Homemade Natural Fabric Softener
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As I posted earlier this week about line drying your clothes without a line. Well there is one drawback to doing this. Your clothes don’t always come out as soft as they would if you put them in the dryer or hung dry them outside where the wind can blow the around. Well on that note I bring to you 2 recipes for homemade natural fabric softener.
1. You could always use 1/2 cup of vinegar and add it to the washing machine during the rinse cycle. Lots of bloggers seem to go with this one, but personally it was not my favorite. I don’t think it worked well. But it wouldn’t hurt to try this.
2. This recipe is all over blog land and I struggled to find one that was natural without toxic ingredients. So I did a little thinking and thought why not just change the condition to a more natural one! So simple. Sure it costs a little more but it is still cheaper then buying fabric softener.
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Homemade Fabric Softener
Ingredients: Can double this recipe
- 3 cups warm water
- 1.5 cups white vinegar
- 1 cup natural conditioner (you could use non-natural conditioner too to save money)
- essential oil (optional. I accidentally bought a conditioner that smelled terrible! But with some orange essential oil it smelled fantastic. Just add enough drops till you can smell it)
Direction: Pour all ingredients into a half gallon container and stir. Don’t shake or it will make an extreme mess! Add essential oils if desired and stir again!
To use: Add the same amount you would the store bought kind about 1/4 cup during the rinse cycle.
I put the fabric softener in larger mason jar and put a wash cloth in the jar. I squeeze the washcloth of extra liquid and place in dryer. Walla a home made dryer sheet. I don’t use in washing machine. This works great. I like the slightly vinegar smell with the smell of the hair conditioner. Better than store bought dryer sheets.
Every time I make this, all I smell is the vinegar. I’ve used 2 different conditioners (a suave naturals and a regular suave) and all I smell is the vinegar even when using the essential oils. I’m using white distilled vinegar.
I would warn about using aluminum foil balls in your dryer. I found out the hard way with a load of whites. The balls leave black marks all over the clothes and dryer drum. Also, the vinegar in the fabric softener faded my darks, so I just use it on my white loads.
I have heard the same thing from repairmen about vinegar -will eat away seals. Beware of this when using in washing machines and dishwashers.
what do you mean natural conditioner like a hair conditioner can you please give me an example what type of conditioner you are referring to.
thank you
Yep hair conditioner
I noticed your recipe but you don’t mention what kind of conditioner … also, where to find it.
Yes hair conditioner…. April said to use Suave conditioner… it is for hair. I say forget the conditioner and just use the vinegar. I use it all the time and it works great. 1/2 to one cup in a full load. It really should not be strong enough to “eat away the seal on the door” of your front load washer if you use less than 1/2 cup, because the amount of water should dilute it enough to avoid that. However, to be safe…. do as directed by your repair man.
Do you just use a hair conditioner ?
Back to the conditioner…you mean hair conditioner?
Yep