Friday, May 7, 2010

Homemade Laundry Detergent

As much as I love getting crafty n have a obession of living green. I finally made my 1st homemade laundry detergent!
Ingredients less than 12.00:
Dr.Bronner castile soap lavendar $3.75
Borax $ 4.09 on sale 20 cents off.
Washing Soda $2.89

This is 2 gal and 1 pint, so only use 1/4= 2 oz. So it's 144 scoops worth of this detergent I made.. Lasted me nearly 5 months with just a family of 5!

Here's my display of the laundry ingredients. You see Borax, Washing Soda, and Dr. Bronner pure castile soap lavender scent. 1 soap bar is already grated that makes 2 cups PERFECT. You can use this bar for many things awesome isn't it!
Hubby says the soap looks like Cheese!

Here are the ingredients in 2 cups each.

Boil a quart of hot water, pour in the grated soap and put on simmer to stir and let it melt slowly. Hince, you don't have to use the soap I use, there are different scents in rose, peppermint, baby scent, citrus, and eucalyptus in Dr Bronner's magic soap. Next time I'll try eucalyptus. The scents r kinda heavy. To use for babies cloth dipes you can use kirk pure castile, Fels Naptha Soap( mainly for laundry but is on SALE online for 99 cents a bar on www.soapsgonebuy.com), and Ivory.

You see the soap is dissolve in my simmering pot.. Smells so NICE!

With my sweet hubby helping hands, pour the hot soapy water in a empty clean bucket..

Then you pour both of the 2 cups of borax and washing soda..

You see how it looks once u pour it in..

This is what it looks like once you mix it. It looks like cornbread mix!

Next, you add 2 gallons of warm water, stir them really well.. Top the lid on tightly and wait to use it the next morning.

Now this is what it looks like when its ready. Gel looking, which is normal, each time before you get your scoop, stir it well 1st thing each time. I attach my measure cup with a ribbon to the handle so it stays right where it belongs for me to do my laundry. Scoop 1/4 cup or 2 oz in your wash machine and it's good to go!