Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Make Your Own Laundry Soap, Concentrated.

Pintrest is bad. Pintrest puts ideas into my already overcrowded head. I will say however that this is one idea that has been percolating for quite a while and Pintest only helped seal the deal. Homemade Laundry Soap (Duh- you read the title right?) Here is the back story:

I was trying to get some super awesome mud out of a white shirt, we all know how fun that can be. Anywho I read somewhere that stains come right out if you rub them with a bar of Fels Naptha soap. I figured for 98 cents a bar I could give it a go, and it worked. It was magic what with the stain disappearing before my very eyes. I even called Hubs at work and told him all about it. He obviously shared my enthusiasm. Not.

I found about a million different recipes for homemade laundry soap and all most all of them required 5 gallon buckets. Not for me thanks. My house (log cabin) does not have closets so storage space is at a premium. Then I found a recipe for Laundry Soap Concentrate. Yes please.

Math: Ug.
Cost of supplies about $10.00. Yeild: 4 quarts (1 gallon). Amount used per load: 1 tablespoon. 
Number of loads from 1 batch: 256. So for about 10 dollars you can now wash TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX loads of laundry.

Cast of characters: 
2 bars Fels Naptha
2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax
2 cups Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
6 cups of hot water (+ more water as needed)

Here we go: 
Grate/chop to tiny pieces, throw into food processor- the 2 bars of Fels Naptha. Combine with 6 cups hot water in a large pot on medium heat. Stir until soap dissolves.


Or if you are like me: turn on the heat and then totally forget that it is turned on 
while helping Littlest with her homework. 
NOTE: you do not want this to boil. Boil = Bad.

This was almost Bad. 

Once the Fels Naptha has dissolved add in the Borax and Washing Soda.


Stir, Stir, and Stir some more until dissolved. (Mine took about 2 minutes)
Ladle into quart jars.


The next part is super easy. Screw on the lids and totally forget about it overnight (or about 8 hrs)



The mixture will separate and get firm so take a knife and chop it into bits
Pour it all into your stand mixer


Once you have the hard stuff out there might be some stuff stuck to the bottom of your jar
Add a few tablespoons of warm water, replace lid, shake.


Into the stand mixer it goes: beat on medium high until it looks like this:


Once fluffy and creamy return it to the jar and screw on your lid



Ta-Da! You made your own Laundry Soap Concentrate!! 
1 tablespoon per load. That's it. One.
Can be used in HE washers as this is a NON Sudsy soap.
Also- if 256 loads seems like a bit over the top you could always 
cut this recipe in half.



So what do you think? Are you going to give it a try?

6 comments:

  1. I'm impressed with you, but I am far, far too lazy to take that on!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really want to try this. I am reading all kinds of blogs on this and my main concern right now is that I have REALLY hard water. Where would you add vinegar in the recipe if you were to want to???? And how much do you think???

    ReplyDelete
  3. How do you find it compares to the big name laundry soaps like Tide? I know I don't care for some of the cheaper names since they just don't clean as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello would you mind letting me know which webhost you're utilizing? I've loaded your blog in 3 different
    internet browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most.
    Can you recommend a good internet hosting provider at a fair price?
    Kudos, I appreciate it!

    Take a look at my weblog; Hemorrhoids Treatment
    my web site - hemorrhoid treatment at home

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've been making homemade laundry soap for years, and this recipe really intrigues me because it is so concentrated. However, when I tried it mine only yielded 80 loads (80 ounces of laundry soap, each Tbsp = 1 oz). Did yours whip up w/ more air perhaps? I triple checked the measurements and am confident that I measured correctly and left nothing out. I wonder why yours yielded 4x more than mine???

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello, I check your blogs on a regular basis. Your writing style is awesome, keep up the good work!


    Feel free to visit my blog :: dui lawyer portland

    ReplyDelete