You may recall my post-Blogher post, in which I mentioned that P&G handed out no swag, but instead promised to mail a box to your house. Said box arrived last week, full of full-sized products to try. Lots of the things in the box were products that I've no interest in trying (washing machine cleaner) or just don't need (tampons and pads) or don't ever use (mascara).
Happily, though, the box came the day before our local fire department was doing a supplies drive for people upstate affected by Hurricane Irene. So I repacked about half of the things and delivered Tampax tampons, Always pads, Olay facial cloths, two Cover Girl mascaras, Ivory body wash, two kinds of Febreze, the aforementioned Tide washing machine cleaner, Downy Unstopables, and some Pantene Curly "damage repair ampoules" down to the collection point at the farmer's market.
So, P&G, thank you for helping me to help some other people. Someone whose basement had two feet of water in it is likely to appreciate the Febreze. And someone whose whole house washed away may well be in need of the pick-me-up provided by a new mascara.
<rant>Okay, okay. I have to poke it with a stick. Downy Unstopables? 1) They spelled it wrong; it should be "unstoppable". 2) Why? Why would you want to dump little pellets in the wash, to add fragrance to your laundry, fragrance that according to the promo language on the Downy website is supposed "to keep active wear, towels, and other fabrics smelling “wow” right up until the next wash." Huh? It's such a persistent odor embedded in your clothing that it lasts through the wash, through the dryer cycle, into the closet, and the whole while you're wearing that shirt? What the hell is in it? Why would I want to do that to my clothes and my nose? To be fair, I'm probably the wrong person for it - I never use air fresheners because I'd rather smell a fart for the few minutes before it dissipates than have possibly dangerous artificial chemicals wafting through my house, I use unscented deodorant, and the laundry detergent I use is so lightly scented that there's no odor left if I run the load through the dryer. But still. Downy presumably saw a need. Why?</rant>
9 comments:
What a great use for swag!
And ditto to scented stuff.
Some people believe everything should be scented? I'm with you, though. I use mostly unscented stuff.
One scent each for shampoo, lotion, soap, deodorant, laundry detergent = confused, before we even get to household stuff.
Next thing you know there will be an app for harmonizing your artificially-acquired scents...
Or maybe that's what perfume is for? To cover up all the rest?
Unscented here, as often as possible.
I brought all my unneeded scented stuff to the "free table" at work and it quickly disappeared. I opened the soap just to check the scent and was totally overpowered by it. My backpack is still recovering from transporting it from home to work.
I actually used the unspellable Unstopables in a load with my daughter's sneakers in them (as well as soaking them with Clorox2 to try to kill the stinky bacteria - the hydrogen peroxide works wonders there), but they still came out slightly stinky. Ha! Stumped them.
Washing machine cleaner? Surely using the washing machine as, well,, a washing machine keeps it pretty clean?
I once stuck a box of Bounce 'Free' in a grocery store manager's face saying "does this smell unscented do you? DOES IT?" I'm with you (but I'm not allowed in that store any more).
Yay for the doing good with swag!
I thought those downy things seemed bizarre when I saw the commercial. Although, living in an area with hard water, I will say that my dishwasher actually does need "cleaning" to get rid of mineral deposits, although I just use white vinegar. Done the same in my washer once when the soap dispenser was getting gunked up.
Hey, do you use that vaska's spot remover? does it really work? we have allergies and I'm stumped for a good spot remover that doesn't have heavy fragrances.
Scented laundry products give me a rash. I can't imagine why you would put odor in your clothing just to have odor.
I actually use the Downy stuff. My husband does physical work in the heat and his clothes never seem to get totally fresh - even after washing in hot or using vinegar or baking soda, so I love it. I also use it on stuff my son takes camping (and inevitably shoves back in his bag damp) and the dog bedding. One scent is really strong but the other is more subtle.
Love that you sent it along to people who really could use it! And LOL re the rant. :)
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