We love coming up with natural hacks for our housekeeping and cleaning at home that cut out unnecessary chemistry. And this recipe for homemade fabric softener is no exception.
Here we share the easiest recipe with you, so you can easily make your very own natural fabric softener without harsh chemicals and synthetic perfume. You can almost make it in 30 seconds if you have all the ingredients ready.
Therefore, you must avoid ordinary fabric softener
Many of us (including ourselves) can't get enough of completely soft laundry - and bed linen and towels in particular must be completely soft and snug around the body. We can probably agree that one of the best feelings in the world is jumping into bed at night in freshly laundered and super soft bedding.
But unfortunately, lamb-soft bedding does not come by itself. Especially not if, like us, you live in an area with very hard water with lime, which can make the laundry stiff and form a limescale coating.
Therefore, many also use synthetic fabric softener in their laundry to make the clothes soft and fragrant. But precisely because it can penetrate and soften the clothes, it also means that fabric softener contains chemicals that are neither healthy for the skin, the environment nor for your washing machine.
We do not use traditional synthetic fabric softener because:
- It contains a large amount of severe allergenic substances such as perfume, dyes and surfactants, which remain in the fibers of the clothing and are in contact with the skin throughout the day.
- In addition to containing harmful ingredients for the skin, ingredients such as perfume, color and surfactants also contribute to contaminating the aquatic environment.
- If you use fabric softener when you wash your towels and tea towels, you run the risk of them losing their absorbency because a coating forms.
- It can clog the pipes in the washing machine because it is such a sticky substance that it accumulates clumps of dirt, grime and hair that get stuck together with the fabric softener inside the pipes.
Fortunately, it is possible to get soft clothes without using fabric softener with scratchy chemicals and allergenic ingredients. Here you will get our recipe for homemade fabric softener - completely natural and without harmful chemicals. It's so easy to make yourself at home with just 2-3 ingredients you may already have in your kitchen cupboard.
See here how to make homemade fabric softener without harmful chemicals.
How to easily make homemade fabric softener - both with and without fragrance
It is super easy and quick to make our recipe for homemade fabric softener.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 Clear household vinegar (10%) intended for cleaning etc
- 3/4 Water
- 1 dropperful of laundry detergent or other essential oil (optional if fragrance is desired)
- Bottle or can for storage
Here's how you do it:
- Start by finding a bottle or container that you can mix your homemade fabric softener in. Use e.g. a can from a previous fabric softener or liquid detergent so you can use the lid for dosing. Store the bottle with your other washing products.
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Fill the bottle with 1/4 household vinegar and 3/4 water . Eg. 750 ml. water and 250 ml. household vinegar. You can also use clear stock vinegar if you already have it in the cupboard. Here we recommend mixing vinegar and water 50/50, as stock vinegar contains less acetic acid, where our household vinegar is more concentrated.
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Add a full pipette of your favorite laundry fragrance of 100% pure essential oils per liter of homemade fabric softener if you want your laundry to have a gentle and delicious scent. Skip this step if you would like a fragrance-free fabric softener or have a perfume allergy.
We love having different bottles in the home – one with the scent of our Summer Garden laundry fragrance, another with Forest Fresh and a final one with Lemon Breeze . Then we can decide for ourselves which scent we are in the mood for.
- Thats it! Easy! You are done with your homemade fabric softener. Shake the bottle thoroughly before use and use a capful or approx. ½ dl per wash in your machine.
Choose fabric softener without perfume if you have delicate skin or allergies
Feel free to make the homemade fabric softener without perfume if you wash children's clothes, or if you or someone else in the household has sensitive skin or a perfume allergy. Fabric softener without perfume reduces the risk of allergic reactions and skin irritations, so if you do not want your fabric softener to contain perfume/essential oil, you just have to refrain from adding the laundry fragrance to your homemade fabric softener. Fortunately, it is completely optional and a matter of taste whether you like the scent of your laundry or not.
Can you use homemade fabric softener together with all kinds of detergent - including soap berries?
You can use our homemade fabric softener together with all kinds of detergents for general laundry - including together with our soap berries to make clothes super soft and fragrant. However, you must avoid using it if you e.g. uses bleach or fabric dye inside the machine.
We always use our recipe for homemade fabric softener when we wash clothes with soap berries to make the clothes extra delicious. And it also descales the machine a little each time you wash. In this way, you help your washing machine to be more efficient rather than stopping it as ordinary fabric softener does.
Inside our shop here on the website, you can even find our complete kits, where you e.g. can get the entire large laundry package with everything to make both homemade fabric softener and our natural detergent soapberry. That way, you have everything in a single package to get started with washing clothes completely naturally without unnecessary chemicals.
