DIY Homemade Natural Green Fabric Softener Recipe

Happy from her first foray into DIY homemade laundry detergent,  Princess T’s research has continued with a search for a homemade fabric softener that is natural, green, and environmentally friendly…

If you like this post , please Share it or Pin or Repin this recipe for Natural Green Homemade Fabric Softener on Pinterest.

_____________________________

Princess T…   I found all sorts of recipes for DIY fabric softener.  Many people just use straight vinegar as fabric softener but I just can’t.  My husband doesn’t like the smell one bit.  But if you want to try this, I’ve read 1/2 a cup per load does the trick.

While researching, I ran into this recipe for homemade, natural, green fabric softener a lot so I decided to give it a shot.

Natural/Green fabric softener:

8 cups of water

1 cup baking soda

6 cups white vinegar

10-15 drops of essential oil or not your choice, I added lavender to this batch, mainly to cover the vinegar smell.

I went to Dollar Tree and spent $3 on supplies.  You will need 2 bottles of vinegar but only use 1-1/2.

This recipe batch will make enough for 22.5 loads of laundry, you need 1/3 cup per load.  13 cents a load, not breaking the bank but not cheap when you can score that with a coupon and a good sale.  It might not be cheaper but it is more natural.

So what did I do?  I mixed it together in a large bucket, it will FIZZ when you add the baking soda, do it slowly to avoid a big mess!

I found an empty container and used my trusty funnel and in it went.  I went on a search for the smelliest thing I could wash.  Luckily, Patrick my mom’s dog needed a bath ☺ he was volunteered to get a bath so I could have smelly dog towels!

This load of smelly towels was washed with the homemade liquid laundry detergent I made the other day, and I added 1/3 cup of the fabric softener to the rinse cycle.  One thing I did notice was that the towels straight out of the washer smelled clean, they didn’t smell like the lavender oil drops I added and it didn’t smell like vinegar (and neither does my jug so that’s a huge plus).  The towels out of the dryer were fresh smelling and soft, so this recipe did what it was supposed to do.  I did not smell any traces of my lavender drops so that may have neutralized the vinegar smell and I need to add more drops.  I do like a clean, neutral smell so I may leave as is for now or add more if I make another batch.

The baking soda will settle so you will need to shake your container at each use.  Will I continue using this?  I’m not sure.  Everything came out smelling good but I still have another recipe to try, for frugal homemade fabric softener, and then I’ll decide.  But if you want to keep a more natural approach to your laundry this might be the way to go.