If you've jumped on the green bandwagon, maybe you've heard of eco laundry soap. In addition to reducing harm on the environment, DIY laundry soap is also a lot cheaper, about 24 cents per load, than your grocery store variety (i.e. Tide). While there are loads (no pun intended) of recipes out there, there are basically two types. One, the syrupy version, must be "cooked" and then stored in a big ole space-infringing bucket. The other, the powdery kind, just must be mixed and stored in a container the size of your choice. To learn how to make the powder version, read more:
Supplies:
- 1 bar of Fels Naptha soap
- 1 cup of Borax
- 1 cup of Washing Soda
- 1/4 cup of OxyClean
Here are the steps, from Modern Cottage:
- Grate the Fels Naptha soap with a cheese grater. It should come out to about 2 cups.
- "Mix it all together into a bumpy, granular mix. Don’t worry about stuff getting correctly dispersed, even if it doesn’t quite look like it does."
- Store it in a sealed container.
- Use 1 tablespoon for a light load, and 2 tablespoons for a large or dirty load.
- If you like, add essential oils to the mix to give your clothes a fruity, floral, or fresh scent.
- Stay clean!
BHS
V.I.K
Lrg
Hm...I don't think everything got put up..unless I'm not sure where to look...but your article doesn't give the whole recipe... I would love to know what it is, though. 1 bar of Fels Naptha soap and 1 cup of...??
1As a heads up, fels-naptha soap contains petroleum based chemicals- just cause my great grandma's generation used it doesn't make it non-toxic or eco-friendly!
Have friends who swear by a squirt of liquid castile soap (like Dr. Bronners) and plain old baking soda (which can clean almost anything), so I'd assume a castile bar would work.
2I use 1/2 cup of borax, 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/4 cup of white vinegar
3I think I'll have my mother try this...
4Historygal, can you please send me the "recipe" for that? Can you add oils to it?
5"As a heads up, fels-naptha soap contains petroleum based chemicals- just cause my great grandma's generation used it doesn't make it non-toxic or eco-friendly"
It no longer contains petroleum based chemicals, they changed it awhile ago.
6this is an interesting recipe.i have no idea where to get fels-naptha soap. i don't know if it is vegan, either.
7yes, but does it completely dissolve? I've noticed that a lot of the eco-friendly brands available in stores leave the annoying white, grainy residue and require a 2nd washing, which really isn't eco-friendly at all!
8"yes, but does it completely dissolve? I've noticed that a lot of the eco-friendly brands available in stores leave the annoying white, grainy residue and require a 2nd washing, which really isn't eco-friendly at all!"
Oh that white residue is annoying! I usually set the washing cycle on HOT for the first 30 seconds or so and add the detergent. As soon as it is dissolved, I switch the cycle to cold.
9Does anyone know if this is safe for an HE washer? Do I just need to cut down the quantity?
10@HE Washer:
This type of soap doesn't foam like regular laundy soap, so it should be just fine.
11Just curious - how would this work with cloth diapers? I'm assuming it would not, as most cloth sites are adamant about not using soap because of the potential for residue build up.
12The second ingredient 1 cup of "Love This" is a link to 20 Mule Team Borax.
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