This morning as I put a load of sheets in the washing machine, I discovered that I was just about out of laundry detergent.
Because of the extreme couponing I’d done over the last two years, this was the first time I had been out of the stuff in a very long time.
Of course, I have had absolutely no time to print, collect, or file coupons, so I am very out of the loop and, hence, out of detergent.
For a while now, I’ve pondered the idea of making my own detergent. I’ve read about it on blogs, but I could never quite bring myself to do it. Plus, I had twenty bottles of detergent waiting to be used, so I felt justified in putting off the decision.
Coincidentally, when I called today Christina for our daily chat, she mentioned (quite on her own) that someone had told her about the Duggar recipe for homemade detergent. I quickly googled and found the link.
Well, then I decided to search for a recipe for fabric softener and found this one (check out the reviews that follow the recipe).
Being the woman of action that I am, I decided to put things off no longer and went straight to Walmart after work…
The first thing I did was grate the soap…
Then, I mixed it with the water and stirred it until it melted…
Next, I poured hot tap water into my “bucket” and added the washing soda and borax…
By the way, both of these items were on the bottom shelf on Walmart’s laundry aisle. They were a little difficult to find, so if you go out shopping, don’t give up! The soap that I grated above was on the shelf above these boxes.
I stirred until everything was mixed completely and finished things off by adding more hot tap water.
I put the lid on the container and set it aside to thicken. Tomorrow, I will add the essential oil I purchased, “Hawaiian something,” and give the stuff a test drive.
After finishing up with the detergent, it was time to work on the fabric softener.
I could not believe how few ingredients it required…
First, I added the baking soda to the distilled white vinegar. In case you didn’t know, when you mix these together, you get bubbles…lots of them…so you have to pour slowly!!
Then, I added quite a few drops of the essential oil.
That was it!
For the first time in a while, I am looking forward to doing laundry. I cannot wait to test out these new mixtures. I’m hoping that I like them as much as the reviewers who wrote so glowingly about them.
These recipes are touted as much for their earth “friendliness” as for their economy. I spent less than $20 on everything (not counting the plastic containers). I have enough ingredients to make these recipes several times, and when you consider that you only use 5/8 of a cup of the detergent (the entire recipe made five gallons) and one cup of the fabric softener (the recipe made over a gallon), then this is a very good way to save some moolah.
I will report back on the results of this experiment.
Filed under: Saving Money | Tagged: Duggar, homemade fabric softener, homemade laundry detergent, Saving Money | 5 Comments »
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