Some people dabble in oil painting and others in antiques ~~ lately I've been dabbling in making homemade cleaning products. Why bother doing this when there are so many wonderful products already on the market? Have you seen the price of laundry products and dishwasher soap lately?? The more money I save, the more I have to indulge my passion ~~ buying fabric. Did I even have to tell you!!
There are countless websites and blogs dedicated to recipes for making every manner of cleaning product imaginable. So, with an investment of under $20 I bought the ingredients to make countless gallons of laundry detergent, stain remover, fabric softener, glass cleaner and dishwasher soap. A few of the ingredients I even had on hand. I haven't used the Fels Naptha soap yet and I may just save it for stains like I have for several years.
My findings are that I like the liquid laundry detergent, although I have to use about 3/4 cup per load. This is not a real issue because a gallon of detergent costs pennies to make. With commercial products I used about 1/2 cup. My recipe is as follows: 1/4 cup Borateem (borax), 1/4 Washing Soda (not baking soda) and 2 Tablespoons Dawn dish soap (blue). Put ingredients into a gallon container and swirl in 4 cups boiling water, mixing well. When mixture has cooled to warm, fill container with water. We have a high efficiency washer and I feel this thinner liquid is better for my machine than something real thick.
The verdict is out on the fabric softener, which is made from hair conditioner, vinegar and water. In the bottle it smells a bit like salad dressing, but once used the clothes smell nice. I guess the trick is to find the conditioner with the right fragrance. I have used this product on two loads and find that it makes our clothes a little too soft. This may be simply a matter of tweaking the recipe and diluting it a bit.
These products took very little time to concoct, but I've seen recipes that call for grating soap and cooking the mixtures, leaving it overnight, etc., and that all sounds too time consuming and messy for me. I like to keep things simple.
The blue jar holds the liquid soap and the milk bottle is the fabric softener. It's fun to do the research on these recipes and experimenting a little with them. Who knows, you might really love them and save money in the process! Just do an internet search on homemade laundry products and be amazed at what you can find.
Until next time...Peace & Blessings!
Barb, I have been using home made cleaners etc for a number of years, Vinegar works great on windows, car windscreens etc, I also make a cleaner that I use on the tiles around the bath and shower to keep the grout white. I do not use fabric softner at all a half cup of vinegar in the rinse compartment kills off all the soap and leaves the clothes nice and soft.
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