Mar. 20, 2007 - Making Laundry Soap
In a past issue of The OldSchoolhouse Mag. they had an article about making your own liquid laundry detergent. It involved mixing washing soda with hot water, etc.. Looks interesting but maybe a little too involved for me. I was really happy to read MamaDuke's post about making powdered laundry detergent and I decided to give that a try.
You only need 3 simple items which I found at my local supermarket (TOPS). View pictures of these items at Soaps Gone Buy.
1 box 20 Mule Team Borax
1 box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap
To make the detergent I took 1 cup EACH of borax and washing soda and mixed with 1 bar ofgrated soap. You use 2 to 3 TBLs. per load (depending on your load size). I got the bigger boys involved by breaking the bar of Fels Naptha apart and giving them each a grater. It took just 10 - 15 minutes to get the job done.
(finished laundry detergent)
HERE ARE MY RESULTS:
I have been really pleased with the way this home made laundry detergent is washing our clothes!
It smells very fresh but doesn't leave a scent on the clothes. They are also very soft and require no fabric softener! It dissolves completely - even in cold water. I haven't tried it with anything too tricky like grass stains or mud but I plan too.
I tried to come up with a good estimate of what it costs me to use it. I never buy regular powdered detergent because it seemed to clump up some times in the wash. Buying a 100 fl. oz. bottle of liquid laundry detergent would average $2.99. That's 26 loads (according to the bottle) or .12 per load.
20 Mule Team Borax is $3.50/box for a 76 oz. box. (9 cups total or .39cents/batch.)
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda is $2.50/box for a 55 oz. box (7 cups total or .35cents/batch)
1 bar of Fels Naptha Soap is $1.09 - you need a whole bar
That's comes out to be about $1.83 per batch and I'm thinking I will get roughly 20 loads per batch so it would cost me .09 cents per load. Not a huge savings but it's very easy to mix this up and if I find the ingredients on sale it would be even less expensive. If you omit fabric softener you would save even more $. (FYI, if my memory is correct, making the liquid detergent was only about .05 cents per load)
For everyday washing its great.
"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags..." Isaiah 64:6
