What?!? More laundry?

So in my last post I talked about the homemade liquid laundry detergent I made. It's fab! But then I would slap in a chemical, scent laden non-biodegradable sheet in the dryer. This went against what I'm trying to achieve! So I made my own.

This concoction consisted of: 6 cups of water, 3 cups of vinegar and 2 cups of hair conditioner. To keep everything as eco friendly as possible, I used a natural conditioner from Whole Foods. I had my kids smell different bottles and the berry and mint scents definitely got the thumbs down. We found an herbal smelling one that we all agreed was going to be the best.

I blended it all up and soaked every crocheted dishcloth I had. I chose them for a couple of reasons: 1) my family would recognize that they were dryer cloths and not put them away with the rest of the dry load, and 2) they are an open weave that would accept the concoction well.

 I soaked 17 cloths in total. They hung above the bathtub for THREE DAYS! It took that long for them all to dry. They felt a bit stiff once they were dry and they softened considerably once they've gone through the dryer the first time.

Now, one recipe I found for homemade dryer sheets included only rags and store bought liquid fabric softener. Once you soaked rags in the softener and let them dry, each rag would last 12 loads! 12! I'm not sure if mine will last that long, but it has certainly been fun trying it out. This could be great in the Winter when line-drying isn't an option. In the Summer, a Downey ball with vinegar would another idea, although, I would love to find an alternative to a plastic ball in my washer.

Hair conditioner is partially designed to stop static in the hair, so it should in the dryer, too. If you find that static is still an issue, I've read that a ball of aluminum foil will fix that. I'm going to keep one handy just in case...if nothing else, to allow our kitties to be petted without fear of static shock.

Happy (safe) experimenting!