The Laundry Experiment - Episode 1

Hello everybody!  Since today is my Sunday I'm having a lazy day. I woke up around 9, made some coffee, caught up on some shows I've been neglecting, made a smoothie... made another smoothie, and here I am! Let me just put it out there very quickly that I LOVE homemade smoothies! I make mine with lots of fruit, always a banana, yogurt, soy milk, splash of OJ, and mostly always something green - today was spirulina! Okay, so I actually had some left over from a soap project, but that doesn't make it any less food! It's delicious, and no, it doesn't taste "green"!

Moving on to the topic at hand, this is going to be the first in at least a two part series on the wonders of laundry! I actually started this whole experiment a week or two ago, but I just finished the first part of it. Today, I made my own laundry soap! Didn't think it could be done - well then you should really think a little more outside the box, shame on you! Is this old news? Well, just sit quietly and enjoy the pretty pictures.

I can't actually call this laundry detergent as it has no actually detergents in it, but it is ridiculously simple to make and pretty fracking cheap, too! Perfect for frugal crafties like myself who want to save all of their money for their various crafty [i.e. soapy] endeavors! It only includes three whole ingredients, all of which can probably be found at your local Walmart - soap [imagine that], washing soda, and borax! That's it!

What, you need more information? Okay, well you may be wondering "what the frack is washing soda?" only probably not those exact words... Well, to put it simply it is a chemical salt of carbonic acid, or sodium carbonate. Sound a bit familiar? That's because baking soda is also known as sodium bicarbonate - did you know that the only difference between baking soda and washing soda is water and carbon dioxide? Did you know you can make your own washing soda out of baking soda? This is especially convenient if you live someplace where you don't have access to washing soda locally - just do a quick Google search - there are many recipes and tutorials of the process!

You may also be wondering "what kind of soap am I supposed to use for my laundry?" Why, handmade, of course! I made a soap of 50% coconut and 50% lard [the cheap-o stuff at Walmart] and did a 0% superfat. This made a very hard bar that I could cut AND grate within hours. Of course, you don't have to use handmade soap, just make sure it does not have any free oils [isn't superfatted, that is] and isn't a synthetic heavily perfumed detergent bar. Fels Naptha is a great soap to use in a laundry soap.

Ingredients

1. 2 parts ground soap
2. 1 part borax
3. 1 part washing soda

Directions

• 1. Grate your soap! You can use a homemade bar like me [if that's what you do] or a laundry bar soap like Fels Naptha [located in the detergent aisle, it was right next to the borax and washing soda at my local Walmart]. After your soap is grated you'll want to leave it out for a few days until it is nice and crispy dry. What do I mean by crispy dry? If you break apart a piece of grated soap it should snap - hard and dry! 

• 2. Grind your soap - I used my Magic Bullet - it's just soap, it'll wash right off :] [btw, I do NOT recommend using appliances used for food with ANYTHING that may have harsh chemicals or soap that has active lye, my soap had cured for a week and passed the "zap" test before I used my bullet to grind it up]   

The soap did not really grind up to a powder consistency, but more along the lines of soap "beads"

•  3. Mix! For the amount of soap I had grated and dried, I used 1 c. ground soap, 1/2 c. washing soda, and 1/2 c. borax.

Like the little scooper? I got it at Cost Plus, it's 1/4 c. and has marks every Tb.

 And you're done! Use 2Tb for a normal size load up to 1/4 cup for large or highly soiled loads. Don't be afraid to customize it! Use scented homemade soap, or add essential oils into the powdered mix, add some OxiClean or powdered color-safe bleach. That's what I love about crafting, you can change it up to suit your needs! It's just that simple to make your own all natural laundry soap for a fraction of what it would cost you to buy a detergent. My research tells me this is safe for all types of machines, but if you have a brand new expensive he washer, I would advise you at the very least check out this FAQ about homemade laundry soap, there's a lot of great information.

Now, you may be wondering "great, now that I have an all-natural laundry soap, what about fabric softeners?" Unfortunately, that's an entirely different blog post ;] so stay tuned!

Until next time...
Peace · Love · Soap