Lazy Budget Chef

When
I bought my High Efficiency (HE) washing machine I had a heck of a
time finding a HE laundry detergent that didn’t make me itch,
cleaned our clothes, AND didn’t make the washer stink. At the time
I couldn’t find a HE laundry detergent that accomplished all three
important tasks and ended up making my own powdered laundry
detergent. Problem solved. 

I had leftover detergent from the old washing machine that
let me tell you,it  is NOT a great idea to use in a HE washing machine!
However, that liquid laundry detergent is great for pretreating laundry
stains so it didn’t go to waste. 

Slowly but surely I started
making other laundry cleaning supplies like laundry stain
spray, static cling fighter, wrinkle releaser, dryer sheets
and wool wash save time (it takes me less than 15 minutes to make
this stuff) and money. It also cuts down on our household waste too. High
fives all around! 

• Wet and rub a bar of laundry soap like Zote
  (learn more about my favorite here) or
  Fels
  Naptha (you can buy it here) on the stain before
  popping in the water. Note: For those of you who don’t like
  to use animal products both of these laundry soaps have
  animal tallow in it. This isn’t an issue for me but it may be
  for you.

• Soak stained items in oxygen
  bleach (there are several options here)
  dissolved in water also works wonders.

• Pour a bit of liquid laundry detergent (or add water to
  powdered laundry detergent to make a paste) directly on stain
  and scrub the stain with an old toothbrush is also
  effective and something I use all of the time with tough stains. Why
  buy more items than you have to, right?

• Scrub the stain with an old toothbrush and your favorite
  stain fighter. I mark the handles of old toothbrushes with nail
  polish so there’s no mistaking that the toothbrush has been
  repurposed for cleaning.

You can buy
my funny tennis balls here

I keep a small bottle of homemade wrinkle releaser in
my clothes closet because I’m not a big fan of ironing but I do
like wrinkle free clothing.

• Hair conditioner-
  works just as well or better than Woolite when hand washing wool
  sweaters and is much, much cheaper!

I make my own powdered laundry detergent. It is super
easy! Combine 1 cup of borax
(you can get it here,) 1 cup of washing soda
(learn
the difference between washing soda and baking soda here,) and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of grated soap. I think laundry
bar soap (there are several options here) works
much better than bar bath soap. To save time, I make it 6 batches at
a time which only takes 15 minutes and is enough to fill the big
repurposed protein powder container I use to store it. This recipe
works in both conventional and HE washing machines.

My homemade HE
laundry detergent works on everything from delicate costumes to my
husband’s practically a bio hazard workout clothes. It is the ONLY
laundry detergent that doesn’t make my front loading washing machine
stink!

If you’d rather buy than DIY,
check out the following options – and more! – below!

Did you like this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Lazy Budget Chef RSS feed