After digging up advice from my dear friends Erin and Annie (who are both my "soap experts") and arming myself with these 4 ingredients I am ready to take on homemade laundry detergent!! I've been experimenting with a few recipes the past few weeks to find out what works best for me and my family!! I'm so excited about this!! I cant believe I haven't tried this before, its ridiculously easy!!! I prefer the powder detergent...just cause every time I have liquid detergent I end up with a big spill and it is quite frustrating to clean up! At least with powder you can just bust out the vacuum and not have to worry about a ton of sticky suds to mop up. 
However, I was very frustrated with the idea of grating the soap and having chunks of soap for my machine to have to dissolve. I want to be able to use cold cycles and not wind up with chunks of soap melted to my clothes in the dryer. This is by far my favorite of the recipes...which is actually the combination of several recipes because it just works well for me and my family!- 2 cup Borax
- 2 cup Washing Soda
- 1/2 cup Baking Soda
- 1 Bar Fels Naptha
This size batch last me at least a month to a month and a half...and let me tell ya, I do alot of laundry around here! Its so ridiculously easy and FUN and my laundry is so fresh and clean! I use 1-2 tablespoons per load. I have a front load Whirlpool duet washing machine and this recipe works great with my machine!
I also found a few tips and tricks for getting the soap bar super fine...and this is SO FUN!! I use it as our science experiment for school that day and the kids loved it!
1 bar of Fels-Naptha on a large plate...put it in the microwave for 90 seconds. The small air pockets in the bar of soap will expand in the microwave causing it to puff up like a sponge! After 60 seconds it has started to expand. After 90 seconds its all puffy and crumbly! Just let it rest & cool in the microwave...otherwise the smell will be quite strong at this point! Since the Soap bar has been puffed up and all crumbly you don't need to worry about it turning into a brick at the bottom of your blender...which happened to me once and is quite frustrating to clean out. Then you just need to break it apart into the blender with your Borax and Washing Soda and you have a super fine Laundry Powder!!
When your clothes are clean and smell fresh, it actually makes doing laundry fun...especially when you have this little laundry buddy...
So glad you found a recipe that works for you! It's time for me to make my next batch - looking forward to trying the microwave trick :)
ReplyDeleteThe microwave trick is quite interesting!!! The kids sure loved it...it does produce a rather potent smell so dont whip it out of the microwave too soon. Micah would love to see it...do it when he is over sometime :) You can always micro it and then toss it in a baggie once it cool to make your detergent later. Let me know how it goes!
DeleteIt's in the microwave right now cooling :) Actually, I'm making a double batch, so I get to do another one, too. My house smells so clean and I haven't even lifted a finger!
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a great idea! I've been making the liquid lately because the soap in the dry didn't dissolve in my washer... I look forward to trying this!
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ReplyDeletethe microwave trick is interesting. I wonder if it would work for Ivory soap, which I prefer.... I think I'll try it next time I make a batch. Thanks for sharing!
It works REALLY awesome on Ivory! Did it with the grandbabies!
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