Thursday, February 17, 2011

Domestic Bliss

I went out to lunch with a friend today...and I told her I had made my own laundry soap.

The look on her face. Priceless.

But really...I did.

I know. What's next? Wheat germ and granola?

Anyway.

I was reading this blog about homemade laundry soap and how much it helped her daughter's eczema.

It got me to thinking that maybe this would help Katie.

So, I made a batch and I have been doing the laundry with it for about a week.

It cleans just great...it's all natural and it's inexpensive.

I am still waiting to see if helps Katie's skin, but I have high hopes.

So... how do you make it?

Well it's just: Ivory Soap -- the bar kind. This cost $3.50 for 10 bars. This is enough for 5 batches.


Borax -- This cost about $4.50 for a box -- this box is actually enough to make 10 batches.


Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT baking soda -- LAUNDRY soda) -- this cost about $4.00 and is enough to make about 5 batches. (I had to look around for this -- and I found it at my local Harris Teeter.)


1 batch of this laundry soap will do about 80 loads of laundry -- So with just one of each of these products, you have enough raw materials to do 450 loads of laundry. For $12.00.

Seriously. That's a lot of laundry soap!

Start with the ivory soap and your food processor. Shred 2 and 1/2 bars of ivory.

I thought that this might be difficult, but it shredded up... no problem.



It kinda looks yummy, doesn't it?

Change the blade of the food processor to the chop blade.

Add 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of laundry soap to the food processor.

Turn the food processor on and blend the mix for a few minutes until you have a fine powder.


Place into a container with a lid.

Use 1 Tablespoon of laundry soap per load or 2 Tablespoons per heavily soiled load.

It was super easy. And I was even able to put the parts of the food processor into the dishwasher -- except for the blades. Those needed to be washed by hand.

I'm so domestic.

Oh my.

editied to add: I got the question if this would work in a High Efficiency Washer -- and I don't know. But I will say that one of the qualities of soap for HE washers is that it doesn't created a lot of suds...which is also one of the features of this homemade laundry soap.

10 comments:

Divine Domestication said...

I'm impressed! Once we use up all of our soap, I'm going to have to give it a try!

Erica said...

So... do you think it'd work for an he washing machine? Very interesting..

Andrea said...

Smirk. Smirk. Giggle. Giggle.

Can I borrow your food processor? Or maybe I should just get a real one!

Lauril said...

Wow Denise, my mother use to make laundry soap with lard and lye so I was so going to die if you did it that way. I will never make my mom's Lye soap but this I will. Thanks

Charlene said...

Impressive!! I need to try that out!!

Shari said...

I am quite impressed. Let me know if it has positive effects for Katie. We are looking for something for Dale's skin too.

EmmaJ said...

Andrea, you don't have a Cuisinart!? You need one. Everyone should have one.

Denise, I like this recipe you used. All the other ones I have seen have you adding water and cooking the stuff, this one seems a lot more doable. Thanks for sharing.

Lara said...

I bow in awe of your awesome domesticity!

alamama said...

need to try this too. thanks. need something for our dd's skin as well. do i sound like a robot?! ;)

Hilary said...

Hmmm.... this does sound easy, and good for you....
Can you do an update on how it cleans. I do have little boys....

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