My husband and I bought our front loading washer and dryer in November of 2007 – a whopping five years ago. When I was a faithful coupon shopper, I bought detergent bottles where the top is screwed back on after use. Those are the detergent bottles that hold anywhere from 32-64 loads.

However, I haven’t coupon shopped since I had our fourth baby {oh the shame!}. And since my laundry life is a little on the high-maintenance side, I buy laundry detergent in the bulk-size containers exclusively now.

Since I’ve started using the bulk dispenser, my detergent cup consistently looks like this:

Awful, isn’t it?

Imagine my sheer delight when I removed the cup from a brand new detergent bottle and just happened to look at the bottom. The cup states very clearly: Toss in wash or rinse and let dry.

Say what? My little detergent cup has looked disgusting on my beautifully organized washer top for the past two years?!

Just throw the detergent cup in with the load of clothes.

That’s laundry life changing information right there!

A Word of Caution About Your Laundry Detergent Cup

If you’re like me and this is brand new information, let me give you a word of caution: don’t throw the cup in with the wash every single time. Only throw it in every 3-4 loads.

Front loading washers spin at extremely high speeds. After washing my detergent cup repeatedly, it did warp and look like it wouldn’t make it to the end of the laundry bottle. So be cautious in just haphazardly throwing it in the wash every single load.

Which Detergent Has These Washable Cups?

While doing a monthly shopping trip at BJ’s this past weekend, I looked at all of the detergents in the laundry aisle. All of the major brands – Tide, Arm & Hammer, All, Gain, Era – seem to have a cup that can be washed in the machine.

The brand name bulk fabric softeners – Downy, Gain, Snuggle – also contained this washable wonder cup.

So did you know? Did you know those little cups can be thrown in the washing machine with the dirty clothes?