Laundry Soap
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 2:14PM Aside from posts about Coraline, I think the thing I talk about most is laundry. Every mother out there knows that laundry is the never ending battle! I'm not complaining, make no mistake, just pointing out that I do laundry everyday without fail. Some days I swear to myself that the laundry can wait, I'm not going to touch it and then we spill something on a rug or the cat vomits on something, you all know the drill.
I feel like it is my personal mission to test every laundry soap out there, if you read my reviews, you know that I have done a great job. I'm committed to using all natural cleaners, I will not budge on this topic. There are more all natural cleaners out there then I had ever thought possible. I finally figured out why that is, because it is really simple to make laundry soap. Yep, I'm sure some of you mamas have been in the know for years! Here I was sitting in the dark thinking laundry soap was some magical concoction only to be purchased. I made my own laundry soap this weekend, turns out it is one of the easiest d.i.y. projects ever.
These are my supplies...
1 Bar Castile Soap (mine is Burt's Bees Rosemary Mint but Dr. Bronners would be great)
Baking Soda
Borax
Washing Soda*
Fels Napatha (which I didn't end up including)
Empty Jar
* I could not find Washing Soda anywhere! I looked in all of our supermarkets to no avail. Maybe because I live in the city and city moms clearly don't make their own laundry soap? I'm not sure. Anyway, it is available online for sure, made by Arm & Hammer, Ida from Trees Will Bend brought me some, hence the plastic bag :)
Step 1
Gather Supplies
Step 2
Using a cheese grater, grate the bar of castile soap into a very fine powder. This is the most time consuming step, I think it took a whole 5 minutes.
Step 3
Measure all of your ingredients into your jar. This is what my measurements were...
1 cup castile soap
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup washing soda
Step 4
Put it all in the jar and shake til it is well mixed, with the lid on clearly
Step 5
Oh, you are done. No step 5. I labeled my jar. Ready to use. It took me 10 minutes from gathering the ingredients to sticking the label on.
I use 2 Tablespoons per load in my front loading HE machine.
The best part of the whole thing is not even the satisfaction I got from making my own laundry soap but the fact that it totally works. I washed my sheets first and they came out clean and soft and smelling good. I haven't tried it on my diapers yet, I still have 2 bags of my favorite diaper soap Rockin Green. I have a hunch that I won't have to purchase laundry soap any more though!
Cost
I know all of you thrifty mamas want to know if it is cost effective!
Borax $5.00 for 76 ounces, I used 4 ounces... .26cents
Washing Soda should cost about $4 for 55 ounces, I used 4 ounces ... .29cents
Baking Soda $.50cents for 1lb... 1/2 cup... .12cents
Castile Soap $4 for 1 bar, I used the whole bar.
Jar...free
Total $4.67
I made 2 1/2 cups of soap. That means I will get 20 loads of laundry done. Which equals .23 cents a load. Yep, totally cost effective.
Reader Comments (5)
I love this recipe, we use the wet version but I think I'd like to try the dry next time! I won't have to lug around a 5 gallon bucket (ugh since i'm preggo and all ;)
Let us know about cleaning power and if you figure out a way to add scent your soap!!
Billie! I totally should have mentioned that the scent comes from the castile bar soap! It is great, my laundry smells like mint!
With cloth diapers you should make a soap-free version because I heard that soap is hard on the liner in diapers. I think for them you would just use Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Carbonate, and an Oxygen Cleaner.
I linked to this post:
http://cheapandcreative.blogspot.com/2010/07/homemade-laundry-soap.html