I love to have a clean home and because I work part-time I am fortunate enough to be able to use products that may be a little more cost effective and less time effective. I am also interested in using products that are suitable for a variety of purposes, such as baking soda (which can be used for cleaning some items) as I like to use minimal space in my cupboards (leaves more for stocking up on bargains!) and I like to use one product for a variety of uses as it means I have to carry less products home from the supermarket too. In general it is fair to say that I will use household products perhaps designed for other purposes in my quest for cleanliness and soda crystals were an item that were recommended to me by my Mum about 4 years ago. I have been using them ever since and it is normally this particular brand that I purchase.

I buy my soda crystals from Sainsburys and I pay around 90p for a 1kg packet. They have been around this price for as long as I can remember and the brand is 'Dri-Pak'. The packaging is easy for me to recognise because it is green and it stands out quite a lot in the laundry aisle of my local Sainsburys. Also there is a drawing on the front of this packaging of some of the household items that you can use it for (sink, washing machine and oven). Also the back of the packaging shows you lots of usage guidelines and you may just pick up some tips on other items you can use this for cleaning too. The packaging is incredibly informative, possibly more than other cleaning product I have ever used and this is a huge plus point for me, particularly the very first time I purchased these soda crystals.

To open my soda crystals I just cut a corner off the packet and then leave this stop up in my cupboard. I've never had any problems with moisture getting in to the packet or any of these crystals leaking out other than when I tip the bag but you could always transfer them to a pot or other container if you wanted to.

Within the packet the actual soda crystals are very fine and white. I have always found that some of the soda crystals clump together when I've not used them for a week or two or when they have been sat in my cupboard for any period of time. This isn't a problem at all as I just tend to pour this wherever I am using them rather than accurately measure them out by grams or any other unit of measure. There is no scent to these soda crystals and really it is like having a bag of salt or white sand in your cupboard. There is no mess from using these, as long as I am careful when pouring directly from the bag, and they are easy enough to vacuum up should a spillage occur. On the one occasion I accidentally dropped a large amount I just swept them up and put them down the plughole anyway, no point wasting them!

The main two reasons I use these soda crystals are for putting in the drawer of my washing machine when running a cycle and for pouring directly down the plughole. To pour them down the plughole I pour a load down, then I run boiling hot water (usually boiled from my kettle just to avoid any cold water going down while the water is warming up) down afterwards. I've not often had problems with blockages in my sink but when I've had disgusting smells coming out I've found that one or two goes with soda crystals has cleared it no problem and any potential blockage that might have been causing the smell too.

I mainly use soda crystals for dealing with stains on clothing and I have found them to be very effective. The packaging advises to use 1 tablespoon of soda crystals but I tend to put 3 or 4 in as I just measure this out by eye and go with what I think is a reasonable amount depending on the amount of dirt or stains that I want to be removed. Now these soda crystals work an absolute treat on the collars of shirts & blouses and they've even helped remove curry sauce (home made of course!) stains that just wouldn't come out with my normal washing tablets alone. I add soda crystals to almost every wash because it works as an anti-limescale and has kept my washing machine in good condition (so far...!). I have also used soda crystals to soak with water as a pre-soak and this has worked well also.

In all it is fair to say that I have been very pleased with the quality of these soda crystals. They have a wide variety of uses, many more than I have already mentioned, and they work fantastically in my washing machine. Our smart work clothes are looking good, free of dirt and marks around the colour and there hasn't been a stain yet that these soda crystals haven't been able to lift. On one or two occasions I've had to re-wash items or give them a pre-soak beforehand just to ensure that stains are removed but in all these soda crystals are absolutely fantastic, low in price and firmly recommended from me.