I admit it, I’m a laundry detergent snob. For the past decade I’ve been using 2 name brand laundry detergents because I like how well they clean and how nice our clothing smells after laundering them. The one thing that I didn’t like was the price.

Last month a friend of mine was telling me how she buys her laundry detergent from Dollar Tree and only pays $1.00 per bottle. Say what? Only a dollar? Yes indeed! She told me that this liquid laundry detergent works just as well as many of the name brand competitors out in the retail marketplace. She told me her family’s clothing comes out clean and smelling fresh with each load.

My friend challenged me to try the LA’s Totally Awesome 2-in-1 Laundry Detergent plus Fabric Softener from Dollar Tree. There are other varieties available like unscented, scented and with or without fabric softener. Each bottle will clean 32 loads of laundry.

I decided to take her up on that challenge and for the past 12 days I’ve been using that laundry detergent and admit…I love it!!! Does it smell as nice as brand G that I’ve used for years. I admit, no. But it does smell fresh and clean. Does it clean as well as brand T? Well, I believe it does!

What is really cool is that I haven’t had to add extra fabric softener or use dryer sheets at all. Our clothes are clean, smell nice and there has been no static cling at all. It has done a great job at cleaning my hubby’s work clothes, our regular household laundry and so forth. Absolutely no complaints from me. None!

I wish I had tried their laundry detergent a lot sooner. I typically pay $4.89 to $7.98 per bottle at the grocery store depending on which of the 2 name brands I buy and if they’re on sale or I have a coupon. Boy…was I wasting money over the years! Sigh.

For those of you who are looking to save money…I recommend that you give the LA’s Totally Awesome Laundry Detergent from Dollar Tree a try. Is it the best out in the retail marketplace? Of course not…but it’s right up there with the good ones!

Disclaimer: The writer is sharing her 100% unbiased opinion with the readers of the TwoClassyChics blog. No product or monetary compensation was received. The product mentioned was personally purchased by the writer.

Carrying hand sanitizer around has become common practice for those looking to keep their hands free of germs as much as possible. After all, these tiny bottles of alcohol-based gels are easy to carry around and pull out to use when soap and water isn’t available. But should you use hand sanitizer in your home?

Using Soap and Water

Firstly, the best way to stop spreading potentially harmful germs is to wash your hands the old-fashioned way: with soap and water. Generally, it’s just more effective than washing them with hand sanitizer

Ensuring that your hands remain clean can help to keep you and people you come into contact with from getting such. Many infectious diseases transmit from one person to another through indirect contact, like touching objects that were also touched by someone who carries germs or who is sick. When someone comes into contact with potentially harmful germs and then touches their nose, eyes, mouth, or a break in their skin, they can fall ill.

Soap and water is advised over hand sanitizer, as sanitizers aren’t strong enough to kill some potentially harmful bacteria like Clostridium difficile, although it can be removed by simply washing your hands with soap and water.

When it comes to effectively killing germs, the water’s temperature or the particular soap that you use isn’t that important. Of course, you need to wash your hands properly, so you should focus on how vigorously and how long you wash your hands for.

When to Use Hand Sanitizer

While you should always wash your hands when available, it isn’t realistic to go to the bathroom or to the kitchen every time you make contact with a surface in your home. So, at least during flu season, or in the event of a pandemic, it wouldn’t hurt to have a bottle of hand sanitizer available if you’re doing some work in the garage or garden and your hands are touching all sorts of surfaces.

If it isn’t possible to wash your hands using soap and water, you should use a hand sanitizer that’s at least 60% alcohol. The Centers for Control and Prevention and Disease (CDC) has recommended an alcoholic gel as a valid alternative. You should put a large amount of sanitizer on your palm and rub your hands vigorously, ensuring to coat all surfaces. Essentially, you should cover the entire surface of your hands and rub until they’re completely dry, which takes around 20 seconds.

You should essentially wash your hands with sanitizer the same way you would with soap and water, getting right in between your fingers, and opening your palm so that you can position your nails as you normally would. Finally, you should allow the sanitizer to air dry.

The production of hand sanitizer in the U.S. is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure that commercial sanitizers contain at least 60%.

It isn’t easy to measure the amount of alcohol in a homemade sanitizer, which explains why commercial sanitizers are recommended.

Making Your Own Hand Sanitizer

Commercially-made sanitizer, however, undergoes a quality control process in order to ensure that it includes effective alcohol content. However, while not as effective as commercially available sanitizer, making your own hand sanitizer is likely a better option over nothing at all.

This is one issue with homemade hand sanitizer: it’s difficult to know the precise alcohol content. There are recipes online to show you how to make homemade sanitizer. The problem is that they can be easily contaminated with an ingredient that shouldn’t be in there, or the wrong measurement, or an amount of alcohol insufficient to get rid of germs. If you do decide to make sanitizer at home, ensure that you are operating in a clean space, using clean tools, and that you wash your hands vigorously before you begin the process.

If you decide to go ahead and try making your own sanitizer, it may not be as plain sailing as you believe, however. The two key ingredients- aloe vera gel and rubbing alcohol- aren’t the easiest products to find. And once they’ve been mixed together, the result doesn’t feel, or even look, like the real deal.

Some hand sanitizer recipes doing the rounds on social media recommend using vodka, as opposed to rubbing alcohol, but vodka contains only around 40% alcohol, which is too low. And industrial grade 99% alcohol, which is used to clean electronics, isn’t meant for human use. So please don’t use it on your skin.