Since I have a child home from school sick, I thought it would be fun to do a little experiment. With 5 people in the house (and 3 of them 6 or under), we can really whip through the laundry. Today, we finally ran out of laundry detergent. We had been buying liquid detergent in a giant plastic container. I had already decided that next time, we would at least buy powdered detergent because it comes in a cardboard container. But I've been running across all these recipes for laundry detergent (I guess it's not really "detergent" -- it's soap), so I thought I'd give it a try. Maybe we can get radical and REALLY reduce the packaging (and the price).
Most recipes require washing soda, which I couldn't find, so I used a recipe that called for baking soda. It made a huge amount, so I halved it. Here's the recipe:
1 bar Ivory soap, grated (I used Kirk's castille soap b/c it's what I had. Ivory would be cheaper)
1-1/2 c. baking soda
1/2 c. borax (this can be found in the laundry aisle. The brand is 20 mule team)
16 c. water.
Boil 4. c. water then grate the soap into it. Dissolve. In another pot, boil 12 c. water.
Pour the 12 c. into the soapy water (I don't understand this step)
Pour in the baking soda and mix.
pour in the borax and mix.
Put all this into some kind of container. Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a time, depending on dirtiness of the laundry.
Okay. Not too complicated. J thought it was pretty amusing. The ingredients aren't toxic. It seems to make a bunch (even 1/2 the recipe!). I made the soapy water. It took probably 2 or 3 minutes. I still don't understand why you don't just boil all the water at once. But, here's the mistake I made. I thought the order didn't really matter. I had the soapy water all ready and was waiting for the other water to boil, so I just put in the baking soda and borax. THEN I put in the rest of the water. EXPLOSION!!! The whole thing foamed up, bubbled over onto the floor, all over the counter.... it was crazy. And pretty hilarious. J thought it was like a soap volcano -- which it was. Lesson learned -- put the water in BEFORE the baking soda (I guess that baking soda was the culprit in the foaming action).
The recipe said to put all this in a plastic container (before adding 12 c. of boiling water). I am (generally) a rule-follower, so I did that. Of course, the plastic container melted. So, don't do that. Keep it all in the pot until it chills out.
After chilling out, the mixture looks very weird. It has some white clumps at the top and the bottom looks like water. But I'm willing to give it a try. The recipe says to stir it up and make sure some clumps are added to each load of laundry. I'll do that and report back ASAP.
But now that C found washing soda at HEB, I'm going to give a dry recipe from Planet Green a try:
2 c. grated soap
1 c. washing soda
1 c. borax
Mix well. use 2 Tablespoons per load.
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