Sunday, February 27, 2011

Home Made Laundry Detergent

If you know me well, you know that I try my best NOT to use any chemicals in my cooking and I'm trying to do the same in my cleaning, so you can imagine my excitement when I found this recipe for Home Made Laundry Detergent!! I love it! We all tend to have skin issues and I've noticed an improvement since we started using this detergent.  If you do the math you will find that it costs only about a penny a load, which is awesome in itself.  Add the health benefits and it's that much better!!

You Need:

(Yields 10 gallons of laundry detergent)

4 Cups of hot water
1 Bar of soap
1 Cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 Cup of Borax

Directions:

Grate your bar of soap and add to sauce pan with your water.  Stir continuously over medium high heat until soap dissolves.    Fill a 5-gallon bucket half full with hot water.  Add melted soap, washing soda and borax.  Stir well until powder is disolved.  Fill to top with hot water.  Let sit over night to thicken.

After your soap has thickened stir and fill a used, clean detergent container half way.  Fill container the rest of the way with hot water.  Shake before each use. 

Tips: 

  • Recomended soap:  Ivory, Fels-Naptha, Zote, or Sun Light 
  • I use my food processor to grate my bar of soap.  It's soap.  It's clean!!  Just rince it well with HOT water when youre done.  I like to do it the easy way!
  • Be sure you get Arm & Hammer SUPER WASHING SODA.  Don't confuse this with Baking Soda.  Baking Soda will not work. You can get your super washing soda in the laundry detergent isle. 
  • You can your 5-gallon bucket free at a deli/bakery.  Just ask.  You never know what you can get till you ask!
  • This laundry soap does not make suds.  Just remember suds doesn't clean clothes.  The soap does.   This soap doesn't have a strong smell.  If you enjoy smelling your clothes when they are clean you may want to add 10 - 15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons of soap.  (Recommended oils:  lavender, rosemary, or tea tree oil)

Wesley stiring the laundry detergent.   


DRYER SHEETS:

Why stop at laundry detergent??  I even make my own dryer sheets.  I can imagine that this would sound crazy to some, but when your dog shreds and deposits thousand of dryer sheets under your bed and your son pulls them out of his pant leg while out in public you start to wonder if there is an easier way!

And Guess What!!  There is!!!    I don't chase the dog around yelling "drop it; drop it, I said!"  any more.  I'm all about making life easier on myself!  So here's what I do:

Ingredients:

Directions:

Pour fabric softener in bucket.  Add 2 parts water.  (Fill your fabric softner container with water twice and add to bucket.)  Mix well.  Throw in your sponges.  Ring your sponge out and add it to dryer with your clean, wet clothes.  Return sponge to mixture when clothes are dry. 

There you have it!!  Life is easier already!  =)

  My "dryer sheets".  
I really have issues when it comes to doing laundry, so I made my bucket as pretty and colorful as possible and believe it or not, it helps me out.  ;)

Other homemade cleaning supplies you may be interested in:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We'd love to invite you to connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.  Or you can choose to have our post delivered directly to your E-mail or RSS feed.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

14 comments:

  1. This is so neat I will try it

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was wondering.. do you think homemade soap would work to grate in this recipe? Possibly castile or such? Just wondering lol :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Probably. You could certainly give it a try. I like castile too,and, I actually thought about using it in the detergent myself. We should try it! Let me know what you think.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm very excited to make my own laundry detergent and NO MORE IRONING by using your method.
    Thanks,
    Leah

    ReplyDelete
  5. as a missionary living in Jamaica I can't find washing soda anywhere. Is there anything that I can substitute. I had to have a visitor bring me Borax but I thought I could use Baking soda but I see that you said it doesn't work. Sorry to bother you with questions.

    raising4princesses@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. No, don't be sorry! I love to get comments! I am sorry that I don't know the answer. I will have to look into this for you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was wondering if you have a recipe for laundry soap that is safe for cloth diapers and wont cause build up?

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you're worried about build up, you can put a half a cup of vinegar in your washing machine during the rinse cycle. That will help to remove buildup and whiten your whites. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is so great, thanks for sharing! Wondering how much you use per load... a cap full?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I was also wondering how much detergent you use in each wash.

    ReplyDelete
  11. How much do you use per load?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I use about a half a cup...or whatever a regular scoop of commercial laundry detergent would be. (Making some tonight, actually!) ;)

      Delete
  12. I love making my own laundry soap. I leave mine concentrated though so it takes up way less room (not a lot of storage) you only need 1 tablespoon how I make it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I make my own dryer sheets by using fabric softener and water on a rag and ringing it out before tossing rag in the dryer. It works great. Are the sponges reusable?

    ReplyDelete