It has been a hectic two weeks and I have not posted to either of my blogs because I have been so busy. First of all I had to make an unexpected trip to tow my nephew home to Utah from Baker California. I had 3 hours notice from the time we decided to go pick him up until I left. A few days later I went on an impromptu short trip with my man to Las Vegas (which would have been much more fun without the two year old - but at this point I will take what I can get). I now have house guest for another week and I am trying desperately to get organized enough again to post regularly to my blogs.......
I was very happy to have easy everyday food storage after a few weeks like this. My daughter that is a senior in high school, stayed home alone during my recent trips. She is so responsible!! I am so thankful to have a good daughter like her that I can trust to take care of the dogs and the house while I am away. I did not have to worry about going to the store before of after my trips and I did not have to worry about her eating junk food while I was gone. Before I walked out the door on my first trip, I put a casserole from my freezer in the oven for her to eat on while I was gone. She had plenty of things in 'the store' in the basement to eat for lunches and snacks. I did not have to worry about laundry soap or toilet paper or anything of that nature and it certainly makes it easier to just pick up and go when you have an organized 'store' of food and supplies. Speaking of laundry soap - that is what I want to share with you today.
I have not bought laundry soap in over 6 months now. I have been making my own and I am so pleased with the results that I now feel confident enough to tell you about it. Homemade laundry soap is not the old fashioned lye soap that grandma used to make - so there is no worry about having toxic fumes fill your kitchen. It is very economical too. I priced Tide at my local Walmart this week in preparation to share this with you. Where I live - it was $19.96 for a 96 load size of liquid Tide. That's about 21 cents per load. In contrast - making your own laundry soap is only about couple of pennies per load (depending on how much you use and which brand of bar soap you use to make it). You can get all three ingredients needed at your local grocery store. That's right - I said only 3 measly little ingredients and about 20 minutes on your stove top. It's super simple. Here's how to do it:
Home Made Laundry Soap
Ingredients:
1 bar Fel Naptha (you may also use Ivory soap (large sized bar) if this laundry bar is not available at your local store. In Utah - Fels Naptha can be found at your local Reams or Maceys in the laundry section.)
1 Cup Twenty Mule Team Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda (this is not the same as regular baking soda even though it is made by Arm and Hammer as well. It can be found in the laundry section of your super market. It is a detergent booster. it is also found in Reams here in Utah and Publix markets back East.)
Use your cheese grater to grate the Fel Naptha or Ivory soap into a bowl. Since these are non-toxic - you can grate them with your kitchen grater and not worry about using it on your food later. Use the smallest grate setting so the bar will melt easier later. Add the soda and borax and mix. You may use this detergent just as any other powdered detergent. Only use 2 TBS per load. In hard water areas try 3 TBS per load.
To make a liquid detergent (this is what I like to do), put 3 pints of water into a large stock pot. Add the grated bar, borax and soda. Stir over medium heat until the bar is completely dissolved and the mixture is thickened. Take your pot to the sink and add more warm water nearly to the top of the pot. Continue stirring. When it has cooled a little, pour mixture into a five gallon bucket and add more water to make approximately 4 1/2 gallons. Use a long handle wooden spoon to stir. (I have an attachment for my drill to stir paint that I bought at my local hardware store. That is how I stir my mixture, but I know not everyone will have this and a wooden spoon works just fine as well.) When all is done and the mixture is cooled enough to work with, use a funnel and 5 well cleaned milk jugs to store your product. I would use a two cup measure to pour from instead of trying to pour the mixture straight from the bucket into the funnel and milk jugs. Use only 1/2 cup per regular load. (1 cup if you have hard water)
Some people using well water might find that the mixture does not get clothes white enough in water with heavy minerals. If you're using very hard water, you might consider mixing the homemade version 50/50 with your expensive commercial detergent. We have very hard water in our town, but I have a water softener in my home and only have to use 1/2 cup per regular sized laundry load. I cannot say what your individual results may be. I think I would try using more of your homemade soap first before mixing it 50/50. Either way - it is still a significant savings. A five gallon bucket will yield 160 loads at 1/2 cup per load and only cost $2 per bucket to make. That's a far cry better than $20 for 96 loads of Tide and I can't notice a difference.
I was very happy to have easy everyday food storage after a few weeks like this. My daughter that is a senior in high school, stayed home alone during my recent trips. She is so responsible!! I am so thankful to have a good daughter like her that I can trust to take care of the dogs and the house while I am away. I did not have to worry about going to the store before of after my trips and I did not have to worry about her eating junk food while I was gone. Before I walked out the door on my first trip, I put a casserole from my freezer in the oven for her to eat on while I was gone. She had plenty of things in 'the store' in the basement to eat for lunches and snacks. I did not have to worry about laundry soap or toilet paper or anything of that nature and it certainly makes it easier to just pick up and go when you have an organized 'store' of food and supplies. Speaking of laundry soap - that is what I want to share with you today.
I have not bought laundry soap in over 6 months now. I have been making my own and I am so pleased with the results that I now feel confident enough to tell you about it. Homemade laundry soap is not the old fashioned lye soap that grandma used to make - so there is no worry about having toxic fumes fill your kitchen. It is very economical too. I priced Tide at my local Walmart this week in preparation to share this with you. Where I live - it was $19.96 for a 96 load size of liquid Tide. That's about 21 cents per load. In contrast - making your own laundry soap is only about couple of pennies per load (depending on how much you use and which brand of bar soap you use to make it). You can get all three ingredients needed at your local grocery store. That's right - I said only 3 measly little ingredients and about 20 minutes on your stove top. It's super simple. Here's how to do it:
Home Made Laundry Soap
Ingredients:
1 bar Fel Naptha (you may also use Ivory soap (large sized bar) if this laundry bar is not available at your local store. In Utah - Fels Naptha can be found at your local Reams or Maceys in the laundry section.)
1 Cup Twenty Mule Team Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda (this is not the same as regular baking soda even though it is made by Arm and Hammer as well. It can be found in the laundry section of your super market. It is a detergent booster. it is also found in Reams here in Utah and Publix markets back East.)
Use your cheese grater to grate the Fel Naptha or Ivory soap into a bowl. Since these are non-toxic - you can grate them with your kitchen grater and not worry about using it on your food later. Use the smallest grate setting so the bar will melt easier later. Add the soda and borax and mix. You may use this detergent just as any other powdered detergent. Only use 2 TBS per load. In hard water areas try 3 TBS per load.
To make a liquid detergent (this is what I like to do), put 3 pints of water into a large stock pot. Add the grated bar, borax and soda. Stir over medium heat until the bar is completely dissolved and the mixture is thickened. Take your pot to the sink and add more warm water nearly to the top of the pot. Continue stirring. When it has cooled a little, pour mixture into a five gallon bucket and add more water to make approximately 4 1/2 gallons. Use a long handle wooden spoon to stir. (I have an attachment for my drill to stir paint that I bought at my local hardware store. That is how I stir my mixture, but I know not everyone will have this and a wooden spoon works just fine as well.) When all is done and the mixture is cooled enough to work with, use a funnel and 5 well cleaned milk jugs to store your product. I would use a two cup measure to pour from instead of trying to pour the mixture straight from the bucket into the funnel and milk jugs. Use only 1/2 cup per regular load. (1 cup if you have hard water)
Some people using well water might find that the mixture does not get clothes white enough in water with heavy minerals. If you're using very hard water, you might consider mixing the homemade version 50/50 with your expensive commercial detergent. We have very hard water in our town, but I have a water softener in my home and only have to use 1/2 cup per regular sized laundry load. I cannot say what your individual results may be. I think I would try using more of your homemade soap first before mixing it 50/50. Either way - it is still a significant savings. A five gallon bucket will yield 160 loads at 1/2 cup per load and only cost $2 per bucket to make. That's a far cry better than $20 for 96 loads of Tide and I can't notice a difference.
I spent $3.99 each on the box of borax and washing soda. Each box is enough for me to make 8 recipes of this detergent. The Fels Naptha is $1.26 locally here but Ivory soap is only $3.99 for an 8 bar pack of the larger sized bars. So basically for $12, I can make enough laundry soap to last my family for two years. That's 1280 loads at $12 bucks - so that's not even a penny per load if I use Ivory soap. Can you say WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tide is 21 times that expensive.
I also use this same mixture as a stain fighter and have not bought Spray-N-wash in over 6 months either. You can mix 2 parts of your homemade liquid soap with 1 part water and put it into a spray bottle to pre-treat stains. I also rub out particularly tough stains with liquid dish soap if needed. At $3 a bottle, Spray-N-Wash is just too expensive when I can do this.
When traveling on road trips, pack individual packets of the powdered version in plastic baggies to use at the laundry mat so you don't spend a fortune on those little one use boxes in the vending machine.
Additionally, use 1/4 cup of plain white vinegar in the rinse cycle as a fabric softener. This removes excess soap residue if you have that problem with your current brand. I do not have that problem with homemade detergent. Vinegar is much cheaper if purchased by the gallon, and pricing varies greatly. I use the cheapest store brand I can find and it works very well. Vinegar also has so many other uses such as in your dishwasher as a spot remover (no more expensive rinse agents!!) and as a window cleaner to remove hard water stains. For more tips and tricks on homemade cleaning products go to the Dollar Stretcher website at: http://www.stretcher.com/
I also use this same mixture as a stain fighter and have not bought Spray-N-wash in over 6 months either. You can mix 2 parts of your homemade liquid soap with 1 part water and put it into a spray bottle to pre-treat stains. I also rub out particularly tough stains with liquid dish soap if needed. At $3 a bottle, Spray-N-Wash is just too expensive when I can do this.
When traveling on road trips, pack individual packets of the powdered version in plastic baggies to use at the laundry mat so you don't spend a fortune on those little one use boxes in the vending machine.
Additionally, use 1/4 cup of plain white vinegar in the rinse cycle as a fabric softener. This removes excess soap residue if you have that problem with your current brand. I do not have that problem with homemade detergent. Vinegar is much cheaper if purchased by the gallon, and pricing varies greatly. I use the cheapest store brand I can find and it works very well. Vinegar also has so many other uses such as in your dishwasher as a spot remover (no more expensive rinse agents!!) and as a window cleaner to remove hard water stains. For more tips and tricks on homemade cleaning products go to the Dollar Stretcher website at: http://www.stretcher.com/
2 comments:
Oxi-clean powder works so well for me, do you think I could use that instead of the washing soda (it also says detergent booster)? It's around $8 for a 15 lb box at Costco with the coupon I have.
I guess you could. Let me know if you try it and it works.
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