Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Homemade Clothes Softener Made with Rosemary Herbs

So I found this recipe some time ago, but never got around to posting it. I love it a lot and it actually enhances the cleaning power of my liquid laundry detergent recipe, as in it helps get rid of the really bad smells in my husband’s ACU (Army Camouflage Uniform) and PT (Personal Training) clothes. Many military spouses can tell you some marines, soldiers or sailors can and do come home stinking to high heaven. My old softener was not really working that well. It just added clean cotton smell with sweat and wet dog smell on really bad ones. The detergent was helping and for the most part got most of the smell out on its own, but sometimes the smell did linger and I had to wash the clothes twice. Here is how I put this to a real test. During the week long sitting period you will see in the instructions, I kept two sets of PT uniforms washed and another one not. When my husband was not doing PT with the unit, he would wear the dirty ones so the smell kept adding on. When the one week was up I washed both the uniforms that I washed every day and the one that was not washed all week. For the test run, I used the liquid detergent recipe and this recipe. I must say I did not expect much since Downy did not do a good job before this. I was completely surprised when all three came out not only not smelly, but they smelled better than the Liquid detergent recipe and Downy combined. So I am definitely using this again and feel it is a good one to put up on this blog. I am probably going to make a gallon worth next time so I do not run out so quickly. If you want to do that as well just quadruple the recipe.

Materials
Measuring cup
2 Container (I used a large mason jar for the first and an empty 1-gallon Downy container for the second that had been cleaned out, which was more than enough)
Mesh Strainer (can use a cloth if you don’t have one)
Scissors

Ingredients
3 cups Vinegar
1 cup Vodka
1 sprig of Rosemary (approx. 4-inch-long stick with green leaves attached)

First you need to take the scissors and cut up the sprig and leaves. You want the pieces to be somewhere between ¼ inch to ½ inch long. Put the pieces into the container. Now pour the vinegar and vodka into the container. Close the lid and put the first container in a dry area. Let it sit for one week. As this sits the natural rosemary extract will be coming out of the leaves, making it smell nice. The vodka actually helps this process. After the time is up, use the mesh strainer and pour the liquid into the second container carefully. You do not want to keep the leaves inside the new container as overtime the green chlorophyll will come out and can stain clothes. Now it is ready to use.

Usage instructions are as follows

Pour into the softening dispenser. Or as you would normally do with your softener before.
¼ cup for small load
½ cup for medium loads

¾ cup for large loads

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