I have been making homemade laundry soap and fabric softener for years. It saves SO MUCH MONEY!!! However, it takes up a lot of space in my laundry room, as you can see below.
It required bottles on the floor, smaller bottles in the cabinet for when we are doing laundry, plus the leftover bars of soap.
I found a new recipe for laundry soap that doesn’t require adding all of the water up front, so instead of storing 2 gallons of it, I only need ONE jar! And to make it even better, this new recipe doesn’t require grating a bar of soap! So I went from the above clutter to this:
The above is the new laundry soap (left) and fabric softener (right).
LAUNDRY SOAP:
1-1/2 c. baking soda
1-1/2 c. washing soda
1/2 c. Epsom salt
1/4 c. sea salt
20-25 drops essential oil
To use: Add 1 heaping T. to washer.
For my new version of fabric softener, I bought these:
They are the texture of sponges, but they are much thinner than an actual sponge. I had to cut them down in size to make them fit into the jar:
Here is the recipe:
FABRIC SOFTENER:
Old t-shirts, cut into pieces OR other lint-free rags
Place in jar. Disclaimer: BE SURE TO USE A GLASS JAR WITH A GLASS LID! My first jar was a glass jar with a metal-like lid. The vinegar caused the lid to rust through.
Add white vinegar to saturate them. (Approximately 3/4 c.)
Add 7-10 drops essential oil.
To use: Squeeze excess liquid back into the jar. Toss rag into dryer. Once dryer is done, put rag back into the jar and tilt jar to wet the rag again.
I used both of these newer versions today on a load of clothing as well as a load of towels. Everything was very clean and smelled wonderful!
My Frugal Life 