Good morning,
Instead of waiting til next week's T party I thought I would share recipes now, and also some other really nice simple recipes to make with some of mother nature's gifts to us. ( I will post a link to this post on the next T post as well)
Around 2008 when the economy crashed we were hit hard and were stuck with not being able to sell our Illinois home which had very very high taxes. So we had to really pinch pennies for several years. This is when I looked into making laundry supplies. I always thought I wanted to get into making lye soaps but I decided No- me and chemicals are an accident waiting to happen ha ha and I also discovered for some reason my skin did not like homemade lye soaps even when they were cured properly. So, no I needed to look into another way to make laundry soap.
Back during this time period I learned from reading on the web (this had become quite popular too). For me it was fun to make and saved me soooo much money and I also did not need to recycle those plastic bottles. We had also bought a new washing machine when we retired here and it needed a low suds soap and for me I also needed no perfumes added either-so the laundry soap was just really expensive.
Many recipes were calling for the fels napha bars of soap to grate up into laundry soap. Do Not use this-it is way too strong for every day laundry soap and is rough on the skin as well. Instead look for an old bar soap like Kirks.
Laundry Soap Recipe
I double this recipe to fill up a 5 gallon bucket to the top
1 quart boiling water
2 cup bar soap grated very fine
2 cups borox
2 cups washing soda
2 tablespoons glycerin
What I do is fill a pan that holds around a gallon or so of water and bring to a simmer or slow boil
Then gradually add in the grated soap stir slowly to melt-try not to create soap suds
In the 5 gallon bucket which is placed where I want it to stay in the laundry room-add in the borox and the washing soda-then pour in the hot water with melted soap and stir til all dissolved. Then with very hot tap water add and stir-when the bucket is half full add in the glycerin and stir and continue to add hot water and stir til you are to the top of the bucket. Keep the lid off and then let sit til the next day-You will then have a bucket of gelled soap.(then put the lid on to keep clean) Depending on the wash load I use a half cup to a cup.
The only "hard" part to this recipe is grating all the soap-to double the recipe you need 4 bars of the kirks bar soap
I used to also make my own bleach but it really only works well if you are hanging clothes outside on the line in the sun. Now when needed I add a dry bleach.
In the past I have also made my own fabric softener which works pretty well, but then I switched to just adding vinegar, sometimes I use a store bought fabric softener now. If anyone is interested in the homemade bleach and fabric softener recipes let know and I will post them.
I do want to also share the dry soap recipe which you can make and use instead of the gelled recipe. I use fels napha bar soap in this dry recipe to use for washing my throw rugs and or soiled laundry that needs a good soak first. This is such a strong product that my husband used it in the tanning process (there are many references online for using fels napha in tanning-so thought I would link to one) for hides So I would not use this bar soap for your regular laundry
Dry Laundry Soap
1 cup grated bar soap
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borox
You can also stir in a few drops of essential oils too
Stir all together and store in air tight container
I use 1 tablespoon for regular laundry or 2-3 tablespoons for very soiled.
With the Dandelions blooming I wanted to share some recipes from the Nerdy Farm Wife-she is my go to site for making my own salves, balms and more. You can find her in my blog list.
She has a wonderful collection of dandelion recipes. There are several I want to make. One of them are these dandelion lotion bars I want to make these for sure.
(photos found online)
With the wild violets coming up she has several recipes on her site for those too and I love making violet sugar-it keeps well and is so pretty to add on top of frostings or even cream cheese or yogurt. This is one method-just layer the sugar and violets in a clean jar. Or you can blend sugar and violet flowers together in a blender here
These make nice gifts too.
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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