DIY Laundry Detergent and fabric softener review

 In an attempt to save some more money (and Meijer has stopped carrying my detergent of choice) I purchased the ingredients for DIY laundry detergent. I'd had several friends who swore by it, so I jumped on the band wagon! 


After researching several different recipes, I landed on the following one mainly because there was very little labor involved and it didn't need to be boiled like some other recipes.

DIY LAUNDRY DETERGENT:

1 1/2 bars Ivory soap, grated

1 c. washing soda

1 c. Borax

*Mix together and store!

*Use 1 T. for light loads, 2 T. for heavy loads

I used a leftover formula can to store and the recipe filled the can about halfway.

Unfortunately, I was not impressed with the results. I found that it could not handle baby spit-up stains, or potty training stains. I don't want to spend a ton of time doing extra pretreating. In the long run, it just didn't cut it for me! So I went back to my old brand (even though I have to get it at a different store now).

The next recipe I tried was the DIY fabric softener. I've been reading that fabric sheets (which I use) cause heavy buildup on the dryer screen, eventually rendering it useless/even dangerous! Plus, due to sensitivity to scents on my part, I needed something less irritating!

DIY FABRIC SOFTENER:

6 c. water

3 c. white vinegar

2 c. hair conditioner

-Heat vinegar and conditioner

-mix in water

-stir to combine

-spritz on washcloth and toss in dryer with load

**(I did make a couple of adjustments to this recipe. I quartered it because I didn't have a way to store 11 cups of fabric softener. The research I found also suggested 2 ways to use it: you could either spritz it, or keep a jar of it and store a wash cloth in the jar and just wring it out and toss in when ready to use. I've found that just making the washcloth damp is plenty. In fact, this is one of Riley's jobs when he's helping me do laundry. He lays the washcloth on the floor and just keeps squirting it while I switch loads!)

The laundry smells fresh with no heavy floral scents and the vinegar makes everything SO SOFT!!! Plus I love that I can use it on all of our clothes and not have to worry about what I'm using on Sawyer's baby clothes.

Long story short:

detergent-thumbs down :o(

fabric softener-thumbs up! :o)