So, has anyone besides myself half choked at the price of
laundry detergent? Seriously, $5, $6,
even $12 for a gallon or so of detergent?
I realize you have to wash your clothes to be hygenic and not smell and
drive co-workers or family away. (Wait,
maybe you want to…no…no you don’t).
However, do you have to simultaneously go broke in the process? So I took to the web and between google and
pinterest, I found several solution. The
best one, my personal favorite at any rate, is to make your own detergent!
Now, there are some of you out there who are not prepared to
do this. It sounds like a lot of work,
your time is precious and fleeting, and so on.
I get that. You can still save
some money by cutting down on the amount of soap used. I do not remember where I read it, but some
study showed that the recommended amounts are generally way more than
necessary. After all, it’s a product,
and if you use more product, you will run out and have to buy more product,
resulting in their pockets being filled.
So what reason do they have to not enlarge the number a bit here or
there. I have found you can usually cut
back by one third. So if it calls for a
full cap of detergent, it usually washes just fine with 2/3 of a cap full. And on tight months I have even gone to ½ of
a cap with no adverse affects.
However, to really save some money, there are many options
for making your own detergent. I have
tried several recipes I found on various pinterest sites. This is the recipe I used most recently:
·
1 bar of soap (I always see fels naptha listed but I never have that so
I use regular soap)
·
1 cup of borax
·
1 cup of baking soda
· 1 gallon + 1 quart
of water
1.
Grate the soap.
You can use a processor, but I find it just as easy, and less to clean
up after to use a hand held grater.
2.
Bring water to a boil and slowly add grated
soap.
3.
Add baking soda and borax.
Some recipes call for washing soda, but I’ve found baking soda works
just fine.
4.
Let it set overnight and it sort of gels up.
5.
Store in containers. Use ¼ to ½ cup each load.
The soap I used is those small soaps my husband brings home
from hotels that he used like once and the hotel would throw them away anyway. Usually 3 or 4 of those is about equal to one
standard bar. I use the old detergent
bottles after they are empty to store the detergent in, but it is usually a
little thick to use the spout, so I end up using the top part that has the lid
on it and just shake it before each use, then pour it out the top. I have also used empty milk jugs, carefully rinsed. Here is the result of the recipe (see photos below) I may try a little more water next time just
to see if it makes it more fluid so I can use the spouts. It is not a huge deal if it doesn’t because
the money I save is well worth it. I
hope this works for you and saves you some money. Enjoy!
Good recipe.
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