DIY Household Cleaners

It turns out vinegar isn't the only thing I use to clean the house. I know you probably can't tell if you've read "Vinegar: Not Just For Cooking" but I also have a few homemade remedies for a clean house that don't contain vinegar. I make our laundry detergent, a Febreze like fabric freshener, a stain remover, and have a few DIY homemade cleaner experiments waiting to happen.






Fabric Freshener:
1 Tbs fabric softener
16-20 ozs water

Pour a Tbs of your favorite scented fabric softener into a spray bottle and fill it up with water. (We use our old Febreze bottle). If you're allergic to fabric softener you can create a beautiful smell with essential oils, but be careful to check if they're safe to use on your fabrics.

Logan is Benny's stink-making accomplice

Benny as a puppy

Remember Benny, the stink machine? Even he cannot defeat the delicious smell of my light, diluted, fabric softener mist. Battling Benny's stink is a two step process in this house. If you haven't read how to make my deodorizing spray you can check it out by clicking here.

Stain Remover:
1 part Dawn dish soap
1 part peroxide

Mix equal parts peroxide and dish soap and apply directly to the stain on a white t-shirt, works for me every time! You can also add the solution to a bucket of water and let an entire garment soak, or dilute it and use on other fabrics. Be careful, peroxide will remove the color from some fabrics. Do a test spot and make sure your solution is diluted enough for your stained fabric. I've even used this on my carpets after doing a test spot in the closet to be sure the color of my carpet wouldn't be ruined.

Notice this is NOT baking soda

Laundry Detergent:
1 Fels-Naptha Bar
1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1 sauce pan of water
A 5 gallon bucket with a lid

This one is a little more complicated, but it's worth it. Making one batch costs less than $4, yields about 10 gallons, and usually lasts us a year! All of these ingredients can be found at the grocery store in the same aisle as the laundry detergents, I've found them at both Kroger and Walmart. CAUTION: Do not use Arm & Hammer Baking Soda- make sure you have Super Washing Soda. My '5 gallon bucket' is an old cat litter tub that I cleaned thoroughly.

• Grate the bar of Fels-Naptha and add it to a sauce pan of water (I use about 4 cups of water). 
• Bring it to a boil and stir consistently until it is completely dissolved. It will be the consistency of a medium-light syrup. 
• Fill the bucket about half way with hot tap water, add the Fels-Naptha syrup, Borax, and washing soda to the bucket of water. 
• Stir until the powders are completely dissolved. 
• Fill the bucket to the top with more hot tap water, stir, cover, and let it sit over night. It will turn into a gel.

Save your old laundry detergent jug and have it cleaned and ready for your new detergent. After the homemade detergent has gelled stir it up (It will need stirred every time you refill your jug) and fill your jug half way with the gelled detergent and half way with hot tap water. Shake, shake, shake, and enjoy your savings! **Be aware that the solution can be lumpy, it is perfectly normal for homemade detergent to NOT have a smooth texture, rest assured you did not do anything wrong. As far as I can tell the lumpy homemade mixture cleans just as well as the homogenized store bought brands.

Detergent disguised as cat liter :)

You may choose to add essential oils to your recipe, we do because Joe complained about the first batch not leaving his clothes overly perfumed like the Gain detergent did. I add the oils every time I fill up my detergent jug. You can use any combination you prefer, my scent of choice is 10 drops Tea Tree Oil (has disinfectant properties!), 5 drops Lemon, 5 drops Lavender, and 5 drops Jasmine. Essential Oils can be expensive. I've recently heard that you can make this recipe with ANY bar of soup in place of the Fels-Naptha, I'm hoping that is true. My next batch will be an experiment to see if I can make Joe a batch of detergent with a bar of soup with the scent of his choosing. This could be even more cost effective if the detergent works just as well, smells how he hopes, and doesn't damage our machines or clothes (fingers crossed?)


Seems like too much work? Skip the soap melting, stirring  diluting, ect and make powder detergent. I've never done it, but here's a blog that shows you how: www.freckleberryfinds.com
Making powder detergent means no adding essential oils for a pleasant scent, but you could add a few drops to every load if you really wanted to. Ashley from Freckleberry Finds uses Tea Tree Oil for it's disinfectant properties, too!