TL,DR: powder laundry detergent is better than the liquid one.
When it comes to choosing laundry detergent, I used to default to liquid detergent because powder would often clump together. However, I recently learned that liquid detergent has a bigger environmental impact - it contains microplastic particles that are hard to remove in wastewater treatment plants, and it's also less efficient at cleaning. Plus, liquid detergent usually comes in plastic bottles, whereas powder detergent is often packaged in plastic film or even cardboard.
So, I switched back to powder detergent. To avoid clumping issues in my humid laundry room, I found a simple solution: I use an old fork to break up the powder before use. It's a small effort, and I'm happy to be reducing my pollution footprint a bit. Video source (in German, maybe this weekend I'll look for better sources and add an infografic): https://youtu.be/HgIe4oxe2eI
You can make your own powdered detergent with some borax, washing soda, and a bar of fels naphtha soap.
But I still prefer the sheets of detergent I get because they pack really small and are as easy to use as those gel pods.
Also very recently switched to sheets from another Lemmy comment last week.
Only done one round of laundry this past weekend, but seems as effective as the pods I was using before.
I just switched to sheets recently as well, while moving away from American products to Canadian. I've only done one load, too, but it seems to work fine.
I used to do borax, washing soda, and zote. I went back to liquid detergent because it seemed like all of my clothes were kind of dingy. The reason I seem to remember is something about enzymes.
Enzymes help but a lot of detergents also have a UV dye that makes clothes look whiter.
This is really handy for Halloween decorations because you can make your bathroom look like a murder scene with a blacklight