A while ago I caught a snippet from a morning show on Facebook where it was mentioned that it is not necessary to use the recommended amount when doing laundry. So I followed the advice and experimented a bit on my own. And the result was that I cut my laundry costs in half.
Secret confession: Laundry is my favourite household chore. I put the machine on then get to do something else for almost an hour before I have to worry about it again. It takes me 10-15 minutes to hang it up (the right way), and it’s done!

Laundry powder/detergent

I use the scoop from a tin of baby formula to measure the amount of powder that I use. To properly compare, I weighed the amount of powder that fills the scoop that came with it, 50g. Then I weighed a formula scoop worth, 17g. That’s less than half! So instead of getting 80 loads of washing from the 4kg of powder, I now get 235!

Fabric softener

I’ve been buying the cheap fabric softener concentrate for years. I add the concentrate to 2 litres of water and that was that. But I had a brainwave to see what would happen if I watered it down with 3 litres of water. And all that happened was that I got more washes out of the fabric softener concentrate. On top of watering it down, I also add less to the fabric softener compartment of the machine. So instead of 26 washes, I now get 80.

Drying

We don’t actually own a dryer. We inherited one when we first moved into our house but it lived in the garage and we never used it. I grew up in a house with a dryer but I only ever remember it being used a handful of times. So I never felt the need to use it, so we put it on the nature strip, and someone took it. I use the clothesline or a clothes horse to dry everything.

Stain removal

The sun is an amazing stain remover. Just leave freshly washed clothes in full sun, with the stain visible. I like to peg my clothes so they lay flat on the top of the clothes horse. Or if it’s not such a nice day outside, I lay them out on my kitchen table. My kitchen table gets a lot of afternoon sun.

It’s been suggested to just use vinegar instead of fabric softener. But when it comes to cost, the fabric softener concentrate is much more cost effective. The white vinegar is $ /L and the fabric softener concentrate is $ /L

How I cut my laundry costs in half

• Use half the recommended amount of laundry powder/detergent
• Water down your fabric softener to a ratio of 1:2 or 1:3
• Half fill the fabric softener dispenser
• Line dry everything
• The sun removes most stains