Posts
Homemade Laundry Cleaning Products
Saturday, March 20, 2010
In my quest to find practical realistic remedies that the average person would have time to attempt, I found some recipes for homemade laundry products that seemed simple enough for anyone to make and cheap and efficient as well. I plan to try these out over the next few weeks.
After searching for different product recipes, I discovered there are a few ingredients that are used over and over again in these cleaning products. Vinegar (the #1 ingredient and your new best friend), Baking soda (for refreshing and scrubbing), Ammonia, Washing Soda & Borox (frequently used in laundry).
Homemade Laundry Stain Removers
1 part dish soap
1 part water
Spray stain, let sit a minute, scrub under hot water & toss in washing machine.
1/2 Cup Baking soda
1/2 Cup Hydrogen Peroxide
Mix and shake in spray bottle. Spray stain & let sit overnight before laundering.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
I found this website with an excellent description of how to make your own laundry detergent.
Basically the indgredients are grated bar soap, Borax, and Washing soda.
This author says that the recipe makes a 64 load batch for only $.71! That's incredible savings!
*If you have very hard water like us, you may want to add baking soda (1/2 C), Oxyclean, or vinegar to your washing machine loads. If you experience issues with residues, try a vinegar rinse - vinegar in one of those Downy balls works great.
**Vinegar and bleach do NOT mix well. Chemical reactions between the two can be ugly.
Homemade Fabric Softener
2 Cup Vinegar
2 Cup Baking Soda
4 Cups Hot Water
Slowly mix water, vinegar, and baking soda. They tend to foam. Gently rock in a capped botttle and then release built up air. If you want scented softener, add about 20 drops of essential oils. Some clean smells would be cedarwood, lavendar, eucalyptus, or rose.
4 comments:
I am almost out of laundry detergent and I plan to make some of the homemade variety. The only problem I am having is find Fels-Neptha around here... I could just use ivory...
I think you will appreciate all her recent posts... "what you don't have to buy" http://lifeasithasbeengivenme.blogspot.com/
I love the toilet paper trick :)
I don't know you personally but your comment caught my attention. I have made my laundry detergent for a long time. I love the savings...9 kids go through ALOT of laundry! However, there are times I really need the laundry soap to have more KICK if you know what I mean. I noticed you mentioned something about vinegar, baking soda, or Oxyclean. We have well water as well so the hard water is really an issue here. How much of whichever one do you put in the original recipe? Thanks for posting....
If you're concerned that your water is VERY hard and want to "soften" it to allow the soap to work even better, just toss in a half cup to a cup of vinegar OR baking soda with each load. I started out doing that but have found since that I can skip this step. My water seems to be doing fine with just a scoop of the liquid home-made laundry detergent! (and no, the vinegar doesn't leave any smell behind)
I am extremely impressed along with your writing abilities, Thanks for this great share.
Post a Comment