Waldo, Smol and other practical subscription services

That sort of thing goes in the same bracket as Smol to me. Unless it’s dramatically cheaper, I’ll just buy it with my weekly shop.

As with smol it’s more about the ethics behind the brand for me. Leaping bunny products matter to me and they are few and far between. Smol just barely works as a subscription for my use, though I would prefer to buy them with the rest of my groceries.

Pura is not something I see myself subscribing too, but I got the trial anyway to see what it’s like as their credentials trump my usual baby wipes. Again, I would prefer to be able to buy things like this in a super market or from Amazon.

Received my first shipment of the new Smol Fabric Conditioner today, haven’t tried it yet but smells lovely.

:eyes:

First I’ve heard of that. Must order some :+1:

I’ve just decided to trial SMOL so waiting for the pack to arrive.

I actually came to post about Home Things

It was a Kickstarter that I backed at the start of this year which shipped a fortnight ago and now they’re trading to all online.

Starter pack is 3 glass bottles with silicon sleeves and plastic triggers, along with 3 different formulations of tablet for each bottle, simply fill with warm water, pop in the tablet, wait 2 minutes to dissolve, screw the trigger on and off you go.

Leaping Bunny accredited, smells really nice and cleans good too.

Tablets can be bought as and when needed in the pack of 3 or slightly cheaper on a subscription basis.

Cuts down on all them plastic bottles etc etc

Edit yep the triggers are plastic but they’ve not been able to source anything else that’s just as good

We haven’t had much luck with these refillable home cleaning subscription products and end up just going back to method, almost every time.

One product we did like, which is the same concept as all of these subscription variants we’ve tried is Neat. It’s plastic free, utilises the same refill method as the subscription models, but ship less water. It’s also not a subscription, which I found works better for this kind of product, as it’s hard to predict with any degree of accuracy or consistency, how often I’d need to replace them.

Neat look interesting - really like refillables, so might give that a go.

The way theirs is done possibly could be improved - those glass bottles with little metal lids are not the most secure things in the world. Especially for something with a concentrated cleaning solution in.

One version I did like was Cif’s refillable system - the threading on the refil threads into the threading on the spray bottle - and the seal is only broken by the screw-on action - makes it almost impossible to get concentrated cleaner on you.

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Neat seems really expensive, I think it can only be a niche product until costs come down. A bottle and three refills is £24! With a refill £3 after that. Refills give you 500ml. A quick search tells me that 750ml of Dettol surface spray is £1.50 in Tesco at the moment. Saving plastic or not, the general public aren’t going to be signing up for Neat anytime soon.

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These kind of products usually are on the more expensive side. It tends to come with the territory of cleaner credentials. I don’t buy Dettol, but Method comes to around £3 a bottle too, though for 800ml. So the cost differentiator is minimal compared to those, and I’m only really paying a premium for the bottle, and being free from unnecessary excess plastic waste.

There is a premium to this product, sure, but the packaging materials, while being friendlier to the environment and almost completely plastic free, make products like these worth the additional cost to me.

The starter kit is £24 including three refills, so really you are paying £9 for some glass bottles, and then paying for expensive refills each time (plus delivery!).

I feel that is they cared about reducing plastic use, the cost of entry would be lower. The website keeps talking about no single use plastic, so why not use reusable plastic bottles? It feels like they have decided to use expensive glass bottles, but that just makes me feel like they are after profit rather than caring about single use plastics?

It’s possible to be for both. An aluminium bottle is far more durable than reusable plastic ones from my experience. It’s clear they’ve opted for a more premium approach with their branding and products; it’s okay to do that and be pro-active about sustainability, in my opinion.

I’ve never bought directly from Neat myself, so I don’t pay any delivery fees specifically for their product, so not something I factor in to the cost.

More budget friendlier options exist for those who want to reduce their use of single use plastics at a lower cost. Neat is for someone who may want a more premium feeling experience, with a higher quality, nicely designed bottle, and maybe ingredients thats clean a little better or smell a litter nicer than something like Splosh.

Trial pack of SMOL arrived today, ended up ripping it open caveman style as couldn’t figure out the child proofing 🤦

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My partner has no patience for the opening mechanism so much current dishwasher pack is more of a tube shape now. Not going to lie the packaging is my favourite part and now I am sad every time I put the dishwasher on.

I doubt you’re alone!

I personally like the new packaging, but there is a learning curve to it, and I’m the only one in my house that bothered to learn it. The others just rip into it.

Once you’ve figured it out, it becomes sort of second nature though. There’s a video to show you how here:

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I gave up, and just dump each packet of laundry capsules & dishwasher tablets into another receptacle now.

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I stumbled on to a video on Facebook they’d uploaded as so many people couldn’t figure it out :rofl:

I just stumbled on what appears to be a washing machine subscription service. :open_mouth:

Not entirely sure what to make of it. Sounds like something similar to HP’s instant ink if they were to throw in the printer for free.

£69 up front, then £6.90 per month, then a further 80p per wash. Almost feels like nickel and diming. It’s the 80p that puts me off completely.

More here:

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Oof, that’s one subscription too many for my liking.

Does that 80p include detergents? Couldn’t quite tell from the article. Unless it dries, folds and puts away my laundry, that seems like “less hassle” is a bit of a stretch.

I’ve been in my current place for 4 years… So doing the numbers

So £69 base.
£6.90 / month = £330.
Lets say 2 loads a week (conservative), at 80p = another £330 over that time.

So I’m paying £700+ for a machine that is valued at £500.

Edit: So it does include the detergent etc. Even so, I’m not spending close to 80p per wash on that currently!

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Detergent should not be costing £200 over 4 years at two loads a week either!

I would presume at the prices, it includes the cost of detergent and delivery. I suspect like HP, if you decide to cancel they will take your detergent hostage and render it unusable. Wonder if you’d have to return the machine too.

Can you imagine the error. Your printer washing machine won’t let you wash your regular wash because you’re out of cyan delicates detergent.

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