Home Made Laundry Detergent

[possom813]

Another recipe using the same ingredients.

We've been using this for about a year now.


1 bar of fels-naptha
1.5 cups of borax
1.5 cups of washing powder
1 cup of any generic 'oxygen cleanser', only if you want to, it's not required.

We grate the naptha bar on a cheese grater first, then mix everything together, just using your hands to mix it up. Use the grater to make the soap as small as possible.

With the soap and powders hand mixed up, it's a good powder detergent that works well.

At this point it is ready to use, and it takes a tablespoon per load. Seriously, just a tablespoon does it.



The following steps are not necessary.

If you're a little ocd, like myself, you can add the powder to a blender a little at a time with the soap in it and make it even smaller. I do that, and then shake it through a 'splatter shield' that you put on top of your frying pan, and if it doesn't sift through that, I mix it back into the blender with the powder until it sifts through the screen.

Again, you don't have to do that, I just like it better this way.

[Jailer]

Hi guys, thought I'd jump in for a sec to pass on an opinion based upon what I've found at work, I do appliance repair for a living. One thing about soap and front loading washers, is that you only need a small amount. At least when it comes to commercial brands like Tide, etc, you only need to use about a tablespoon, and it has to be HE style. You may need to either pre-treat or use slightly more if you have really dirty clothes, or hard water, but for normal everyday non-"dirty" clothes, about 1 Tbsp is all you need. If you have a top loader, then you need to use more, because they are much less efficient and use a ton more water. As for power vs. liquid, I prefer liquid, because it disperses better. I can't tell you how many times I have worked on a customers front loader where they use powder, and when I opened the dispenser door, it was all coated with crusty soap, because the water blasting into the dispenser sprays it everywhere. One big issue with that, is that it brings soap in every time it fills with water, which you certainly don't want in the rinse cycle.

About stinking machines, this is caused by using too much soap. Some ppl unfortunately read the directions on the soap bottle, and use Way too much. Then within a year or so they find mold growing on their boot seal, and it's also growing in their tubs and tub to pump hoses. It's caused by too much soap, and it not rinsing out properly. I also do an extra rinse on every load I run, have for 15 years and never had an issue with odor in mine. With front loaders, you Don't want to see it sudsing up when it is washing, if you do, then you're using too much or the wrong type of soap. One easy way to tell if you are using too much soap in front loader is to run a cycle with nothing in it and no soap, pick the longest, hottest cycle it has, and watch it run. If at about 20-40 mins into the cycle you see anything other than hot water splashing around, you're using too much soap.

This is becoming a book, I'll leave it at that, but if you have a question about what I've mentioned, please feel free to ask, I'm happy to try and help. Especially in this section.

Liquid fabric softner is what did this to my top load. I started using my own home made mixture and it's been fine since.

Another plus for this stuff if for people with skin conditions. My son has some health issues and some allergies.

One thing that was a real bother for him was rough skin. We called it "alligator skin" and would sometimes rub lotion on him (he's 7). One of his doctors recommended special lotions, and my wife even tried several different brands of laundry detergent; unscented, etc..

A year or so ago she started making and using this home-made detergent. Within a week or two we noticed that his skin had cleared up, no more itchy, scratchy scales. His skin has been fine ever since. I was amazed. He was obviously allergic to something in the store bought detergent. He takes a couple different heavy-duty medications for arthritis, so clearing up the skin thing was a wonderful thing for him.

Start making your own home made CP soap and his skin will clear up even more.

drhall762, I found using a home made laundry soap that my white clothes were coming out dingy. I use the large box of Arm&Hammer dry soap and it's working fine and reletively cheap.

If you really want to make your home made soap work great add a little TSP to the mix.

[a.squibload]

A friend was out of laundry soap, I gave her a quart of this stuff,
she likes it, maybe I shoulda kept my mouth shut...

[a.squibload]

... Some ppl unfortunately read the directions on the soap bottle, and use Way too much...

Just remembered this, the local Consumer Advocate radio guy did a test on
laundry soap a few years ago, found little difference between a full cup, a half cup,
or no soap at all. Better with SOME soap of course.
Always follow directions if you wanna buy more product than you need!

[uscra112]

Left out one major ingredient - trisodium phosphate. TSP was the principle ingredient in most powdered laundry detergents (AND dishwasher dtergents) until a band of Chicken Littles in Washington (state) convinced the EPA to ban it. You can still buy it in the PAINT section of True Value hardware stores. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, other than TSP will strip the greasy film off kitchen walls prior to a repaint.

Add a level teaspoon to your dishwasher and see the magic return. Heaping teaspoon to the laundry if it;s a top-loader, level teaspoon if it's a front-loader. If you want to strip an old gunstock, run it thru the dishwasher set as hot as it will go, with straight TSP in the soap trays.

Washing soda is not a detergent, per se - what it does do is soften hard water so the detergent can do its' thing.

[mroliver77]

I have been using the dry formula for a year. I used to itch a lot. No more. I get my clothes greasy dirty at times and use pine cleaner with the laundry soap. Will look for the tsp. I was upset when WalMart stopped handling it.
J

[sparkz]

I made this stuff and have been washing my son Seans crusty pants from our farm here and works great and its every bit as good as per-mixed stuff on the cheap,, if you have not tryed this you may want to,, so that saved money can buy more boolits hahah

Patrick guy with crustie kid,,

[Smoke4320]

got to try this .. I have dry skin itch as well
thanks

[kmoomoo1]

Been making my own liquid laundry soap and also bar soap for over 10 years. Much less expensive than commercial! This is probably the best site out there for a beginner to learn the CORRECT way to do it for both types of soap: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp For bar soap I prefer Babassu & Grapeseed Oils with Lauric Acid (kind of a pasty dry granule, not what you would expect). These can be purchased from numerous suppliers in a wide range of content size depending on how much you intend on making. A good rule of thumb is no more than 7-12 bars and 2 gallons of liquid per batch. When you use it up, make more. Remember, you will be making soap in it's truest form with no preservatives or chemicals. It won't have a shelf life beyond 6 months to a year. The thing is, soap is soap. Period. Whether it's Ivory, Dove, Irish Spring or any other brand it is all made with rendered oil/fat, lye and water. Anything else is for scent or shelf life, neither of which have ANY benefit when it comes to cleaning you or your clothing. If anyone has questions, drop me a line and I'll try to help out.