Laundry Soap
I really detest laundry. Really. Even as I write this a load of laundry I should have got started hours ago comes to mind. It is always lurking, always needing attention. A basket of laundry (clean and needing folding, or folded and waiting for naps to be done so I can put it away, or dirty and waiting to go downstairs, or any combination from above) is such a constant feature in my living room that I really think someone should make company worthy laundry display furniture which either highlights the beauty of laundry, or hides it really well. Hmmm.
As I was saying, I think I dislike doing laundry even more than cleaning bathrooms. And with all this lack of love for the laundry mountain, the thought of paying a lot of money to do laundry (in the form of drycleaning, laundromats, or just laundry soap), makes me sick. So after looking up the Duggar Family laundry soap recipe (scroll down a fair ways) almost a year ago, I have been making my own laundry soap ever since. I thought I should share the really easy steps for this little bit of laundry freedom:
Cast of Characters: bar of hand soap, super washing soda, borax, 5 gallon bucket, old laundry detergent container, chocolate from the freezer next to the washing machine:
You never saw the chocolate (crunch, crunch…mmmmm):
First grate the soap and add it to 4 cups hot water. I bought the soap which seemed to have the least amount of stuff in it (perfumes, moisturizers, etc) for the cheapest price. Perhaps I should have bought special laundry type soap, but this hand soap seems to work fine. Note: I have tried just sticking the bar in, or chopping it into smaller blocks, but it takes a really long time to dissolve. Just grate it:
So pretty:
Dump it in the hot water, and stir on medium until it is all dissolved. Watch it closely though, so it doesn’t boil (bubble?) over:
In the meantime, measure out a cup of super washing soda (not baking soda!):
And dump it in your 5 gallon pail:
Measure out a 1/2 cup of Borax:
And dump it in the pail:
C……rud (I’m working on finding new words to say in front of my children). Did I mention that the soap boils over fairly easily, so you need to watch it and not take your time trying to get nice pictures of borax and buckets:
Speaking of children, I have bribed them with encouraged them to draw with some new Spiderman crayons while I am busy. This should last for all of 2 minutes:
When your grated soap has mostly dissolved, (there are a couple of little bits of soap left in the water, but have a short attention span…so its done):
Add it to the 5 gallon bucket and stir:
Fill the bucket about half way with more hot water (I just use my pot):
Stick the lid back on:
Okay, really stick the lid back on (I prefer the kneel on the lid method). Yes, that is a dirty toe. I garden, I live with it:
And let it sit over night….
In the morning (or afternoon, or next day or five when you’ve finally gotten around to it) it will have gelled up [maybe. My first batch I made didn’t gel, but it still cleaned clothes just fine] :
Fill the bucket up (to a reasonable distance from the rim), and stir everything one last time:
Then take your 9 months pregnant self and haul that super heavy bucket down the basement stairs to the laundry machines:
Ha! Kidding. Ask your wonderful hubby to heft the crazy thing where you need it. Thanks Luv!
To use: stir it up again and fill half an old laundry detergent bottle with the soap. Fill the other half with water. Shake, pour about .5 to .75 of a laundry lid full into your wash for a full load. Or whatever feels right.
Good luck!
ps. a tip from a friend who has been making her own soap for a while: every few weeks wash a cup of bleach through your machine to keep the hoses and machine clean. Apparently commercial soaps include a machine maintainer (not sure what), and so the machine starts to smell a little musty sometimes without the bleach cycle. I think this is the only time I ever use bleach in my house!