Home Made Laundry Soap and More

Home Made Laundry Detergent

About a month and a half ago Kristen shared an awesome recipe for home made laundry detergent. At first I was very skeptical about the idea of making my own laundry detergent, but the price was right, twenty bucks. The recipe is suppose to last a year, but with four kids and TON of laundry I know I will get six month out of one batch, but hope it will last nine or ten months. I am extremely happy with the results and was shocked to see my cloths cleaner using what I made then the detergent I bought in the store!!!

* 1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

* 1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

* 1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

* 3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, or 2 Zote bars, or one box of Zote flakes; found in the         detergent isle 

* 2 small containers of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg)) found in the detergent isle. This is optional, since I have kids it gets my cloths cleaner, but you could reduce it to one container or nothing at all.

*** You should be able to find all of these items at your grocery store, but I found everything except the Borax at Wal-Mart. I ended up finding the Borax at Target, but your best bet is to look these items up on your smart phone (I use the ShopSavvy App) to reduce the amount of trips!!

**Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load. I know that does not seem like enough but this recipe does not have fillers like the store bought detergent so you only need 1-2 Tablespoons. Instead of buying a measuring spoon I use the Oxy scoop, the first line is equivalent to a Tablespoon and the second line is equivalent to two tablespoons.** 

Start out by grating your Fels-Naptha/Zote soap just like cheese. You can use a food processor or just use your hand held grater, what ever you have. Those of you with an HE washer may want to run the mix through the grater again to get an even finer mix.

**Don't worry the Fels-Naptha/Zote will dissolve in your washer even if you only use cold water like me.**

 

OR

If you buy the Zote flakes you can for go this step all together and save a lot of time.

Toss all ingredients in a 5 gallon bucket lined with a garbage bag or toss it all in just the garbage bag and start mixing. This part makes your whole house smell great. Once everything is mixed store soap however you like. 

The recipe makes about 2 gallons worth of detergent. 

Walmart has large glass jars in the kitchen department. I ended up buying one large glass container and one small glass container. The little bit that didn't fit in the two containers I put into the Oxy containers.

This detergent is fairly mild smelling, it is not over powering. If you love a strong scent you may have to add a fabric softener or laundry crystals to each load. You can find laundry crystals in the detergent isle as well.

**The detergent does get hard after a few days, but just break it back up and it will stay loose after that. 

**This is not safe for cloth diapers because it contains baking soda which affects how the diaper is able to soak up liquid.

**Safe to use with children and/or adults with sensitive skin (My two year old has extremely sensitive skin and he has had no reaction to the detergent)

**Safe for HE washers, just add it in with your cloths and not in the soap dispenser, very little suds.

**USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

I would like to thank Being Creative (to keep my sanity) for sharing her WONDERFUL and life changing recipe for home make laundry detergent!! If you get a chance go and check her blog out she has a TON of awesome ideas!!

http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html

Fabric Softener

I also was very fortunate to find many recipes for fabric softener as well. I was very skeptical because I didn't want to leave a film on my clothes or have an over powering smell of vinegar or perfume. The recipe I finally settled on is exactly what I want a fabric softener; it leave the cloths soft and doesn't have a strong scent of vinegar or perfume. I love that it is in expensive, very easy to make, and leaves your cloths soft.

• 
  
• 6 cups HOT water
• 3 cups white vinegar
• 2 cups (I used the 15 oz bottle) Suave Lavender Scented Conditioner (or other favorite scent)

1) Boil your water on the stove and mix the conditioner in making sure it completely dissolves.

• 
  2) Add the vinegar, and mix well.
• 
  Store in a large container (empty fabric softener container, empty large vinegar bottle, glass juice container,  etc)
• 
  Use approx. 2 tbsp. in the fabric softener dispenser in your washing machine.

You can also place it in a spray bottle and spray it on a washcloth to throw in the dryer to use as a fabric softener sheet.