Thursday, May 5, 2011

Homemade Laundry Detergent

 As an adult there is a lot of stuff I do that I never thought I would : make meals from scratch, coupon to save money(and get excited about it!), have the lowest package available from Dish Network(we only have gasp around 20 channels..still a lot but not like most) and do laundry make homemade laundry detergent. I hate laundry but like cleaning, it's a necessary evil. I can't have my kids running around in dirty clothes even if they are going to spill something on them exactly 2.5 minutes after I put them in a clean outfit. So I rant and rave like a mad women about how I don't see the point in doing laundry if I just have to do it again tomorrow remember the scripture about doing all things as if you were doing them for the Lord and gladly wash my clothes and dry them.(After all, I could be like so many who don't even have a house to do laundry in or I could be completely with out a stitch of clothing except what is on my back, so in this I really am grateful for my laundry.)  So I came across a recipe for homemade laundry detergent on The Hud-sons and one pretty princess and decided to give it a try because A. I am all about saving money when I can and B. Holly has 5 kids and I trust any mamma who has to do more laundry than I do!

What you'll need:

I'm not sure why it's so blurry but you'll need:

  • 2 cups of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
  • 2 cups of Borax
  • 1 bar of Fels-Naptha(or Ivory) soap
You shave the bar of soap, I used a cheese grater, this is the hardest and longest part of the process, it took about 5 minutes and soap elbow grease. Not really that bad!

My kids thought it was cheese and wanted to eat it. I told them no but they still looked at me like maybe I was keeping it a secret and it really was cheese and not soap.

Next you stir the grated cheese soap with the Borax and Soda wash and store it in your old way to expensive Gain laundry detergent box. (Yesterday, I did buy a plastic container with a lid at Aldi for around $2.00 to store my detergent in. It works like a charm!)

How to use it:
 The same way you do with Gain, Tide, etc. You add 1-3 tablespoons of the detergent to the wash,(depending on how large your load is) turn it on, add clothes and voila, you have clean clothes that smell, well clean! And the good news is, I bought another bar of soap and still have enough borax and soda wash that I can make another batch. So for less than $8.00 I have enough laundry detergent to last me around 2 months. Yay! So be adventuresome and take the challenge to save some money and do something you never thought you would!



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1 comment:

  1. I bought all my supplies a couple of weeks ago and still have yet to have time to actually make it!!! You inspire me, so for mother's day I am going to make homemade laundry detergent by golly!!! Great post, I will be copying it soon (hopefully)with my own pictures of the process!

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