I stay at home with Liam now, so I get bored at naptime and spend a bit of time on Pinterest.
I made laundry soap!
It actually works, it smells great, and it made a ton. As in, I won't need to buy detergent for a year, and I do probably 2 loads of laundry a week.
I really like this stuff. It's great for my clothes, Ricky's uniforms, and all of Liam's clothing.
As far as towels, sheets, I still love my soap nuts.
(a big thanks to Angelina for introducing me to soap nuts)
I like the soap nuts for cloth diapers as well. If the detergent I made didn't contain the scented part, I think it would be safe to use on them, however. I'm on a mission to find the perfect CD safe detergent recipe.
So.
My laundry soap.
I failed to take pictures at every stage, so I'm sorry. Boo.
You'll need:
A 5 gallon bucket with a lid for mixing
1 box (55 oz) Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
4 lbs Arm and Hammer Baking Soda
1 box (76oz) Borax (not boric acid)
2 bars of Zote Soap or 3 bars Fels Naptha (found in the detergent aisle)
*I used 1 bar of Zote and 1.5 bars of Fels Naptha*
A 3lb tub of Oxiclean Free
1 container of Downy Unstoppables *totally optional*
A food processor
Okay. So pour your borax, Oxiclean, and washing soda into the bucket. Shake it all around with the lid on. Or make your husband do it because you're pregnant and your back hurts ;)
Now it gets a little more involved.
Grate the bars of soap. You can do this by hand (like I did, because I'm an idiot) or you can use the shredding blade on the food processor.
Once the soap is all grated, pulse it in batches with the baking soda and the Unstoppables in the food processor. This took about 2-3 batches for me. Don't overload the food processor, obviously.
Add all the pureed goodness to the bucket. Commence mixing and shaking.
That's it.
I use about 2 tbsp per average sized load of laundry.
I have a front loading HE machine, and I just toss this into the drum instead of watering it down and using the dispenser, which you can totally do if you want!
I keep the big bucket in the garage and I have a smaller container that I keep next to the washing machine. I haven't had any problems removing stains or having the detergent discolor anything.
Hooray for making soap!
