Several months ago my mother-in-law gave me a recipe for making my own laundry soap. At first I was dubious. There seemed to be too much water in the recipe and not enough soap. It does not produce suds, so when I looked into the washer I doubted if it was working. However, after 2 months of using this soap I and am pleased with the results. My whites are whiter! Static cling seems to be reduced! I am certain my clothes are clean! Also, my grocery bills are lower!
Here's what you need:
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda (this is not the same thing as baking soda)
1 5 Gallon Bucket
Grate the soap into a kettle of 6 cups hot water. Heat and stir till it melts. Pour the mixture into the bucket. Stir in the borax and washing soda. Fill the bucket the rest of the way with hot water and stir well.
The next morning the soap will be a thick gel. Stir it again. Mine looks like a thin gel with some white flecks of soap in it. Add 1 cup of detergent to every load of laundry.
If you miss the scent that's added to many laundry soaps, you could add some essential oil to the bucket.
For those of you who live in the Meadville area, Valeskey's sells all the supplies. I'd say I paid around $12 for the supplies, including a bucket. The borax and washing soda come in big boxes, with many cups inside. There are 80 cups of laundry soap in a 5 gallon bucket. So, you can do 80 loads of laundry with one batch! I didn't figure out the cost per load or batch, but this is cheap. Also, if you have trouble with allergic reactions, this soap has no filler or perfume to bother your skin.
If you want to read more on this, here is a recipe for powder detergent that looks similar.
Very interesting Carla! I made this once and plan to again. My recipe tell you to make 2, 5 gallon buckets with the same amount of ingredients. I just thought that was too little soap for so much water so I did what you did. Mine also said to use a lot less than your recipe per load. I plan to make it again and increase the soda and borax and increase the amount per load. I liked it except it didn't get the grass stain out of jeans like my Fuller Brush detergent does. Gloria C.
ReplyDeleteSo I might try this. I've considered it before. What kind of store is Valeskey's? Like a heath food place?
ReplyDeleteI've been using this exact recipe for several months and LOVE it. I agree about the static cling. One of my friends said she didn't even use fabric softener much in the summer because she simply didn't need.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I've discovered this does amazing things for stains. Just soak them in about 1/4 cup or so (I just dump). Logan had a white shirt that had blueberry stains all over it. I was pretty skeptical about getting it out. But I soaked it in this and whohoo...it is white as snow!
Wow, Lydia, I will have to try that for stains. Since I have the washing soda I've been spraying tough stains with OxiClean then soaking them in washing soda water. Even old stains have come out. I don't worry at all about stains anymore.
ReplyDeleteJo, Valeskey's is a smaller grocery store. I'd think you could find the stuff in Dutch-Way's laundry aisle. Maybe Wal-Mart sells it too. I never checked.
Actually, I am wrong...my recipe uses 1/2c. Borax. :) And with mine you fill a container 1/2 full of the homemade detergent and the rest of the way full of water and then only use these amounts:
ReplyDelete- Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
- Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)
However, I forgot about the diluting part and have been using full strength.
There. Now I corrected my mistake! :)
One thing. If someone has a high efficiency (HE) washer, I think 1 cup might be a lot of detergent for them.