DIY Laundry Products Saved Sarah $100s

Here comes my first guest blogger--our daughter Sarah!  She's a busy mother with two kids and one on the way.  She graciously took time out of her crazy life to share her secrets to laundry success with you!

Hi, my name is Sarah, and I’m not a laundry person. I AM lucky enough to have Papa Joe as my honest-to-goodness dad, which means I grew up in a big family. Oldest of seven, in fact. I’ve been doing my own laundry since I was 12, and my methods haven’t changed much. I’m a throw it in, pull it out kind of girl, and pre-treating, soaking, bleaching, etc. don’t exactly come naturally. I now have two little girls of my own, and one more coming soon. That makes for plenty of laundry (especially during potty training times…you other mommies out there know what I’m talking about!) and laundry can actually be kind of expensive, even WITHOUT all the “extras” like stain removers, laundry balls, color catchers, fabric softeners, etc. etc. 

My husband and I have recently re-dedicated ourselves to living within a strict budget, spending less and saving more, so when we found out that our third child would be ANOTHER girl, I realized that the years of not paying much attention to my laundry had NOT paid off. After going through two kids, many of the little girl clothes I had acquired were so stained that they were completely un-wearable, but I had no desire to waste otherwise good clothing or to spend our small clothing budget on baby and toddler clothes we had already purchased. SO, I set out to find ways to save the clothes without laundry supplies eating away at my grocery budget. (I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather spend money on fresh produce than laundry detergent.) I’d like to share a few of the things I learned. Not only do these save you money on commercial laundry products, but can also save you loads (no pun intended) on clothing, by keeping what you already have nice for much longer.

DIY Laundry Detergent

There are plenty of recipes for homemade laundry detergent out there. This is one of the most simple and inexpensive I have come across, and it works like a charm. Not only does it get our clothes fantastically clean, but it does it for about 2 cents a load, as opposed to a conservative 30 cents a load for a box of Tide. The cost of the supplies to make one batch was less than $5, and it lasted 7 months!

Are you convinced yet? Here’s the recipe.

Stir together:

• 3 bars Fels Naptha, grated (I used the small side of a cheese grater)
• 4 cups Borax
• 4 cups Washing Soda
• Use 1-2 Tbsp. per load.

All of these products can be found in the laundry aisle of most supermarkets, and stores like Walmart and Target. Zote, or other laundry soaps can be used in place of the Fels Naptha. While all of these are quite inexpensive, you will spend more than $5 when you make your initial purchase, but you’ll have leftover product to use in future batches, or for other cleaning purposes. Your total spent will still be much less than a box of commercial detergent, and your yield will be greater.

Many people prefer liquid laundry detergent (I’m one of them, actually) and I have made my own liquid in the past, but in my experience it wasn’t worth it, because without commercial emulsifiers, the detergent becomes lumpy, needs to be shaken often, and sometimes left residue on our clothes. That said, it still got our clothes very clean. With the powder, I have trained myself to start the washing machine, add the detergent and then add the clothes, to avoid powdered residue (something I had to do with my lumpy liquid anyway).

DIY Stain Remover

While I’ve never been great at remembering to pre-treat stains, I have purchased commercial stain
removers in the past. Some have worked okay, but more often than not, I’ve been disappointed. Here’s
a recipe for one that is infinitely cheaper, and works infinitely better than products you’ll find on the
shelf.

Gently mix together:

• 2 parts Hydrogen Peroxide
• 1 part Dawn dish soap (original blue)

Pour into a spray bottle (I used an empty one from one of those inferior commercial products) and start removing stains! Or, add the ingredients directly to the spray bottle and swish them gently to mix. (If you shake it vigorously, you’ll get so many bubbles it will be difficult to spray).

This solution works best when given some time to sit before washing, so keep it in the bedroom or bathroom to pre-treat immediately if possible. However, I have used this on OLD stains with great results. Remember all those stained little girl clothes? I had a huge pile of clothes I had deemed un-wearable, and used this spray on the stains. After letting them sit for a couple hours, I washed them normally. Most of the clothes were as good as new! I repeated the process on the rest, and was able to get all but a couple of very badly stained pieces looking great!

When I recently pulled the baby clothes out of storage in preparation for our new one, I noticed that many of them were stained as well. It seems like time in storage can make stains you thought were gone reappear, and make stains you thought weren’t noticeable severe. I did the same thing with those, and even saved the white onesies! Out of two huge laundry baskets of baby clothes, there’s only one piece I’ll have to get rid of!

On a side note, I’ve also used this on upholstery with great results. Just spray it on, let it sit, and then wipe it away with a damp cloth.

Sock Soak

My children have tiny feet, which they did NOT inherit from me. Because of that, they both wore their infant sized socks well into their walking stage. When I pulled out the baby clothes, all the tiny socks were DINGY and some even had visible dirt stains! It seemed wrong to put socks in such a state on tiny new baby feet. SO, I pulled out some of my laundry supplies and soaked them! This would work well with any size dingy socks of course, or really any clothing item that needs freshening up.


To a large pot of warm water, add:

• ¼-½ Cup Baking Soda
• ¼-½ Cup Borax
• 1 Scoop (2 Tbsp) homemade laundry detergent

Add socks and stir. I let my girls do this step, and they thought it was hilarious that they were stirring socks.

After a couple hours, if you feel like it’s necessary, you can put the pot on the stove and boil it for 15 minutes or so. Be careful about mixing lights and darks if you’re doing this though, because it can cause the darker colors to bleed.

Dump the whole pot in the washing machine, and wash as usual.

Just saved the socks! And a whole lot of $$!

I’ll still probably never be a laundry person, but I’m working on it, because I’m pretty sure that a few loads of laundry just saved me hundreds of dollars! Bring on the new baby! We’re ready (without breaking the bank)!