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Looking for a homemade fabric softener that’s easy to make and works great? Then give yourself a pat on the back, because you’ve come to the right place!
I’ve tried and tweaked dozens of different homemade fabric softeners over the past decade of my blogging career, and some have been better than others. The one I’ll be sharing with you in this post is my favorite of the liquid fabric softeners I’ve tried, both for its simplicity and its effectiveness!
The thing I like most about this formula is that it doesn’t coat fabrics with chemical softeners like most commercial fabric softeners do. It actually helps remove detergent and softener buildup, getting them cleaner and leaving them naturally softer.
Give it a try and experience the difference for yourself!
How To Make A Homemade Fabric Softener
Ingredients:
4 cups white vinegar
4 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable glycerin
Directions:
Combine white vinegar, water, and glycerin in a large container. (Any empty jug or bottle that’s easy to pour out of will work just fine!)
Replace the lid and shake well to mix.
How To Use
Give the bottle a good shake before each use to remix the ingredients, as they may separate over time. Then before starting a wash load, pour 1/2 cup of your homemade fabric softener into your washing machine’s fabric softener dispenser, then wash as usual.
How Does It Work?
The combination of white vinegar and vegetable glycerin in this homemade fabric softener recipe helps keep fabrics clean and soft in a couple of different ways.
Vinegar is the primary component, which naturally softens laundry by dissolving detergent buildup and other and residues that may have settled in the fibers of the fabric over time. Vinegar also softens hard water, which can help boost the effectiveness of your laundry detergent.
Because vegetable glycerin is hygroscopic, meaning that it can absorb moisture from the air, it is often used in lotions and beauty products as a moisturizing and softening component. It also works wonderfully when used to soften fabrics, and you don’t even need to use very much of it!
A Note About Fragrance/Scent
This simple fabric softener recipe is both easy to make and really works to eliminate odors and leave your laundry cleaner and softer. While I don’t have a problem with using an unscented formula like this, some people may miss the fragrance factor.
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In that case, I recommend checking out my homemade fabric softener crystals, which are great for infusing your fabrics with the aromas of your favorite essential oils. Or if you’d rather go the store-bought route, there are several different scent booster products to choose from in the laundry aisle these days, including Downy Unstopables, Downy Infusions, Gain Fireworks, Arm & Hammer Clean Scentsations, and others.
The way I see it, treating fabric softening and laundry scent as two distinct things has its advantages versus using a scented fabric softener. The first is that my homemade fabric softener actually removes residues, rather than contributing to them like some store-bought fabric softeners do.
The second advantage is that it’s much easier to control how much or how little scent ends up on your clothes! Food for thought. :-)
What is your favorite method for softening laundry?
