Sewing our Sanity

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Dear Emily,

I know you have been waiting since yesterday to see what I made with all this.



Ta da! Laundry detergent.

Am I nuts or what??

Paul came in when I was mixing it all together and asked if it was really cheaper. I haven't done the math and I am not sure how to but everywhere I read about it said it is cheaper. Yes, I do know how to add the cost of each ingredient but what to divide it by? I have no idea how many washes I will get, short of measuring it all and that would take FOREVER.



I said I was using a recipe that has been all over blogs and Pinterest lately. I first saw it posted on Kim's blog, Savvy Southern Style. Her husband thought she was crazy when he caught her grating bars of Fels-Naptha into a dirty old bucket. It looked like grated cheese. Since I have better things to do with my time than grate bars of soap, by hand, I used my food processor. (Gosh. I hope all the toxic stuff comes out and I haven't ruined my Cuisinart!)


Not cheese but this:


Back to the recipe...Kim had gotten her recipe from Stone Gable's blog. Whew! Sometimes I feel like Alice following a rabbit into a hole when I look for the original source of something on a blog. I followed the instructions exactly except I used Purex Crystals (cheaper) instead of Downy Un Stopables prettier). I mixed it all in a heavy duty garbage bag and was glad I did. All those powders are heavy. I got almost all of it into an empty Utz Cheeseball container. (Ask Gabe what happened to them. I am never going to buy them again, at least not in that quantity and then only on special occasions though I am not sure what special occasion calls for cheeseballs. I had to argue with a two year old that he couldn't have them for breakfast every day until they were gone.) What didn't fit into the container, I put in jars for you and a couple other lucky people who get to test the detergent out. Aren't all ya'll lucky?

I did one wash with it so far, some not so white whites and one of Caroline's bunnies. I have yet to see the results but did take the bunny out of the dryer early for Caroline. She complained about the smell. I think it smells way better than before it was washed. I pointed that out and reminded her that she helped pick out the Purex Crystals scent that is making the bunny "smell." Apparently she likes it to smell like, never mind. I don't know what you call that smell. I saved the scoop from the Oxyclean to use to measure and will be figuring out the amount to use in the next few loads. I have seen many comments other places about how much to use. I used about 2 tablespoons. Not sure if that was enough.

I'll give you your jar of it when I see you in August and you will have to let me know what you think. And if it makes everyone itch. (That is what I am worried about. What will I do with a huge cheeseball container of laundry detergent?)

Love,
Monica



1 comment:

  1. Dear Monica,

    I am anxious to try this detergent out (not on Mikey's diapers because I have heard that it won't work for cloth). You are married to a mathematician, he should be able to figure out if it is cheaper of not!! And I can bet that Caroline's bunny used to smell much like Jack's Froggy and Doggy, which he describes as "dirty socks" and has to smell them everytime he picks them up. GROSS!

    Em

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