Home life; Wash it all about?; What happened to the days when you

Capsules

COST PER WASH: 27p-29p

The most modern way to tackle your laundry - making it "quick and hassle- free".

Just when you thought we'd run out of barmy ideas...

PROS AND CONS

Pros If you feel obliged to make some kind of fashion statement while doing your laundry, these new inventions are this season's must- have product. And pretty enough to display in a glass jar on your window ledge (different colours must surely be around the corner). They promise the speed and handiness of tablets, but with cute green squidgy blobbiness (just a technical term) that makes grainy powder look archaic.

Cons First, there's the niggling fear that one day the glutinous shell might not fully dissolve as intended - instead becoming attached to some part of your wash load you'd rather it didn't, like a gluey toffee clinging stubbornly to a back molar. Second, there's that underlying worry that maybe, you've just fallen for the makers' latest marketing gimmick.

AND THE VERDICT IS...

The high-tech offspring of liquid. Fine, provided value for money isn't the key issue when laundering your smalls.

Powders

COST PER WASH: 10p-15p

The solid, traditional approach, for a quality of wash you can rely on.

Frankly, we're a bit bored with this stuff now.

PROS AND CONS

Pros The cheapest option offering the widest range - with handwash and high-suds choices, the latter being ideal if you're using a museum-piece machine with attached mangle. And if you're prepared to travel you can buy certain brands in bulk even cheaper across the Channel.

Cons First of all, there's the problem of opening the darned cartons - a process often involving a small saw on bigger boxes. If anyone's ever got those perforations to work, your surname is probably Schwarzenegger. It's easy to underdo or overdo the amounts. And powders also have a depressing habit of building up inside the dispensing drawer, then depositing a cloying clump of grey, bleach- heavy gunk on the front of your favourite black T-shirt.

AND THE VERDICT IS...

If you're heading down the powder route, you're getting a fairly economical deal. But the range of choices can be the most scary.

Tablets

COST PER WASH: 24p-27p

Tablets are all about convenience. No measuring, no mess. The ideal choice for a busy lifestyle.

The ideal gimmick for anyone so clueless that they'd otherwise use a whole box of powder and send the machine into a foam-frenzy.

PROS AND CONS

Pros Intended to be idiot-proof, although the makers don't exactly phrase it like that. Selling points are speed and convenience - with no need to fumble around trying to measure the right quantity. Tablets also hog less cupboard space than clumping great boxes of powder. Variety-wise, the range still includes non-biological alternatives (if you're a sensitive-skinned soul) or the colour-kind stuff.

Cons: Those little net dispensers burrow into the furthest reaches of your pillow case. Either that or they sneakily stow away inside a trouser leg, then drop out during sensitive social situations. They're impossible to break in half if you want just a bit more oomph in your wash. Yet conversely, if you drop one it shatters into a thousand pieces across your kitchen floor.

AND THE VERDICT IS...

Tablets are certainly handier than pouring powder, especially for the ham-fisted among us. But you can pay more than 50 per cent more.

Liquids

COST PER WASH: 13p-16p

Liquids are great because they dissolve easily - and you can treat stains directly with them.

These are for the sort of people who should wear a bib when they eat.

PROS AND CONS

Pros Liquid-users are a stubborn bunch, insisting that the product is gentler on their clothes. It certainly dissolves more rapidly than typical powders, and often tends to deliver a more favourable whiff. Perhaps most fun of all, though, is the fact that you can use a dab of the stuff to treat the bits where you dribbled fetchingly down your T-shirt, directly before starting the full wash.

Cons Again, there's the risk you'll measure the wrong quantity - although it's less likely if you use one of those dispensing balls. The trouble with these, though, is that they can get lost inside your king-size duvet cover, forcing you to clamber inside on a hazardous rescue mission. Once a novelty, liquids now just seem a bit dull compared with recent gimmicks.

AND THE VERDICT IS...

Perhaps the best approach to laundry if you want to go slightly modern without feeling you're being hooked by new-fangled nonsense.

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