Thursday, June 9, 2011

Homemade Laundry Soap Made from Homemade Soap

Willow's afternoon chore recently not only desperately needed doing, but was also sneakily educational, what with all that recipe reading and following and measurement taking, etc.:
I've posted the recipe and tutorial for my homemade laundry soap before over at Crafting a Green World, but this time I used only a little bit of grated Fels Naptha left over from the last time Will and I made this recipe, and for the remainder of grated bar soap that the recipe calls for I hand-grated some of my own hot-process bar soap:
I still have my doubts that a body soap bar will work as well as a laundry soap bar, but the price was right and I certainly have it in stock, and it does look and smell much sweeter than Fels Naptha in my pretty little Mason jar with the fabric on top:
Combine this with the fact that I finally discovered that Matt had been using at least double the proper amount of soap in the washing machine (on the rare occasions that he starts a load of laundry), and I do believe that we're once again all set for laundry soap for a good long while.

8 comments:

  1. Big mamma frogJune 10, 2011 at 5:32 AM

    Sounds great and am going to try it. Just one thing, I know Borax is pretty toxic when taken internally and can be a skin irritant, so was wondering how safe it is to use (I'm guessing it all gets rinsed away?). I have kids with sensitive skin so usually have to use washballs or next-to-useless sensitive skin wash powder. It would be good to try an alternative. Does anyone know where I can get white vinegar in large quantities in the UK?

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  2. Teresa RobesonJune 10, 2011 at 8:57 PM

    I've dying to make my own powdered laundry soap (I made the liquid type once and didn't like it), but want to wait until I make my own CP soap. Does using the Fels Naptha still make it economical?

    I love that your kids are so enthused about helping with everything you do! Mine are usually grumpy or uninterested. :/

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  3. TinaJune 11, 2011 at 7:15 AM

    I love making my own laundry soap (and need to make some soon). I have been thinking of using some handmade soaps I get that is called Buzz Off- It is an all natural soap with bug repellent qualities.

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  4. julieJune 12, 2011 at 8:12 AM

    I can't imagine not being able to buy gallons upon gallons of white vinegar! I use it for a spray cleaner, too, and a laundry rinse, and a dishwasher rinse...I wonder if one can purchase stock in vinegar?

    I think borax is pretty mild, but you could also try a few loads of laundry without, I suppose. Soap and detergent don't rinse out well, as a rule, unfortunately, although they do better in an he machine--it's why you have to occasionally strip cloth diapers when you use them.

    I did the math when I used Fels Naptha, and it was below 3 cents a load with it. Fels Naptha is pretty cheap, so I'm probably only saving a penny a load, if that much, with my homemade, and I actually do plan to switch back to using Fels if I can remember to have some on hand the next time I need to make laundry soap. Since it's a laundry soap bar, my theory is that it will clean better than my skin soap bar, but I'll have to use this batch for a while before I can be certain.

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  5. Teresa RobesonJune 12, 2011 at 12:11 PM

    Thanks, Julie! I look forward to seeing your analysis of which laundry soap cleaned better. :)

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  6. Heather@Cultivated LivesJune 16, 2011 at 12:08 AM

    One of these days I'm going to give that a try. I just love that your kids make it right along side you! Oh what wonderful family memories and what important training they are getting, even at an early age!

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  7. julieAugust 14, 2011 at 11:51 AM

    After using my homemade soap in the laundry soap recipe for a while now, I'm going to go ahead and say that it doesn't work quite as well as using Fels Naptha. The difference isn't huge, though, and I already use Fels Naptha as a stain stick to pretreat stains if I know that I've got them, so perhaps that helps, too. The biggest difference, I think, is that I think that I'm seeing more grease stains that don't get washed out, but they wash out a second time with pretreatment. I tend to keep both Fels Naptha and homemade soap on hand, so I'll probably just throw whatever I have more of into my laundry soap recipe from now on.

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  8. best diamond certificationNovember 16, 2011 at 7:54 AM

    This is awesome! love it..These posts are killing me with the cuteness.

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