Thursday, January 26, 2012

Light and Breezy...DIY laundry soap.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled 
posts that make people cry
to bring you
Chrissy's Version of Homemade Laundry Soap!

Okay...
So. There are like a million websites and blogs out there with 
variations on this same stuff. Humor me. I'm proud of myself on this.

FIRST.
I bought some stuff:

I spent $16. I had some of it already - like the baking soda and essential oil.

Then... I did this:
Smells nice...

Next I thought I'd go the traditional route and stick it in the food processor.
That. Did. NOT. Work.
It made a huge mess, made a loud noise, and did not reduce the soap to small crumbs.

So... I did this:
Love my Vitamix. You  need one. Yes you do.
It's my all-time favorite appliance.
THIS worked.

*Tip - adding some of the baking soda to the soap helped keep it from turning into a mushy ball and kept it all crumbly like I had hoped for!


See?



So then  I started adding it all together.

Soapy goodness...


Mix, mix, mix, stir, stir, stir...

Then I added some of this...
about 1/5 of the bottle.
It's orange. It could be any scent, but I figured orange was safe for the whole family.

Then I mixed it all with a wisk, then my hands, then a spoon... just to be sure.

When I was happy with the blendedness of the whole thing...
I put it into cute jars!
Aren't they adorable?!!?

Then I took them to my new laundry area...
(Where I labeled them all cute and stuff.)

Ooohhh.... aahhhhh.... pretty!!


Another view....


Two extra bottles on the left - one is plain Borax (toilets and stuff),
the other is some extra laundry detergent.

Okay... so THEN...
I ran a load of clothes with it.
I used cold water, just to be sure it dissolved well.
I put it inside the drum of the front-loading washer -
 not sure how it would work in the dispenser -
I'll try that next time.

I like it!! Everything is clean, I even washed the nasty kitchen towels and they came out smelling fresh and looking clean!

OH...
and I only used like 1/4 cup of detergent for the whole load!
At that rate I estimate that this will last me about 4 months
even with the amount of laundry I do in this house!!
4 months in a house of 9 people, for $16!
NICE!

{Ingredients}
1 box Borax
1 box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 box Color Safe Bleach additive
1 largeish tub of store-brand oxycleaner
2 bars Fels-Naptha
2 boxes baking soda
Essential Oil (optional)


2 comments:

  1. Yep, I make it too! It's great stuff. I use either lye soap from the Mennonite store, Dr. Bronner's or Trader Joe's bar soap. They all work great. I wash our dirty dipes with it and they come out smelling clean. Love your laundry area!!!! Oh and your Vitamix. Someday...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your laundry room is so organized!! Very cool!

    ReplyDelete

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