diy: making your own laundry detergent

i have five kids. it's no big surprise that i do a lot of laundry. just ask the dryer repair man that is consistently called to my house. i'm pretty sure he'll be on next year's christmas card list. 

i had heard people talking about making their own laundry detergent and, i'm not going to lie, i was skeptical. i go to war with stains in my children's clothing because 1) i want them to look somewhat put together when i send them to school each day and 2) i don't have extra money to buy clothes should my kids ruin what they already have. it may seem ridiculous but i take laundry seriously. if i can get those clothes clean, i am saving money on having to buy new ones. 

the "make your own detergent" craze hit and i did not want to give it a try. when another mother of five told me she had made her own and it was working, i finally caved. how much was i going to lose if i had to dump it all? not too much. 

so, i gave it a try. much to my amazement, it did work. i got my original recipe from www.beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com. after looking through all the comments written by people who had tried her original recipe, i altered it to fit my needs. first, i have a high efficiency washer so i went with "ivory" soap as one of the ingredients instead of a soup that did not dissolve as well in those washers. i also like my clothes to smell fresh so i used "purex" crystals to add a fresh scent. these can be eliminated but the crystals do make your clothes smell great.

here's the basic recipe. i bought all of the ingredients at walmart. i purchased a container that created an air seal for my detergent. this cost $15.00. people had repeatedly said that if you do not use an air seal, the detergent dries out (think brown sugar) and can be difficult to scoop. it is worth it to make that one time purchase. except for the ivory soap and the container, i found all of these ingredients in the laundry aisle at walmart.

my storage container

diy laundry detergent

1 (4 pound, 12 oz.) box of borax

1 (4 pound) box of arm & hammer baking soda

1 (55 oz.) box of arm & hammer super washing soda

3 bars of ivory soap

2 small containers of oxy clean (or store brand version) approx. 3.5 pounds

1 large container of purex crystals

to make, get a large garbage bag and at least a 5 gallon bucket. line the bucket with the garbage bag. dump in all of the above ingredients (all but the ivory soap).

open your bars of ivory soap and cut each one into quarters. place one quarter of a bar on a paper plate (i found that using three plates kept things moving).

place one paper plate in the microwave and heat on high for about 30 seconds. it is crazy watching what happens (the kids loved this!)

it's like watching a giant exploding marshmallow.

when it has finished cooking, you'll open your microwave to this. pull the plate out of the microwave (the soap won't stick but will be hot) and place the plate on the counter to cool. you will not be able to continue until the soap has cooled completely. 

fully "cooked" 1/4 bar of soap

1/4 bar...out of the microwave...cooling on the counter

once the ivory soap has cooled, grab a piece of it and start to rub it together between your hands. it will literally pulverize. continue doing this until all of the "cooked" and cooled soap has been separated into a powder in the bucket.

if the soap is not cooled, it will stick when you try to pulverize it.

it should fall apart like this.

the top of this bucket is filled with the pulverized soap. 

this is a large, 5 gallon bucket. it was filled to the top once all the ingredients were added.

this is what the bag will look like after you have finished adding everything. now you are ready to mix.

remove the bag from the bucket and, using one hand to told the bag closed, mix the contents well inside the bag. i just held it up and mixed it around.

pour (or scoop) the ingredients into your storage container. you can see i spilled. i had enough to fill this and an equally large plastic storage container. the scoop from the oxy clean container is exactly 2 tablespoons. that is how much you should use for a large load of laundry. if you have a small load, cut that in half. because you use so little, this lasts for months. i am on month two and haven't gone half way through my first storage container...that's saving us a ton of money!

that's it. it took about 30 minutes to get through the whole process and it cost $25.00 for all the ingredients. from what i've heard, a normal family will take about 6 months to get through all of it. i'm not counting on it lasting that long for us but it is still a savings compared to what i normally spend.

let me know what you think. i'm interested in your variations and all the tips you have for me. as i said, i'm a novice in this department but i am learning as i go. here's to big savings for all those launderers out there!

simple solutions: smelly towels

 

once upon a time, i used to use a towel one time to dry myself off and then i'd throw it into the laundry pile. crazy, right? now that i have seven people in my household to wash and dry on a daily basis (or at least daily for some of them) i hang up our towels to dry and wash them every few days. i don't know why it happens, but during certain times of the year, the towels i hang up after showers start to smell funky. this is the best solution to that problem...especially for colored towels you can't bleach.

 

 

throw all your colored towels into the washer together. put in the laundry detergent like normal and, if you use fabric softener, add that as well.

 

 

instead of using bleach, put in about 3/4 cup of vinegar into the bleach section of your washer. i know, it says bleach only. i get it. some of you are rule followers. trust me on this one. it's okay to break this rule.

 

run your cycle like you normally would. for this cycle, i will run it on hot but it doesn't matter. here is what is important. put on the extra rinse cycle. if your machine doesn't have this, run the load without the fabric softener and then do and extra rinse with the fabric softener at the end.

remove the towels and dry like normal. no more funky smell. works like a charm.

 

do you have any simple solutions to share? we'd love to hear them!

 

simple solutions: getting gum out of clothing

the other day as i was doing one of my usual several loads of laundry, i pulled clothing out of the washing machine to discover that one of my children had put a piece of gum in their pocket and then had thrown it into the wash. fabulous, right? it was totally not how i wanted to spend my morning. the gum was spread all over the front of a shirt and thanks to the running of washer, it had the "just been chewed" consistency.

i tried to think through any past knowledge i might have concerning getting gum out of things. things like peanut butter and ice cubes came to mind but nothing sounded particularly promising.

then i got smart and i called my dad. let me just tell you, when it comes to stains, my dad is the stain master. he will from here on out be called master yoda of the laundry room. the man can get a stain out of anything and he knows every trick in the book.

here is master yoda's trick for getting gum out of clothing. 

that's right. most people have a bottle of wd40 in their garage somewhere. dig that bottle out and spray it all over the fabric and gum combo. i used a sponge and scrubbed the gum off. it took about two seconds. the wd40 dissolves the gum and it can literally be wiped off. so easy it is stupid.

after the gum is removed, rinse the clothing out in a sink well to get the wd40 out of the cloth. you'll want to spot treat where you sprayed you clothing as the wd40 has an oily consistency. rewash the garment in the washing machine like normal. the trick works every time. 

one less bit of drama to my day...thank you, master yoda of the laundry room.