Sunday, July 25, 2010

Being resourceful is a virtue.

I ran out of laundry detergent. I really do not want to load up the kids and drag them out in this record heat to go to the store. I looked around and found that I had all of the ingredients to make myself some liquid laundry detergent. I have made the powder before, but it didn't seem to freshen my clothes. I think it is more my hard water than the soap itself since many people use the homemade stuff.

I altered a recipe that I found online and hope that it works better than the powdered I made once upon a time. As it is now, I mix my store bought with Washing Soda and Borax to make my detergent more powerful and it stretches my dollar.

Here are the ingredients:

3 Cups grated soap (Fels-Naptha, Zote, or any mild soap)
2 Cups Borax
2 Cups Washing soda
1 quart boiling water

Melt soap in boiling water. This may take a bit and you can leave the water on low while it melts. Pour it into a large bucket and mix powdered ingredients into soap mixture. Stir until dissolved. Add 7 quarts water to mixture, stir and cover. Use 1/2 cup per load and keep covered between uses. Makes about two gallons.

1 comment:

  1. This is what we use too! The liquid does work better than the powder for hard water. You might have to experiment with different soaps. We also add some essential oils for fragrance. It's great!

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