Laundry Tip: Make Liquid Fabric Softener Last Longer

Love the way liquid fabric softener leaves your clothes smelling? Hate the price and having to buy it every time you turn around? Have you tried skipping buying it only to have to deal with all of that static electricity? Well... that is no fun either.

I have just the solution for you! This simple tip will make any liquid fabric softener last at least 4 times longer and your clothes will still have that same wonderful smell and no static electricity.

Buy yourself a couple of packs of sponges. I found mine at Dollar General for $2.00 each. While I was at it, I went ahead and bought a new bottle of liquid fabric softener for $3.00. (I don't typically use fabric softener because the powdered laundry soap I make has Purex Crystals in it, eliminating this need for me. But, it is nice to have on hand for if/when I decide to use it.)

I cut my sponges in half length-wise and then in half across the middle, getting four small sponges out of each sponge I started with. This gave me a total of 52 small sponges.

I put all of the little sponges into a container I had on hand. I recycled an old, plastic snack tub. You can use a plastic coffee can, or any other container you would like. Plastic or glass is best.

Then, I simply poured the liquid fabric softener over the sponges until the liquid fabric softener was about 2 inches from the top. I was only able to pour about 3/4 of my new bottle of liquid fabric softener into my container. This gives me more to refill my container as I use it up.

 Next, you will need to label your container. I always put the name of what is in the container and the date on mine so I can see just how long it lasts. 

Directions for use:
When you start a load of laundry, use one small sponge per load. Squeeze out excess liquid and place in your washing machine with your dirty laundry. When the washing machine finishes, put laundry AND sponge into dryer. After dryer finishes, place small sponge back into the container to re-use.

Eventually, the liquid fabric softener will be used, just refill container with fabric softener remaining in original bottle. You will be so surprised at how much longer this will make one bottle of fabric softener last!

My bottle stated that it was a 40 load bottle (which would last me about a month if I followed the instructions on the bottle). I only used 3/4 of the bottle filling my container. I had 52 sponges to start off. They will be recycled over and over again. I am predicting this one 40 load bottle will last me around 6 months, if I wash on average one - two loads of clothes per day.