Step Two: Making Laundry Soap

I finally took Step Two!  Tuesday afternoon, my son and I made homemade liquid laundry soap! 

We followed the Moms Aware recipe...

• First, we boiled 3 cups of water and dissolved 1 oz. of liquid castile soap in it.
• Then we added ¼ cup of washing soda--at which point the water bubbled up and over the side of the pot.  This was unexpected, and we actually got a great laugh out of it.  We even laughed while we cleaned up the mess.  J
• Next we added ¼ cup of borax.
• We stirred until all was dissolved in the water.

Andrea Fabry suggested putting it in a 1-gallon glass jar.  I had saved a liquid detergent plastic container, the size that washes 96 loads.  We put 10 cups of water into that container and then poured in our soap mixture.  We shook it up and let it sit for 24 hours, waiting for it to form a liquid gel.

After 24 hours, it still hadn't formed a liquid gel, so I waited until this morning to wash clothes with the new detergent. 

After 36 hours, when it still hadn't gelled, I decided to try it anyway.  I washed a load of whites in which there were some noticeably dirty white napkins.  They came clean!  And the whole load smelled fresh!  Success!

 

I then washed a colored load with some smelly shirts, and those also came clean and smelled great!

 

I calculate that I used less than $2 worth of cleaning supplies to make this batch of detergent.  It half-fills my 96-load container, so I assume I'll be able to wash at least 48 loads of laundry.  All it cost was a little effort and time, and it was so much fun to do it with my son!  It was definitely worth it!


(I updated our progress on making liquid laundry soap here.  We tweaked the recipe just a bit, so check it out!)

 

Now for Step Three...

 

Natural Year Challenge: Household Edition



 Step 1: Buy Five

Step Two

I haven't made much progress on Step Two.  Okay, I'll be honest.  Unless you count reading, I haven't made ANY progress on Step Two.

Here's a pic of my Step One accomplishment...

 

These lovely products are now sitting in my laundry room, waiting for me... 

Meanwhile, I HAVE done some research.  My washer is HE, so I wanted to be sure that homemade detergent would work for me.  I found out that homemade detergents are low-sudsing which is very important for HE machines.  I think I'll start with the liquid recipe since we have very hard water here.  When I've used powdered detergent in my washer, it just hasn't dissolved very well.  I heard from a friend who said she thinks powder is better.  What do you think??