This sheet detergent has improved my entire laundry experience.

Buying washing powder seems to me to be the worst part of going to the supermarket: expensive, heavy and uncomfortable to carry around, their packaging is always a problem, even when it comes to supposedly cheap refills. Once in the house, the material does not improve either, because it takes up a lot of space, dosing it is not always easy and spills are difficult to avoid. The paradox is that liquid detergent being a cleaning product, when it falls on the floor or between the cracks of the washing machine, its viscosity makes it very difficult to eliminate.

And we’re not going to talk about powder detergent: although less bulky than liquid, its fine particles still manage to get out of the box or bag to reach impossible corners, where they will form aromatic lumps that will only cause more dirt. Plus, you never know exactly how much to add – a cup? but a big cup or a small one? – until it’s too late, when the clothes come out dirty or covered with excess soap.

(The washing powder is so disgusting that we end up talking about it anyway.)

What is this bitter introduction about? Because I’ve finally found a format of laundry detergent that frees us from all those household miseries. No, it’s not the ones in capsules, which, although pleasant to use, are still too expensive: a pack of sixteen Ariel Pods, for example, costs around 8,000 pesos, and since at least two capsules are used for a load of clothes, the cost of washing would be close to a thousand pesos.

This is another type of detergent, even easier to use than capsules, cheaper and with less environmental impact: sheet detergent.

As if they were sheets of paper, this product created by Bulle, a Chilean company that also sells in the United States, does not spill or turn over, it does not need to be measured or dosed, and its ingredients, all natural, comply with the OECD standard to be completely biodegradable.

Its use is as simple as removing the petals of a flower or removing the sheets from a notebook whose content embarrasses us: all you have to do is open its thin recyclable cardboard packaging, take a sheet and place in the drum of the washing machine with the dirty clothes. DONE: Won’t melt in your hand or stain your fingers, this pure detergent sheet will quickly dissolve in water.

But the most important thing about a detergent is not how easy it is to use, but how well it washes. Finally, let the clothes be clean and smell good.

These results are obtained by the Bulle sheet detergent, even if for that I had to disobey its instructions. On the back of the package, the brand suggests using only half a sheet of product – which is pre-chopped – for each load of laundry. Only if it is an “extra large” washing machine – are you referring to a 16 kilogram machine? – that he recommends using a whole leaf.

I have to admit that one of my terrors at home is that clothes don’t come out very clean after washing. For this reason, I tend to overload the washing machine with detergent, which often has the opposite effect: clothes clogged or stained with excess detergent. This fear made me put an entire sheet of Bulle in my first test wash, a fear that later reversed: now I was afraid that the dose would be too high, that a rash of bubbles would occur and let the whole morning go to hell. .

But none of that happened: a sheet was more than good for washing that load of underwear and basic clothes, which required a healthy dose of detergent to remove dirt and renew the aroma, without leaving no trace of this surplus. The clothes came out clean, with a subtle, neutral and natural smell.

And the environment of the washing machine, which in my case is in a bathroom, also remains cleaner: instead of huge leaking drums or bags full of dust, there is only a thin box the size of a notebook that hardly takes up space and It does not generate any type of waste.

It’s not the cheapest method of washing clothes, but considering the comfort, space and time it saves, and that neither its contents nor its packaging contaminates, its value is more than practical.

Currently, a box of 20 laundry sheets—which the brand says is 40 loads, but in my experience is enough for 20 washes— it costs $10,690 at the Denda store . This means that each wash, according to my criteria of use, costs around 534 pesos, in any case much less than detergents in capsules.

The advantage of knowing the doses is that you can calculate quite accurately how much detergent you use per month, how much you have left, and therefore it is very easy to plan its use and purchase. Besides, in Bulle’s online store, they have a promotion : When you buy four boxes of 20 sheets, which would normally cost $51,960, they give you a 30% discount and it stays at $36,372, reducing the value of each wash to $450.

I don’t travel, but I imagine these sheets are perfect for a vacation where there’s never too much space. Even where there is no washing machine: they can also be used in a hand wash, by filling a tub or a bucket with water. Since they contain only natural ingredients, mainly coconut oil and extract of Sapindus mukurossi, soap tree—will not do much harm to the skin; and being biodegradable, dirty water can be disposed of almost anywhere.

Anyway: it’s not that washing clothes becomes anything exciting or fun with these detergent sheets, but at least it becomes a lot less dirty, uncomfortable and cumbersome. Which is not little.

*Prices for products in this item are updated as of July 2, 2023. Values ​​and availability are subject to change.