"Clean smelling". You may benefit from pre-soaking - which is under-utilized in this day and age - and especially great for heavily-soiled or stained laundry when using the more "natural" detergents. (See the link below for how to pre-soak laundry.)

As a huge Charlie's Soap fan, did you pretreat stains before washing? In my books, that's necessary with any brand of laundry detergent. A shot of Charlie's Soap All-Purpose Liquid Cleaner and a quick rub is about all that is needed to pretreat.

If you have hard water, you may also benefit from Charlie's Laundry Booster & Hard Water Treatment. It often requires more soap and the hottest water possible for the fabric type being laundered, to clean thoroughly in hard water. Add to that over-loading the washing machine tub and heavily-soiled laundry, hard water could contribute to your laundry problems.

If you are using cold water for washing, and if your water is below 65-degrees F, it's too cold for cleaning fabrics.

Detergent manufacturers and care labels define cold water as 80-85-degrees F. Some washing machines actually mix hot/cold water to achieve a certain temperature even when the setting is on "cold". Detergent will not activate and clean effectively in really cold water.

Is the "not as clean smelling" issue from your detergent or your machine, as another possibility.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: How to pre-soak laundry.

Thanks for your input.
I have a front loader but always use the hottest water I can.
There are just the two of us now so loads are usually fairly small.
I always use the second rinse option.
Clothes are rarely heavily soiled but Charlie's just did not remove the smallest of issues. I tried it for nearly a year and just couldn't make it work.
I don't pretreat if I can avoid it. If I know something may need it I set it aside to do so.

Do you have a HE washer? Your post describes
a problem my daughter had. She finally learned
that a rubber gasket on the washer door gets
grungy and can cause laundry to smell funny;
plus a repairman told her that a drain hole
near the front of the machine can get
gunky and needs to be kept clear. My daughter
say the drain is easily accessible. She always
leaves the washer door ajar for air to
circulate. Taking care of those 2 issues
solved the problem. I'm also a huge Charlies
fan but it's true that it doesn't remove bad
stains...I prefer non-chemical products but
admit to using Resolve pre wash when
needed.

A clerk in Lowes told me to pull up on the gasket and wash under it with a wet soapy rag to remove the gunk or leave the door open so it can dry. I do the same thing with the disposal.

I do have a front-load HE machine.
I really wanted to love Charlies but it just wasn't cutting it for me.
Nellie's, seems to be working great so far but time is the real tell-all.

All washing soda is natural. Unless there is something genuinely unique added to this, why would you pay more? (And did you know you can make your own washing soda from baking soda?)