I make my own laundry detergent. I do it for several reasons: it's easy, fun (it makes me feel like a junior chemist), much cheaper, and I feel like I'm not getting scammed by the big detergent companies and their too-big scoopers (it's a conspiracy, I tell you). I know exactly what is going into my washer and onto our clothes.
There's only one real drawback to making my own laundry detergent. It doesn't have a smell. Even if you use a heavily scented soap to make it, it still doesn't leave a smell on your clothes. And I like the nice, clean smell of Gain or Tide. It's a conundrum I've been working on for a while. I've tried a few different things. I bought dryer sheets, but then I just felt like I was wasting the money I was saving by making my own detergent. I mean, how much am I paying for a little sheet with who-knows-what on it just so my clothes will smell great? And I usually dry my clothes outside, so I didn't even use them. The next thing I tried was placing a few drops of essential oils in my washer. But that can really mess with your washer and it didn't really work. After that I tried putting a few drops of essential oil on a cloth and throwing it into the dryer with the clothes. But again, I don't always use my dryer, and I also only had peppermint oil and sandalwood, and nobody wants their clothes to smell like those things. It didn't work too well, either.
Then I found this recipe for fabric softener:
6 cups hot water
2 cups nice-smelling conditioner
3 cups vinegar
Add the conditioner to the hot water and mix it up completely. Then mix in the vinegar. Pour about 2 tablespoons into your washer's fabric softener hole.
I made this today and used it on a load of clothes. It was EASY to make and very inexpensive. I had high hopes for it because I could actually smell the scent from the conditioner while it was washing. After they dried, the clothes did smell better. I wouldn't say they smelled as strongly as Gain or Tide, but they did have a pleasant smell to them. Yea!
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