Day 175: Squeaky Clean Laundry

A few weeks ago I wrote a review of all the types of laundry soap we had been using.  I also mentioned my bad- towel-smell experience with homemade laundry soap.  Well, I was willing to give it another go, so I went back to the fabulous homemade laundry soap website (here) and tried another recipe (number one) – liquid this time not powder.

This time instead of using Ivory, I used half a bar of Kiss My Face olive oil soap.  I also remembered to use washing soda not baking soda, so that might have something to do with my better results.  The liquid soap takes a little longer because you have to cook it up, but it was kinda fun -like a science experiment.

I poured the, still warm, soap into an old liquid detergent bottle (which turned out to be a terrible idea) and did the first load of laundry.  The laundry came out clean and smelled mainly just like the bar of soap I had used which was great.  But back to the bottle.

The next day, grant went to do some laundry and low and behold, the laundry soap had congealed into a solid mass inside the detergent bottle.  I had to boil it in water on the stove to get it out – not something I want to have to do on a weekly basis.

At first I thought my metric conversion skills were to blame and that the recipe had been for 1 gallon of water and not 1 quart (I had used a litre), but a double check of the recipe assured me it really was 1 quart.

then I read further.  Oooooh, you’re supposed to add another 2 gallons of water at the end!  Well no wonder my clothes were so clean – I had used the ultra concentrated recipe.

I figured I could either put it in a big bucket and scoop out a solid glob every load or add some more water as per the original recipe.  The result is a watery looking suspension of soapy particles, but at least it fits in my easy-to-pour detergent bottle, and now I have two gallons of the stuff, so that should last for a while.

More importantly, it still seems to clean our laundry properly.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

1 quart Water (boiling)
2 cups Bar soap (grated)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda

• Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted.
• Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.
• Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.
• Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel).

I’m not very organized budget -wise, so I don’t know if making your own works out cheaper, but I have a hunch that it does.  For us, the reduction in packaging is incentive enough.