{"id":1066,"date":"2012-05-29T23:34:51","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T04:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2013-01-04T16:00:59","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T21:00:59","slug":"homemade-laundry-soap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/05\/homemade-laundry-soap\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Mom’s “Back to Basics” Campaign: Homemade Laundry Soap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has anyone else noticed the prices of laundry detergent skyrocketing<\/a>?***<\/p>\n

How about Tide for nearly $12 per bottle<\/a> (24 loads)??? Or $12 for 40 of those new Tide Pod<\/a> thingies? I’ve been paying about $7-8 for a bottle of All Free & Clear, which advertised 64 loads of laundry for the size I bought. I only use about 1\/2 of the recommended dose (really, it doesn’t take much detergent to cut odors and do cursory cleaning). So lets say I get 100 loads of laundry for $8. So $0.08 per load, right?<\/p>\n

I figured I’d try this classic recipe for homemade laundry detergent<\/a>, using less chemicals and additives than what’s in the popular commercial laundry detergents. I first saw this detergent referenced by the Duggar family<\/a>\u00a0several years ago…they had made a documentary years before TLC picked them up for a reality show. In the show, the Duggars covered some of the basics of their household: how they did laundry, how the kids chose their clothes, how they grocery shopped and how they cooked. They made brief mention of their homemade laundry detergent.<\/p>\n

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The cast of characters. “Washing soda”, Borax, a 3 oz. of soap of your choosing and a 5-gallon bucket. Fels-Naptha is a popular choice for its stain-fighting power. I ended up not using a Firehouse Subs pickle bucket, it smelled too pickle-y, but you get the idea of the size of the container needed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are several variations on this recipe, and there are different schools of thought on using a liquid vs. non-liquid version of this recipe<\/a>. If you want to keep it easy, just run the bar soap through a food processor (get one at a thrift shop expressly for grinding up soap so you don’t have to have soapy food) and combine it with the washing soda and borax. Store it and use about 1 TBSP per load of laundry. The thing to watch for with the non-liquid detergent is that the soap may not dissolve too well in cold water washes. If you use cold-water for laundry, I recommend you proceed with making the liquid version.<\/p>\n

Start with 4 cups of water on the stove with enough heat to bring it to a simmer (not a boil). Cut 3 oz. of the bar soap and either run it through the (non-) food processor or grate it with an inexpensive box grater dedicated to crafts or food-prep. \u00a0Dump the gratings into the water and heat until the soap completely melts. \u00a0It is not necessary to boil the soap solution — the mission here is to dissolve the soap, which can happen well below 212F.<\/p>\n

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You don’t need a full bar of Fels Naptha for this recipe. Just 3 oz, which is about 3\/5 of this bar. Two bars of Fels Naptha will suffice for 3 batches of homemade laundry soap. At $0.97 per bar, not bad!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Why YES, it will look like you’re grating cheddar cheese….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Dissolve the soap into the water. It looks kinda gross, but your patience will be rewarded.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then you merely dump the hot melted soapy water into the five-gallon bucket, and add the Borax and washing soda. Stir to dissolve completely, and then proceed to fill the bucket with water. I filled it about 80% of the way.<\/p>\n

Let sit overnight, the solution will thicken. Mine got pretty thick.<\/p>\n

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This solidified into a consistency almost like Jello. Like a watery-Jello, actually.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And here is where I’m still not sure what to do next. The Frugal Kiwi recipe said to merely add 1\/2 cup of this jelly solution to my wash, but the gel didn’t make it through the dispenser too well.<\/p>\n

Other recipes suggest further diluting the gel, so I took an old All Free & Clear bottle and further diluted the gel by 1\/2. It’s now more watered down and I could add 1\/2 cup of this to my laundry.<\/p>\n

Are my clothes getting clean? Yes. Does it fight stains? No better than All did…for tougher stains I had always used Shout or a Stain Stick. I will probably still need to do that. Are my clothes whiter or brighter? Not sure. I’ve only used this for one weekend. The Frugal Kiwi published a testimonial here with a fan who used the recipe on a batch of steam floor cleaner pads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoy a cost breakdown of what financial savings this will bring you. \u00a0Prices are based on an average of my local prices and what I can find online. \u00a0I found all three of these products in a row at my local Navarre Walmart on the laundry detergent aisle, but near the fabric softener, not by the laundry detergent itself.<\/p>\n

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda<\/a> = $3.99 per 55 oz. box. Used about 1\/7 of the box (8 oz.) = $0.57
\n Borax<\/a> = $4.99 per 76 oz. box. Used about 1\/10 of the box (8 oz.) = $0.50
\n Fels-Naptha<\/a> = $0.97 per 5.5 oz. bar. Used 2\/3 of the bar (3.5 oz.) = $0.65<\/p>\n

I’ll estimate about 110 loads of laundry from this recipe (based on the Frugal Kiwi’s estimate). Which will bring the cost per load of laundry to $0.0172!<\/p>\n

1\/4 the cost of using All Free & Clear…which still has a bunch of unnecessary chemicals.<\/a><\/p>\n

The borax and washing soda I bought will also be used in some experimental homemade automatic dishwasher detergent<\/a>. \u00a0Coming up soon!<\/p>\n

***That article I cited above was tongue-in-cheek. \u00a0It later was determined that there is NOT a nationwide Tide-theft epidemic.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has anyone else noticed the prices of laundry detergent skyrocketing?*** How about Tide for nearly $12 per bottle (24 loads)??? Or $12 for 40 of those new Tide Pod thingies? I’ve been paying about $7-8 for a bottle of All Free & Clear, which advertised 64 loads of laundry for the size I bought. I … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[255,253,33,256,257],"class_list":["post-1066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-back-to-basics","tag-homemade","tag-housework","tag-laundry","tag-laundry-detergent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t