Homemade laundry detergent is really easy to make! Not sure if there is a cost savings in doing this, but I like being able to, more or less, control what goes into my washing my clothes. The basic recipe I use is as follows:
1 bar of castile soap, grated
1 cup washing soda (not baking soda)
1 cup borax
Place all ingredients in a food processor and process till it's a fine powder. Let the mixture settle before opening. You do NOT want to breathe in soap particles because let me tell you, it's most unpleasant! Anyways, if you're worried about the grains being too big to dissolve in cold water, let the powder dry out for a day and process again. Put into a container and sprinkle 2 tablespoons per full load.
Once the wash goes into the rinse cycle, I add about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of white vinegar as the fabric softener. Vinegar does everything you want a fabric softener to do, except smell nice. It softens clothes, dissolves residual laundry soap and has anti-static properties. Once the clothes dry, the vinegar smell is gone.
If you're looking for a liquid laundry detergent, I believe you can place the ingredients above in a large pot add about 1 gallon of hot water. Mix until everything is melted and pour into a container. It's supposed to gel up. Use about 1/2 cup per full load.
You can find other laundry recipes here:
http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/
and an FAQ on homemade detergent here:
http://tipnut.com/homemade-laundry-detergent/
I don't have a dryer so I air-dry all my clothes on racks. Applying heat to your clothes makes them wear out faster. It also can shrink your clothes in some cases. That is not to say I wouldn't want a dryer. It's difficult to dry queen-sized bedsheets on racks because you can't dry anything else while the bed sheets are taking up all the space. At the very least, I would dry large items in the dryer. In any case, I don't have one right now so I do the best I can without one.
3 comments:
I've been wanting to make my own laundry detergent for a few months now, ever since I found a recipe online that was so simple. And then the walmart by me stopped selling washing soda! It never occured to me to simply order some online. *smacks self*
The site I found is this:
http://www.texashomesteader.com/2009/06/19/making-laundry-detergent/
It needs a 5-gallon bucket.
Now I just have to buckle down and DO IT. :) Your post about it has me convinced I need to do it.
Great site!
A lot of people have problems finding washing soda, myself included. I've had decent results doubling the amount of baking soda and I recently found a site that claims you can make washing soda by baking baking soda.
http://www.welltellme.com/discuss/index.php?topic=20783.0
Ahh, another site to bombard my brain with information! :)
Thank you.
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