Getting Real Close to Buying Cow Prod.

[AMKuska]

It was first designed for PI then people started using for laundry soap Which brings up the point why is laundry soap so expensive ? i just paid $17.99 for bottle of tide.

You can make your own for $6. It's not too hard.

 

[Nyboy]

How

 

[Beekissed]

Much cheaper than $6...when you break it all down, I can make it for mere pennies per load. Been doing that for 9 yrs now and wouldn't go back to store bought detergent even if folks bought it for me....love the feel and smell of my clothing on the homemade detergent. love making it, and know it's so much better for our septic system here.

 

[Nyboy]

I am all ears how do you make it?

 

[Beekissed]

There are many variations of the recipe out there and how one uses it~dry or gel~how much they use, what kind of laundry soap incorporated into it. I like to keep things simple and so I just use the original recipe I found and I use it in the gel form....I tried the dry and it didn't go as far.

1/2 bar Fels Naptha laundry soap
1 c. Borax Twenty Mule Team powder
1 c. Arm & Hammer washing soda(NOT baking soda)

****Nowadays you are most likely to find all of these ingredients grouped on the shelf in your local Walmart...that's how far this making your own has gone. Back when I started doing this it was difficult to find the FN and the washing soda but so many are doing this now that Walmart and Kroger usually have the materials and stock them on the same shelf. ****

Grate the soap, add it to 6 c. of water and bring it to a slight boil long enough to thoroughly melt the soap(be careful...it tends to boil over if you don't watch it), add the Borax and A&H and stir well. Part the hot mixture into 2 gal. jugs(I just use old detergent bottles that hold 46 loads worth of detergent....they have a wide mouth~after you remove the pour spout~ and a measuring cup lid already, so they make sense to use...these I can collect from the poor saps still paying a lot for detergent. They last a long, long, long time...I've had the ones I'm using now for many years.) Top off the hot mix in the jug with cold water and shake it well.

Let it sit for 24 hrs before use...it will seem to solidify into a gel, but a good shake will break that up and render it more pourable. You may have to shake it before every laundry day as it tends to solidify a little once again. It will sort of look like egg whites, it will not suds so don't think it isn't working, it smells good while you are making it but it will not perfume your clothing, nor will it leave a soap residue though it tends to make whites a little dingy....some get past that by adding white vinegar to the rinse. I got by that by buying all my underclothing colored instead of white and then using the vinegar for my linens.

My clothing seem to last longer and they aren't stiff if I hang them for drying like they are with regular detergents. They don't smell like anything but cotton cloth, which I love. I have no oily residue built up in my dryer lint screen and less lint altogether.

I use a lid full of the mix for each load as I'm usually only washing a large load. Adjust as you see fit. I usually make a double batch, so I am making 4 jugs at one time.....if you are sticking with the 2 jug recipe, it's handy to keep a third~empty~jug so that you can remake your 2 jugs of detergent before you run out completely. That way you will be using one and still have two on the shelf ready to go.

 

[Smart Red]

Thank you for the recipe. I've made it before, but left it as a powder with Fels Naptha grated into it.

Great directions and explanation with the recipe, thanks again.

 

[so lucky]

Heh, I just remembered that I have about two gallons of the stuff in a lidded bucket, tucked in a corner of the laundry room. It's been there at least 2 years. I better go see if it has solidified or something. Bee, I think I quit using it because of the incredibly hard water we have here--had that greying issue on whites. I wonder if a person could add vinegar to the detergent?
I just hate the strong smelling detergents they sell now. It seems people are going crazy trying to cover their own scent. Maybe they need to go roll on a dead animal, like dogs do.

 

[Beekissed]

Amen, so lucky! My DIL was staying with us here and brought all kinds of smelly detergents and even some kind of beads that one adds to the laundry to deodorize the laundry? I told her to leave the fabric softener sheets off her list as I won't even allow them in the dryer...you just can't get that stink out of the dryer after that and it gets on all the clothing from then on, and it creates a fire hazard in the lint trap.

She also brought numerous bottles of smelly soaps, lotions, sprays, etc. for her person. What ever happened to just soap? I had to provide a basket just for the additional smelly things in the bathroom. And she never used the same clothing more than one day, even though she was not working in them at all but sitting at ease on the computer each day.

We are still mystified over this phenomenon.....

We don't like chemically smells around these parts unless it's good ol' PineSol, ammonia, vinegar or bleach cleaners and even those are not used so much that our house smells like the factory part of town.

 

[Nyboy]

Thanks bee sounds simple enough, I will try. lucky agree what is it with super strong smelling soap!

 

[Carol Dee]

thanks @Beekissed that is the recipe I had and lost!
Sis has made it and liked it.