Hunter in the Snow
We have been making our own laundry soap for two years now and I absolutely love being able to walk right past the laundry aisle at the grocery store for months at a time. What a money saver and it’s a way to make sure we have an adequate supply of laundry products with limited running around.
Many people ask for the recipe, but I doubt many actually get around to making it because it does take a little work. Not much, but more than picking up a bottle of Tide at the store.
I also hear that some people can’t use it because of allergies, sensitive skin, they have kids, babies, etc. If that is your case I highly recommend you still give it a try. My husband has sensitive skin and we always had to use the free and clear brands which were getting harder and harder to find. He has no trouble with this soap and neither do our toddler or infant who have their diapers washed in the stuff. Here where we live your first batch will cost under $8 so you won’t be out much. And if it works, great! If it doesn’t, donate the makings to a friend who wants to try it – or freecycle it or whatever.
The first ingredient is Fels Naptha Soap. You can find this in the laundry aisle of many stores for between .89 cents and a dollar.
The second ingredient is Washing Soda. The only locally available brand is Arm & Hammer. I don’t know if anyone else even makes it. It comes in a yellow box and it will cost you less than $2.
The last ingredient is Borax, the 20 mule team variety. Yep, there is only one kind. It is a green box, sometimes short and squat and sometimes it is tall like the Washing Soda box. Or you may see their new box they just redesigned. I think it is blue. This will run you from $2.50 to nearly $4.
So here’s the recipe:
- Grated Fels Naptha Soap – 1 part
- Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda – 1 ½ parts
- Borax – 1/2 part
Hubby uses a microplane grater to grate the soap. Leaving the soap out of the wrapper for few days causes it to dry out and grate a little better so we unwrap ours as soon as we get it home.
We use an old Italian ice cup as a measuring cup, but you can use whatever you want – just so long as you use the same thing for each item.
Mix the 1 part soap, 1 ½ parts Washing Soda and 1/2 part Borax in a large container. Shake until mixed.
That’s it. Some people make a liquid version of this but we prefer the dry for its keeping qualities and that it is less messy to make and use in the dry form.
We use a ¼ cup or less of this soap when we do laundry and everything comes out clean. Depending on how hard your water is you may need more or less.
Some things to note:
- Any laundry cleaner that uses Borax as an ingredient is going to be hard on the fibers of your clothes. Over time you will find holes forming in your towels and lots of lint coming off of other things. For delicate items I recommend using a Woolite type cleaner to preserve your clothes longer. Since we shop at the Salvation Army we don’t mind that things wear out a little fast since it doesn’t cost much to replace them.
- We have noticed that this mix will leave a white powdery residue on dark clothes. Two things to try are an extra rinse cycle and mixing the powder in a jar with water before adding it to the laundry.
- This cleaner does not remove odors well. We have a lot of milk/formula stained laundry and to remove the sour smell we add ¼ cup baking soda to the water and put vinegar in the rinse. This works great for removing odors.
- Yes, you can use this on diapers. We have with both our kids and neither one had issues with it. We do use a presoak and an extra rinse to make sure all of the detergent is out.
- Fels soap makes some people (like me) sneeze A LOT! I’m not allergic to it, but I can’t grate it or even be on the floor of the house when it is being grated. I am the only person in the house that has this problem but I wanted to warn others.