Thursday, August 4, 2011

Laundry Soap

Who loves the fresh scent of cleanliness without all the chemical yuckiness? I know I do. I started making my own laundry soap as a means to clean my son's diapers. Homemade laundry soap smells of what you put in it. It doesn't stink of chemical perfumes and who knows what's. Sometimes I add a couple drops of lavendar or tea tree essential oil to my fabric softener ball, that is filled with vinegar, to add some beautiful scent and also cleans my clothes that much more.

Here's the basic recipe for laundry soap, which of course I double/triple as needed. The recipe below washes around 20-30 loads:

1 bar unscented soap (I used homemade plain lard soap, but you can use any soap you prefer to use)
1 cup Washing Soda (this isn't the easiest to find. It's always located in the laundry soap isle, but I have only found it at one local store, Fred Meyers)
1/2 cup borax


Grate up the bar of soap











Add all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender. Blend until everything is powdered finely.













To use I add 2 Tablespoons to a load. When I wash cloth diapers I add a handful (roughly 1/2 cup) of baking soda to help neutralize the smells and fill my downy fabric softener ball with vinegar (roughly 1-4/-1/2 cup). The baking soda and vinegar help to neutralize scents and keep the clothes smelling clean.

If you make your own laundry soap, please share your recipe. Shoot....if you make your own dishwasher soap, etc. please share because I'm looking to make as many things from scratch as I can.