either way, I cannot base my decision on this particular belief.

So why am I going to be buying Tide from now on?  It's simple; it smells nice.  When I wash the bedding, it smells fresh longer.  The Xtra brand didn't leave any scent on the clothes to indicate they had been washed.  I can tell when I've washed something in Tide.  It's not overpowering, but it's there.  If you don't like scents in your laundry, I'm sure they have some that is unscented, but if you don't like the scent, I don't see a reason to spend extra money for Tide.

I don't know that Tide cleans any better, but my brain tells me my clothes washed in Tide are cleaner.*  For now, I'm going to be purchasing Tide.  At least I'll be getting it at Sam's Club, where it is a better deal.

*It's possible that I'm in the Matrix.  I don't know if I should believe my brain.