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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Going Green: laundry soap

I've wanted to make our own laundry soap for a while now but have been searching and searching for a recipe that is cloth diaper friendly. Still no luck but I have finally decided to just go for it for the rest of our laundry. I did a lot of "research" and found that most people had no problems with making powder detergent. Some people had problems making liquid detergent-- the consistency wasn't always the same and techniques to make it seemed kinda difficult. Here's the recipe I used:

2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax
2 cups Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (not baking soda)
1 bar grated Fels-Naptha soap

Just mix it all up! Check online for other variety's of this recipe and for other techniques on grating the bar of soap. You can use 1 tbsp per load but I'll probably always use 2. (unless I see that 1 does the trick)

You can find the Borax and Fels-Naptha in the laundry isle at Wal-Mart. I found the Washing Soda at County Market in Champaign, IL but you should be able to find it at most grocery stores.

$3.38 for the Borax (not even close to using the whole box)
$2.99 for the Washing Soda (again, plenty more to use for other batches)
$0.97 for the bar of Fels-Naptha

I've heard you can use other soap like Ivory, but as the Fels-Naptha is a pre-treater, I thought it might work better for in the wash. The Ivory might be gentler though so if I notice the Fels-Naptha is too harsh on the clothes, I might switch.

I'll update everyone how I like it, but I know my wallet likes it already!

Here's the math on my savings.
borax 76oz  This is enough for 4.75 batches = $0.71 per batch
washing soda 55oz This is enough for 3.44 batches = $0.87 per batch
fels-naptha 5.5oz This is enough for 1 batch = $0.97 per batch

$2.55 per batch of 37.5oz
I use 2 Tbsp (or 1 oz) per load so this will get me about 37 loads. But you can use 1 Tbsp per load (I just usually fill my washer to capacity and seem to have more soiled loads than non-soiled loads....) This comes out to a little less than 7 cents per load and if you use just 1 Tbsp, it would be half that! Pretty cool huh!!!

2 comments:

  1. Update: We found we only need 1 Tbsp per load. So thats 3.5 cents per load!

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  2. I ended up microwaving the soap last time and sticking it in the food processor. AWESOME results, but I now have a very fragrant microwave. It lasts for a day or two, maybe less if you wash it out a few times.

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