The 1st experiments: Fabric softener and wrinkle releaser

Sorry for my blogging not being in "real time" with my experiments. I could use the excuses that I work full time and have a kid, but really I am just lazy and got caught up in a Friends marathon Sunday and Monday. But better late than never, right?!?!?!

So here is my take on the fabric softener and wrinkle releaser that I made this past weekend!

First, the fabric softener! I used a recipe that I found at Moneysavingqueen.com. It was super easy to throw together, and smelled divine!

The ingredients called for were:

• 1 C water
• 1 C baking soda
• 2 C white vinegar
• 20 drops EO of choice

You put these into a large bowl, first the water, then baking soda, then essential oil drops, and lastly the vinegar!

For any of you that have ever done the erupting volcano in science class, you know what combining baking soda and vinegar results in...for those of you that didn't, it makes a big-ol' erupting mess! So mix the two together slowly in a big enough bowl. I just used a large mixing bowl and poured very slowly. 

We used eucalyptus and lavender EOs for this one, which resulted in a really nice scent, that smells really clean and fresh. We are not huge floral scent fans, so the eucalyptus is sharp enough to take the frilly trim off the lavender. Once everything was mixed, we poured it all into re-purposed glass jars. Just make sure you give them a good swirl before each use!

As soon as this was finished, hubby man went out and added 1/3 of a cup to our laundry load. The original recipe says to use a half cup, but we really didn't think we would need that much. We line dry, so it isn't like our stuff is ever "Snuggle-fluffy" anyhow. 

It worked great. When we hung the load to dry an hour later, it smelled great, and was just as soft as when we use the commercial stuff. This one was a definitely success and we have added it permanently to our laundry routine! 

For the Wrinkle Releaser, I used a recipe I found on Pinterest. I don't know if you could actually call this a recipe, as it is literally 2 ingredients and 2 steps, but here it is!

1 C water + 1tsp fabric softener 

That's it! Mix it in a sprayer bottle and its done. 

My review on this was again mixed. It worked. But the ease with which it worked did not necessarily make me want to run out and throw my iron into the nearest garbage dump! You spray the shirt liberally, then you have to give it these sharp tugs and shakes and pulls...you kinda have to beat the wrinkles out!

I am going to give it another go, but next time i think I will spray Hubby-man's shirts as they come wet out of the washing machine, then give them a good shake, before hanging them on a hanger to dry. We will see how it goes! 

A confession regarding this recipe. While i think I could definitively have used my homemade fabric softener for it, I had a half a bottle of the store bought stuff left over so I used that instead. It smells really nice, and this way I am not wasting it! It was the only non-natural ingredient I used this weekend!