As a first timer, it took me 45 minutes to make 2.5 gallons of liquid detergent that will be consumed at ¼ cup per load. That's more than 150 loads of laundry for my investment and I have plenty of stuff left over to make more.
Think about it: corporations have used media to convince us that what our grandparents used (homemade detergents) wasn't good enough. They use pride and status to urge people to use their products, not make their own. Give up some TV time and you save loads of money.
Surprise testimonial while in the store:
My wife thought I was going overboard making our own soap, but last week she agreed to try it and if it didn't work, she would switch back. Good enough. Be bought the three ingredients, 20 Mule Team Borax (a naturally occurring chemical from Death Valley), washing soda (another natural compound) and Fels Naptha soap (as far as I can tell, made from natural ingredients). We placed these in the bottom of our grocery cart away from the foods and continued shopping.
"Excuse me, excuse me – sorry to bother you," a woman in her late 20s said as she stopped us. "I couldn't help but notice what you have there – do you make your own laundry soap?" I said it was our first time and we were going to try it.
"I've been making it for quite a while and it really works. Now my sister-in-law and mother are making theirs too. It really works and saves so much money."
Later my wife accused me of secretly planting the woman there to convince her I wasn't some odd freak of nature trying to make my own detergent.
The recipe:
There are tons of recipes. I used a simple one 1 bar Fels Naptha soap; 1 cup Borax, 1 cup Washing Soda with 1 quart water plus 8 quarts of water.
Steps:
1) Place a quart of water on the stove and boil it
2) While you wait for the water to boil, grate the bar of soap, it will make about 2 cups'
3) Reduce the heat after the water boils
4) Add the grated soap in small amounts and stir until all is dissolved. This takes the longest, about 30 minutes.
5) Add the Borax and Washing Soda, stir until dissolved
6) Add this to a large pail and add 8 quarts of warm water, stir
7) Cover and let sit for at least 24 hours before use. It will gel.
When you get ready to use it, you will need to stir the gel to mix it and measure out ¼ cup per load.
Some things to note:
If you are allergic to perfumes, you can control that by not adding any perfumes to this. If you like perfumes, then add ½ to 1 ounce of essence oil.
This soap doesn't foam or create a lot of suds. Suds don't do the work or the cleaning, the recipe does that. Again, corporate media has convinced people that suds are an important component to cleaning "scrubbing bubbles" who doesn't remember that advertising phrase.
I had never heard of Fels Naptha before but found it in the laundry soap isle of a big-box store and then later at my local country grocer – seems it has been a spot cleaner used for years. The same with Washing Soda, the most common one available is Arm and Hammer. Don't confuse this with baking soda which is very different.
Alternate bar soaps can be used like Zote and Ivory, but the recipes I've found say stay away from the perfumed other brands.
You can reuse your old plastic liquid detergent containers and save space by doling out what you need from the large pail into the smaller more manageable container.
Here's some links with more recipes and blogs with people's comments on them.
10 commonly used recipes http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/
One family's recipe and story, the Duggars http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html
Comments from blog readers about their experiences: http://ihavetosay.typepad.com/randi/2009/03/laundry-soap-recipes.html
