Ok, ok, who am I fooling? I'm not even really a little "green," unless it doesn't involve too much of me going out of my way, OR it saves me money - which leads me to my latest project: making my own laundry detergent. I'll admit it; it's one thing I NEVER thought I'd do. I don't even remember what made me first look into it. The turning point in my mind was when I realized how much cheaper it is than buying a big box of Tide. So, I'm not green, but I AM always looking for a "deal."
Yesterday just so happened to be the day when I ran out of laundry detergent and made my own for the first time. It also happened to be a full day spent playing outside, which resulted in clothes with grass stains, dirt, and mud: the perfect test.
After some online research, here's the "recipe" I used (I wanted to do a powdered detergent because the homemade liquid just looks gross and sounds like too much work). All three of these ingredients were available at my Kroger. I barely made a dent in the boxes of borax and washing soda, so they'll last me a long time.
1 bar laundry soap (I used Fels Naptha - $1.29)
1 cup of borax (76 oz. box $3.99)
1 cup of washing (not baking!) soda (55 oz box $2.79)
(I think this is supposed to equal 40 loads worth, using 2 tablespoons per load - not bad for about $2!)
I grated the bar of soap and mixed the ingredients. Done! So easy. So simple. So fast. So cheap!
(I actually ended up dumping it all into the blender to get the soap bits it a little more "powdery," but I really don't think that was necessary.)
Best of all, the true test is that my load of clothes came fresh and clean (without any pre-treating). Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with this!
6 comments:
I've been mulling this over for a while now....might have to go ahead and try it!
I've been thinking about this for a while too, just haven't tried it yet. May have to call you to get more details on how you mixed it and what you put it in.
Anna
hmmm...i'm not so green either, but with all the laundry we do around here...the price of this is enticing!
Totally worth it! It literally took less than 5 minutes!
So I am using this, and it works very well, but one thing I did wrong. I didn't grate up the soap into small enough pieces, and they don't dissolve very well. I have to start out with very hot water. Next time I'm gonna go with a much finer grating. BTW, Leah sends her love to Pastor Andy, she misses him!
Hmm, I did using the zesting grating part, and I also threw it all into the blender after I was finished. I thought that was more of a "cosmetic" type reason, but maybe it's more important than I realize because I've been washing with only cold water and haven't had any problems with it dissolving. Thanks for the tip! :)
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