Laundry…Love/Hate

You know it, I have a Love/Hate relationship with laundry. 

I dearly love those clothes, but I feel like all I ever do is laundry. 

I am sure many of you are right there with me, especially if you have a big family like we do. 

I have spent quite a bit of money over the years on laundry detergent, but I never realized I had a choice. Yes, I tried cheaper detergents, but it seemed like every time I switched one of the boys had an allergic reaction. Recently I switched the scent of a detergent that I have been using for a few months now. I really didn’t think this would cause a problem, however one of my boys started complaining of an itch, and after eliminating a few soaps we realized that it was the detergent that was breaking him out. 

I also have had quite a few problems with my cloth diapers.
I stripped them down and boiled them and bleached half of them, but nothing was working. No matter what I did my little guy’s bottom would break out. I had the problem that regular laundry soap (such as All Free and Clear) didn’t seem to get my diapers clean enough and I would have stink/leaking, but cloth diaper detergents would break out his little bum so badly. 

What did I do? 

I decided to make my own detergent!

I never really thought this was something I could or would even want to do. Of course, I never thought I would cloth diaper my baby either, but I actually really like using cloth, and am glad I am stepping outside my normal boundaries and trying new things. 

I bet you all want to know how I make this detergent, right? 

It’s very simple, and you only need 3 products-Yes, just 3!

Ingredients:

1 cup grated bar of soap (I was told that Fels-Naptha and Ivory work best, however I am no expert. We used Ivory.)

1 cup Washing Soda

1 cup Borax

Directions: 

Grate your bar of soap into a container and then mix all 3 ingredients together. 

Use:

For a light load you can use about 1 Tbs. For extra soiled or heavy loads you may need a little extra, or up to 2 Tbs. 

*This should make enough for approximately 40 Loads!

Don’t like Powdered Detergent?

You can make a Liquid form following these simple instructions…

Liquid Laundry Detergent:

Ingredients:

1 cup grated bar of soap

1 cup Washing Soda

1 cup Borax

4 cups hot water

Directions:

Grate your bar of soap and to a saucepan with 4 cups of hot water. Stir coninuously over medium heat until the soap dissolves and melts. 

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot water. Add melted soap, Washing Soda and Borax. Stir until all of the powder mixture is dissolved. Fill the bucket to the top with more hot water. Stir, cover, and let sit and cool overnight to thicken. 

*Liquid soap makes about 5 gallons. 

Use Instructions:

Top Load Machine:  use about 2/3 cup per load (makes approximately 90 loads!)

Front Load Machine: use about 1/4 cup per load (makes approximately 320 loads!) 

I would like to give credit where credit is due, so you should know that I did not make this recipe up. One of my readers sent me to a site containing this recipe. The site with the full recipe can be found at http://shaunellshair.blogspot.com/search/label/homemade%20laundry%20detergent

I would love to hear what you think of the detergent if you decide to try it.