I've been playing around on Pinterest this month. If you don't know about Pinterest, more power to you! We sure don't need any more life-sucking, time-consuming, life-rearranging places to visit on the web. That being said, I'm addicted. I've found more cool things on Pinterest in the past two months than I saw last year online! (Email me if you need an invite...)
There have been a lot of postings going around about homemade soaps and fabric softeners, so I figured I'd give them a shot. I hate paying for the stuff, and this is certainly cost effective, so I jumped in.
I made fabric softener on Friday. I used this recipe, because it's the first one I found, (AND, I had every ingredient already! SCORE!) I can't credit it to anyone, because there's no author on the post.
Fabric Softener
(Makes about a gallon )
1 cup baking soda
6 cups distilled white vinegar
8 cups water
10-12 drops essential oil (optional)
a plastic gallon jug with a lid (an empty vinegar jug works well)
1. Mix the baking soda and water in a large, deep mxing bowl or pot
2. Stir it until the baking soda is disolved
3. Slowly add the vinegar, one cup at a time. The mixture will fizz up, so stir it carefully until all the bubbles are gone before adding the next cup of vinegar.
4. Add the essential oil and stir.
5. Wait a few minutes for it to go "flat" before pouring the mixture into the empty jug. If you put it into the jug and cover it while it is still fizzy, the mixture will expand and may blow the lid off!
6. To use, shake the bottle and add 1 cup softener to the final rinse water.
I have a front loader HE machine, so I just fill the fabric softener cup. So far, I have no complaints. I used orange essential oil, I don't smell vinegar, the towels absorb water, the clothes don't have static, and everything seems as 'soft' as it did with fabric softener sheets in the dryer. One thing I have read is that this recipe will not cause the buildup on your dryer lint screen like synthetic fabric softeners. Here's hoping that's true!
Today I made Dishwasher Detergent. I had a recipe, but I veered. This is my tendency.
Here's what I ended up with, and I'm about to wash a load, so we shall see. No hate mail until I post follow-ups, 'kay? 'Kay.
Dishwasher Detergent
1 box Borax
1 box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda!)
1 container Lemishine rinse aid
1 container Fruit Fresh (I had it. Didn't have any citric acid straight)
3 c epsom salt
Use 1 T per load. This should last forever. The things I've read say that it will start clumping up in the storage container unless you leave it open for several days and stir it often. Not sure why that helps, but hey. Whatever.
I've also seen that you can/should add white vinegar to your liquid rinse aid dispenser, and if your glasses are cloudy, add no more than 3 drops of liquid dish detergent to the bottom of the dishwasher when you fill the detergent cup.
(There's about 251 loads in a batch. It costs about 6 cents/load. That's without bargain hunting the ingredients. I just bought them wherever I happened to find them.)
Laundry Detergent
Once again, I had a recipe for this, but again, I veered. Sorry.
1 shredded/grated bar of laundry soap. I used Zote, because that's what I could find.
3 c Borax
3 c Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
I put all of it in my Ninja to mix because it was taking too long by hand. This is also supposed to be 1T per load. If it's super dirty, use 2 T.
(This one runs about 4 cents per load. Again, I probably could have saved some money by shopping around, but I was in a hurry. This batch is about 192 regular loads.)
I'm about to try this, too. I'll be busy tonight with laundry and dishes, but as soon as I see some results, I'll let y'all know.
**** Dishwasher detergent works well...no film on the glass, and cleans as well as anything else I buy. I might add vinegar to the rinse just because I can. The laundry detergent cleaned fine and smells good. The fabric softener makes the clothes comfy, but I had some static in the fleece pjs I washed. But depending on the day, I get that with commercial fabric softener, too, so all in all, I call all three recipes "winners." :)****
There have been a lot of postings going around about homemade soaps and fabric softeners, so I figured I'd give them a shot. I hate paying for the stuff, and this is certainly cost effective, so I jumped in.
I made fabric softener on Friday. I used this recipe, because it's the first one I found, (AND, I had every ingredient already! SCORE!) I can't credit it to anyone, because there's no author on the post.
Fabric Softener
(Makes about a gallon )
1 cup baking soda
6 cups distilled white vinegar
8 cups water
10-12 drops essential oil (optional)
a plastic gallon jug with a lid (an empty vinegar jug works well)
1. Mix the baking soda and water in a large, deep mxing bowl or pot
2. Stir it until the baking soda is disolved
3. Slowly add the vinegar, one cup at a time. The mixture will fizz up, so stir it carefully until all the bubbles are gone before adding the next cup of vinegar.
4. Add the essential oil and stir.
5. Wait a few minutes for it to go "flat" before pouring the mixture into the empty jug. If you put it into the jug and cover it while it is still fizzy, the mixture will expand and may blow the lid off!
6. To use, shake the bottle and add 1 cup softener to the final rinse water.
I have a front loader HE machine, so I just fill the fabric softener cup. So far, I have no complaints. I used orange essential oil, I don't smell vinegar, the towels absorb water, the clothes don't have static, and everything seems as 'soft' as it did with fabric softener sheets in the dryer. One thing I have read is that this recipe will not cause the buildup on your dryer lint screen like synthetic fabric softeners. Here's hoping that's true!
Today I made Dishwasher Detergent. I had a recipe, but I veered. This is my tendency.
Here's what I ended up with, and I'm about to wash a load, so we shall see. No hate mail until I post follow-ups, 'kay? 'Kay.
Dishwasher Detergent
1 box Borax
1 box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda!)
1 container Lemishine rinse aid
1 container Fruit Fresh (I had it. Didn't have any citric acid straight)
3 c epsom salt
Use 1 T per load. This should last forever. The things I've read say that it will start clumping up in the storage container unless you leave it open for several days and stir it often. Not sure why that helps, but hey. Whatever.
I've also seen that you can/should add white vinegar to your liquid rinse aid dispenser, and if your glasses are cloudy, add no more than 3 drops of liquid dish detergent to the bottom of the dishwasher when you fill the detergent cup.
(There's about 251 loads in a batch. It costs about 6 cents/load. That's without bargain hunting the ingredients. I just bought them wherever I happened to find them.)
Laundry Detergent
Once again, I had a recipe for this, but again, I veered. Sorry.
1 shredded/grated bar of laundry soap. I used Zote, because that's what I could find.
3 c Borax
3 c Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
I put all of it in my Ninja to mix because it was taking too long by hand. This is also supposed to be 1T per load. If it's super dirty, use 2 T.
(This one runs about 4 cents per load. Again, I probably could have saved some money by shopping around, but I was in a hurry. This batch is about 192 regular loads.)
I'm about to try this, too. I'll be busy tonight with laundry and dishes, but as soon as I see some results, I'll let y'all know.
**** Dishwasher detergent works well...no film on the glass, and cleans as well as anything else I buy. I might add vinegar to the rinse just because I can. The laundry detergent cleaned fine and smells good. The fabric softener makes the clothes comfy, but I had some static in the fleece pjs I washed. But depending on the day, I get that with commercial fabric softener, too, so all in all, I call all three recipes "winners." :)****
Okay...the dishwasher detergent seems to be working great! No film, super clean dishes...I'll keep you apprised on the rest.
ReplyDeleteThat Lemishine stuff is amazing in and of itself! D just introduced me to it a week ago, and I ran it through to clean the hard water "gunk" from inside my dishwasher, and now use it in every load. No more water spots!
Delete