Well, as promised, I experimented with laundry soap. I think it's a success :) There was something on the news about how when you wash your clothes, you just basically recycle the germs around your washing machine and redistribute them throughout your whole load. The example they gave was something like the germs on your underwear being deposited on your handkerchiefs. Gross. There is a simple way to get past this - sunlight kills those pesky little germs. If we all hung our clothes outside on a line, this wouldn't be a problem. But we haven't had a sunny day here in over a month. Not to mention, it's not warm outside, and clothes would take forever to dry.
The reason for my experiment with laundry soap is money. Wow, it's expensive! We have an HE machine, so we have to use the HE detergent, which can be more expensive too.
All the ingredients can be found at Kroger on the laundry soap aisle. The only thing we could find at Wal-Mart was the Borax. Here is the recipe I went with:
Homemade Laundry Soap:
4 c. hot tap water
1 Fels Naptha soap bar
1 c. Washing soda (not baking soda)
1/2 c. Borax
*Grate the bar of soap. We decided it would be easier to use a food processor or something. Add soap to a LARGE pan with the water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until the soap completely dissolves and is melted.
*Fill a 5-gallon bucket 1/2 full of hot tap water. Add the melted soap, washing soda, and borax. If the water is really hot, this step will go really fast. Stir well until all the powder is dissolved. Fill the bucket to the top with more hot tap water (but leave room for stirring tomorrow). Stir, cover, and let it sit overnight to thicken. It will thicken and also turn into gel.
*The next day, stir it up. Spoon it into a used clean container (we used cleaned out gallon milk jugs) with 1/2 jug of soap and then fill with water. You have to shake it up before each use.
*The instructions I found said if you want it to smell good, you can add about 20 drops of essential oils to each jug. To combat those pesky little germs, we added 20 drops of Tea Tree Oil. Tea tree oil is an anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-microbial. We also did one jug with Sandalwood essential oil, and it smelled good too.
*Yield - 10 gallons of liquid laundry soap. Think how much money you just saved!
Top loading machine - 5/8 c. per load - This is really close to 2/3 c. on my measuring cup in case you're wondering how much 5/8 c. is.
Front loading machine - 1/4 c. per load.
You can increase if your clothes are really dirty or smelly.
*Tip - some people said the Borax might leave a residue akin to soap scum inside your machine over time, so they recommend putting 1/2 c. plain vinegar in each load to combat this. I just pour it right on top of my clothes at the beginning. Another benefit is that the vinegar helps to soften your clothes. Some people just use vinegar instead of fabric softener, but my clothes weren't soft enough with just vinegar. We have really hard water, though.
If you try this, please share your results with me. I'm interested to see what others find. Also, if you scent yours, tell me what you used and how it turned out.
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