Second on the 2nd-Laundry Making Supplies

   I am joining Elizabeth for Second on the 2nd  where we  share a past post on the 2nd of each Month.

      This post goes way back to 2008. Back then the economy had crashed and we were pretty poor from it, so I was looking at ways to save us money. 
    I had discovered some recipes for making my own laundry making supplies. 
    I was buying at the time the more expensive liquid detergents that were allergy free-from those strong fragrances.  I have loved the process of making the soaps, the large savings, and mostly Not the recycling and expense of all those plastic bottles from store bought-- that I have continued to make my own soap still today. 
    I make a double batch and it fits into a 5 gallon bucket up to the top. I like the dry detergent recipe for tough laundry jobs and for soaking first.
   I do buy the bleach now as it just works better if not drying the laundry out on the line, and although the fabric softener recipe worked I now use vinegar in the rinse cycle.




Updates on My Laundry Making Supplies Jul 11, '08 10:40 AM
for everyone    copied from my older blog  here




I wanted to share with you which recipes I have made so far-and how I like them.

For the liquid detergent I chose this one, as it looked more concentrated and I also added in glycerin

1 quart boiling water

2 cups bar soap-finely grated-this is important (this time I used Kirks pure castile soap)

2 cups Borax

2 cups Washing soda

2 tablespoons glycerin

instructions

add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted-this is very important at this step to make sure All the soap is totally melted-as it won't melt later-ask me why I know-lol
     Note: do not use fels napha bar soap for this recipe-if you go on their site this soap was never intended for this purpose-but rather to use as spot remover on clothes-this soap is really harsh if you have sensitive skin.

pour the soap water into a large clean pail-I chose a 5 gallon bucket-perfect- and then add in the borax, washing soda and stir well until all is dissolved.

add 2 gallons of water -use very hot tap water-and stir until well mixed, at this point I also added in the glycerin.

cover the pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. stir the soap each time you use it as it will gel.

(I thought I would like this recipe better to add to saved laundry soap bottles and use that way, but after seeing what it does, I am going to keep it in the bucket so I can stir well before using, I will decide after this batch if this is the way to go and the soap stays clean)

I used this for the first time on a load of towels, and I also used my fabric softener that had lavender essential oil added. They just came out of the dryer-and very nice-just a hint of lavender, soft, and so clean.

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For the dry detergent I used this recipe.

1 cup grated bar soap I used kirks pure castile soap, this would be a good recipe for using the fels napha soap for very very soild clothes-like a mechanics clothes, or for dirty throw rugs-it is too hars a soap for general laundry use.

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

Stir all together and put in air tight container. use 1 tablespoon for light soiled load and 1 tablespoons for heavy soiled loads.

and for tips they suggested:

liquid detergent can be used to pretreat stains-(soak in a bucket of your homemade liquid detergent)

ivory soap, or any bar soap of your choosing can be used-finely grate all soap

essential oils can be added to soap for a bit of fragrance if you choose.



I really like this soap for heavily soiled clothes along with my fabric softener. I have done a couple loads now and really really like this one.

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Bleach substitute

1 cup hydrogen peroxide

1/4 cup lemon juice

12 cups water

store in a labeled plastic jug. add 2 cups per load

they suggest to hang your clothes to a dry on a clothesline. first of all saves energy, prolongs the life of your clothes and will keep whites brighter. line drying in the sun also kills bacteria.

This one worked so so on a load of whites. I may experiment with this as a soak first on dirty white socks, and I think the line drying makes the lemon juice work better afterwards

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Fabric Softener

You need a very large pot as the mixture will foam up at first

add 1 cup of baking soad to the pot

add 1 cup of water-don't need to mix yet

slowly add 6 cups of distilled white vinegar. this will cause the chemical reaction with the baking soda and the mixture will fiz up. Let fiz and do its thing for a few minutes.

now add 6 more cups of water to the mixture. this will stop the fizzing process. stir to properly mix all the ingredients.

store in saved fabric softener bottles-may add some essential oils of your choice. 10 to 15 drops at first and see if you like the results first.

Add 1 cup to the final rinse



I really really like this alot and know I will continue to make this one for sure. I split this in half with 2 bottles and left one with no essential oils, and put 12 drops of lavender essential oil in the second-I love it

I also wanted to mention again, in case you did not catch my updated updated blog from a couple days ago-that the best thing I really like about all this is the huge reduction in lint. Our Nikita causes soooo much lint in the wash-and the vinegar I think took care of this-really amazing to me.

You can also just use straight vinegar for the rinse water-which I now do.

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