Charlie's Soap Laundry Powder Review 2023 | Eco-friendly Laundry Detergent
We tried Charlie's Soap Laundry powder for two weeks: here is our review.
The Top Line:
BUY. Charlie’s Soap Laundry Powder was an accidental find at our grocery store. We liked that you can clean a load of laundry with 1 tablespoon: less shopping, less refilling, less waste in landfills, less space in your home. Given its eco-friendly ingredients, reduced-plastic packaging, and cost per year, we think this laundry powder is a BUY.
Updated to include Made in the USA. On 18 June 2023: updated prices for cost comparison.
The Breakdown:
Cost & Products: $13.99 for 50 loads; $19.99 for 100; and $54.99 for 300 on Amazon. The 50-load bag is SO tiny... it’s just over 1lb!
How ‘Clean’ Is This? Pretty clean - no perfumes or dyes and biodegradable ingredients.
Packaging: It comes in a plastic bag - yea, we know. But (1) it’s a thin plastic bag, instead of a big plastic bottle meant for liquid and (2) it’s super concentrated, so less than 1 tablespoon per load.
Purchasing & Shipping: We got ours at a grocery store, but they are available on Amazon
Good to Know: You can get a larger 100 or 300 load and it will take up less space than your normal detergent. The 50 load is quite a small bag.
What’s Your Impact? No big plastic bottle, no plastic tub. The container is still plastic, yes, but 1) much thinner, 2) you can do many more loads of laundry per package, and 3) the product is made in the USA: less shipping waste!
The Good:
✔ Scent-free
✔ One tablespoon packs a pretty mean punch: one large load of laundry
✔ You can tailor the size of bag you want - 50/100/300 load bags
✔ No dyes, biodegradable and non-toxic.
✔ Super small bag for the 50 load option
✔ WAY better than the plastic bottles and tubs (maybe not better than the cardboard options)
✔ The 50-load is good on price, the 100 is better, and the 300 is the best
✔ Charlie’s Soap is made in the USA
The Bad:
✗ It comes in a plastic bag, but it is still a lot less than most detergent packaging
✗ The extra small bag of 50 is on pricey side
The Experience
Context: In the past, we have used Seventh Generation powder, Tide powder and liquid (yea, we know), and Method laundry detergents. For stains, we are still using OxiClean’s stain remover. Here is our experience with Charlie’s Soap Laundry Powder:
You put the detergent right in the drum, not in the dispenser
Clothes came out… clean !
No scent, which we love. ❤️
Gentle enough for our unmentionables.
The little bag is so small — we find it adorable.
The Cost
We assumed that a family of 4 will generate 7 loads of laundry a week, or 364 loads a year. We compared Charlie’s Soap Laundry Powder with brands like Clean People, Dropps, Earth Breeze, Sheets Laundry Club, as well as drugstore brands like Gain Powder and Tide Powder detergents.
Money Report: As long as you go with at least the 100 load option, you are getting green clean on the cheap. Not really wanting to go back to Tide and other chemical cleaners, as we we did these cost calculations, for the extra dollars per year, we realized we are definitely switching to Charlie’s Soap Laundry Powder.
Our Recommendation:
BUY. Charlie’s Soap Laundry Powder was an accidental find at our grocery store. We liked that you can clean a load of laundry with 1 tablespoon: less shopping, less refilling, less waste in landfills, less space in your home. Given its eco-friendly ingredients, reduced-plastic packaging, and cost per year, we think this laundry powder is a BUY.
We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!
