October 3, 2012

Homemade WHAT?!?

I made laundry soap today! The raw components cost approximately $7 and made about 7 cups of soap, with leftovers to make many more. It was 3 ingredients and took me about 30 minutes all together to do. It smells awesome, and I'll let you know how it does when I test it out. Here's what I did:
  • 1 bar of Zote (I found mine at Lowe's for $1.09 on the cleaning/laundry stuff aisle), finely grated
  • 1 3/4 cups Borax(a couple bucks on the laundry aisle)
  • 1 3/4 cups washing soda(Sodium carbonate, also called soda ash. Can be found on the laundry aisle for about $3.25, or in the pool chemicals as a pH lowerer for about $8.)

Grate (yes, with a grater! you can wash it and it won't taste like soap later)your Zote(fels naptha, ivory, whatever soap you like. just not a super oily soap, you don't want it to ruin the clothes) into the smallest bits you can manage. Mix together with your dry ingredients, then run the whole shebang through the food processor(probably a few batches) to make the soap bits smaller and to also "marry" the mixture together a bit better. Store in a dry, cool place, use about 2 tablespoons in a regular load of clothes. You'll probably wanna do less if you have one of those fancy high efficiency washers.

Like I said, I haven't tested it out yet, but I have positive feelings about it. I'll keep you posted. Next, I think I'll attempt dishwasher soap and deodorant. :D

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