Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Laundry Soap Update (with recipe)

Ok, I get alot of questions about the laundry soap, so I thought I could answer a bunch of them here, and share the recipe in case you were interested.

Yes, it cleans awesome!  It even got the chemical smell out of our hot tub bathing suits, which no other cleaner has done.

No, it does not bother any of the people with sensitive skin/eczema in our family.

Yes, it is SUPER easy and fast to make, and I will definetly be doing this as an on going thing.

drum roll please....here is the recipe:
I got this from the Duggar's book: 20 and Counting!

1 bar of soap. ( apparently you can use any soap that doesn't have lots of extra moisturizers, like dove would.  I used a sunlight laundry soap bar, found in the laundry isle.  I like the slight lemony scent, but you could use any soap you like the smell of.  I found that the sunlight left no trace of scent at all once the clothes were washed.)
1 cup washing soda  (found in the laundry isle as well, and no you can't just use baking soda, the pH is a bit different, and it's important)
1/2cup borax  (Also in the laundry isle, basically a water softener)

Grate the soap into a saucepan.  Cover with water, and cook over med-low heat until it's all disolved. 
While soap is cooking, add washing soda and borax to a 5 gallon pail.  Pour in the hot melted soap and swish it all around until well mixed.  Fill bucket with hot tap water, seal the lid up well and let sit overnight.

Their directions say to mix this 50/50 with water when you put it into smaller containers to use daily ( I used a container from my old laundry soap), then use 1/3 cup for front load washers, or 1 cup for top loading machines.  The mixture is a pearly gel.  I found that I don't need to dilute it for my machine, I just use even less.  make sure to mix up the bucket as you take some out to use, and maybe shake your daily use container before you use it for a load.  I find that without all the chemical additives in commercial soaps, the ingredients seperate a bit.

Also, I put some of the undiluted soap in a squitry bottle, and use it as a stain treater, instead of buying expensive ones.

There are lots of similar recipes out there on the net, and even some dry detergent ones too, wh not give one a try?

3 comments:

  1. So are there no chemicals in this homemade stuff? Like, is it 'safe' to wash my Norwex cloths in (b/c they supposedly should not be washed with regular soaps b/c of all the chemicals).....??? I'm so glad it works so fabulously for you, Melissa!! :)

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  2. Well, I am no expert on the Norwex stuff. But Baking soda can't hurt them, and neither can a water softener(borax). And there is so little soap. Honestly, I have been washing my norwex cloths in it and they seem fine. I guess the only thing that could bug them might be in the soap, but there is so little of it. And, if you're using cleaning cloths, with cleaners, even the norwex stuff has to have some cleaning agent in it, right? I would go for it. But thats just me.

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  3. You might want to check directly from Norwex...you do have to be careful is my understanding as it can affect the silver particles, which is the whole purpose of using Norwex cloths. Call Norwex directly...then you will know for sure! It would be terrible to deactivate the silver and not know it when cleaning up something 'bacteria-wise'!!

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