What’s the one chore you hate doing around your home?
For me, I hate going to the grocery shop. Which is why I do as much as I can to avoid the grocery store altogether.
However, there are times when you must venture to the grocery store for the necessities. I was there the other day and decided to browse through the laundry aisle. I was going to take a simple approach for the week and purchase a fabric softener.
When I saw how much fabric softener cost, my jaw dropped. It had been a long time since I’d purchased a fabric softener without having a coupon to justify the purchase.
Instead, I laughed to myself and turned the corner to buy the ingredients to make a DIY fabric softener. Interested in saving money while doing laundry?
Here’s a great fabric softener recipe which is cheap and straightforward to make an effective DIY fabric softener:
You’ll Need:
- 3 cups hot water
- 1 cup hair conditioner
- 1½ cups apple cider vinegar
- Quart Jar
- Funnel
- Measuring cup
- Bowl for mixing
- Spoon or whisk for mixing
1. Bring the Heat
Begin making your fabric softener by bringing 3 cups of water to a boil. Use any pot you’d cook on the stove with.
Pour the water into the pot, turn the stove on high, and place a lid on. It shouldn’t take long for the water to reach a rolling boil.
Once the water has boiled, remove it from the heat using great caution. Remove the lid from the pot and allow the water to calm for a while you fulfill the next steps of the process.
2. Pick with Care
When choosing which products you’d like to make your DIY fabric softener with, be sure to choose with care.
If you’re working on a tight budget, you may have no other choice but to choose the cheapest conditioner on the market. If this is the case for you, this fabric softener recipe will still work.
However, if you have the option, try to choose a conditioner that has the best scent and is the creamiest. This has a positive impact on the scent of your clothing.
In my case, a local hairdresser had ordered a large bottle of a good quality hair conditioner. However, she couldn’t use it because she had an allergic reaction to it.
When I was getting my hair done, she was telling me about how great it smelled, but she could not use it. She said, “I guess I’ll have to throw it away.”
At this moment I took full advantage and assured her I could put it to good use. I’ve been using this large bottle of delicious smelling hair conditioner to make my own DIY fabric softener for the past year.
If you happen to run across a freebie, a good deal, or a scent of conditioner you love, go for it!
3. Measure Out Ingredients
Once you’ve selected your ingredients, pour the hot water into the mixing bowl.
Measure and pour the conditioner into the water. From there, add the apple cider vinegar.
Again, I need to interject because you have choices in this step as well. I prefer to use apple cider vinegar in my conditioner because I make it myself which makes it less expensive.
Plus, apple cider vinegar tends to be better for you all the way around. For this reason, I like to add it to anything I can.
However, if you have white vinegar on hand or it’s cheaper to purchase at your local supermarket, use it.
The apple cider vinegar will make your fabric softener a little darker, but I still find it works well.
4. Whisk and Pour
Once all the ingredients have been added to the bowl, stir or whisk it all together. It should look like a diluted and slightly cloudy version of the original conditioner.
Make sure you stir the bottom of the bowl well. From there, place the funnel on a quart jar and pour the mixture into the container.
This recipe is enough to make 1-quart of fabric softener. You can cut it in half for smaller amounts or double it if you’d like to make more at once.
When the fabric softener is in the jar, you’re ready to rock!
5. Utilize
When I make fabric softener, it costs me almost nothing because I received my conditioner for free, plus I make my own ACV, and I use borehole water.
However, if you purchase the ingredients, you should be able to make your own DIY fabric softener for less, depending on prices in your area.
As you can tell, it requires little time to make as well. The limited financial and time commitment makes it worth the effort.
How do you use this fabric softener? Well, the same way you would any store-bought fabric softener.
When you’re washing a load of clothes, you should have a slot for fabric softener in your machine and a slot for laundry detergent.
Before loading the clothes, add the proper amount of laundry detergent for the size load and your machine.
When it’s time to add the fabric softener, I recommend using anywhere from a couple of tablespoons to a quarter cup. It’ll depend upon the size of your load.
I have a washing machine which holds larger loads because I have a bigger family. So I free-pour my fabric softener into the dispenser. I don’t fill it to the max line, but it’s at approximately the halfway mark.
Your machine and laundry preferences may be different than mine. Therefore, experiment with how much fabric softener you feel is appropriate for your laundry.
There you have it, folks. Making your own DIY fabric softener doesn’t have to be costly or difficult to do. Instead, this fabric softener recipe is the opposite.
It’s inexpensive and simple. Therefore, it shouldn’t only save you money but also only take you approximately 10 minutes to make.
If you’re into saving money, being more self-sufficient, and knowing what goes into the products you use around your home, give this DIY fabric softener a try.
