Pages

stuff

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Homemade laundry detergent...Easy peasy.

I was afraid that they wouldn't let me use this blog anymore since it's been so long since I last posted!  I originally started this blog to talk about teaching and my adventures but I have so many things that I enjoy talking about. :)  

I have been working on many home improvement projects around the house and trying new ideas.  The newest idea that I tried was making my own laundry detergent.  My mom made her own liquid formula for a while but it was annoying and ugly while stored in bulk (5 gallon bucket in the bathroom anyone?).  

She tried again after finding this post on Pinterest, tweaked it a bit and gave some to my husband and I.  We loved it!  I was bummed when it ran out because I figured that it would take me FOREVER to make or have some random ingredients so I didn't even attempt it.  

I was wrong!!!!  I decided to give it a go...and it went well!  For some reason, finding the ingredients (all 3 of them) was difficult.  I went to Target first and only found the Borax (and the pretty jar it ended up in but I don't consider that an ingredient).  Instead of putting the Borax back I decided to buy it anyway, which was a good thing because Wal-mart only had the baking soda and Fels Naptha soap...no Borax in sight.  Oy vey.

So, here's what you need to get started:  three 5.5 oz bars of Fels Naptha soap (approx. 16 oz total), eight 16 oz boxes of baking soda (I found 76 oz boxes, so I only had to buy two), one 76 oz box of Borax, a bucket to mix in, a cheese grater and an optional "prettified" container to store it in.


First, grate the bars of soap into the bucket using the cheese grater.  I thought that my pieces may have been a little too long so I crunched them up a bit using my hands.

Second, pour the box of Borax into the bucket.  Mix the soap and Borax well with your hand.  I took my wedding and Memere ring off while I did this.  I didn't think it would hurt them, but better safe than sorry!

Third, mix in each box of baking soda well.  I mixed for a couple of minutes to make sure that everything was evenly distributed.

Once everything was mixed well, I used an old cottage cheese container to scoop the mixture into my "prettified" container.





I had enough for two containers!  You only need about 2 tablespoons of the mixture per load.  The directions I gave my handsome husband were, "Big load, two scoops.  Little load, one scoop."  I have to make things super simple for him to adopt them as habits. :)

When all was said and done, this took me 20 minutes and cost $12 for the ingredients and bucket. The "prettified" container was around $7.50 at Target.

Let's see how long this lasts us!



2 comments:

  1. Try running the grated soap and soda through the food processor then add the borax. It will dissolve easier in the washer and is more HE friendly. You can also use Zote soap in place of the fels naptha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the tip! And thanks for stopping by :)

      Delete