About Me

My photo
I'm a bit silly & I like to make people laugh. People tell me I'm rather loud but I am usually quiet until I get to know you. I love life, I live life to the fullest & treat others as I would like to be treated.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Laundry detergent

This past week I was busy creating in the kitchen. Homemade root beer, ginger ale, homemade thin pizza crust, whipping up a batch of laundry detergent, and even bar soap was made!! My fab friends on Facebook messaged me pretty much daily for the recipes. Some even thought I was nuts and suggested I should go by a frozen pizza & a jug of soda....ummm thanks but no thanks. So, this post is all about getting our clothes clean. I found versions of this formula online at least a year, maybe 2yrs ago. I have tweaked it to make it work for our needs.


We use:


2 cups Borax


2 cups Washing Soda


2 cups Baking Soda


1 bar of Naptha soap, grated


mix everything in a bowl & store in an airtight container. It takes 2TBSP of powder per full load of laundry.


Perks we have found since using this:


It actually CLEANS!!! Ken gets grease and grime on his clothing pretty often. We are all known to slop food on our clothing. Anybody who doesn't has got to be well trained or have super human powers!! This powder gets it all out!! At least it has for us. Maybe water differences in areas will have different outcomes? I'm not sure I no longer search every nook and crannie on Ken's dirty clothes for hidden stains to pretreat. That makes me beyond happy!! This has also taken blood (from my dogs) out of their dog bed. We have used it on occasion to rub on clothing as a form of pretreating & it's fabulous! I'm telling ya, it works.

Ken has horrible allergies & since we started using this he is much better. Not perfect by any means. We still have the 5 dogs, and two cats to keep him on his toes. But his sensitive skin does not get rashy. We have tried many store bought brands & nothing has come close to this.
We both wear glasses and it never fails, we always get smudges or a doggy nose prints on them. It's not always easy to get a eyeglass cleaning cloth so we use our shirt. Guess what??? No smudges!!! The other filth would leave us with smeary glasses that looked as if we'd smeared petroleum jelly on them.
Another added bonus??? IT'S ooberously CHEAP!!! I'm not buffalo chippin folks!! It costs about $10 for all of these supplies. The boxes of powder will make 3 batches. The bars of soap cost $1 at most stores. So, for 5 months we spend a fraction of what we used to spend.



7 comments:

Michael said...

I think I am going to have to try this! I hate how much laundry detergents cost!

Melanie said...

You're a Dear for posting this. I have never seen Naptha soap here before, so I'll have to do some research to find an alternative.

Kathy said...

You'll have to let me know how it works for you Michael. Several of my friends use this now and I've only heard good things.

Melanie~ I have also read that a bar of Irish Spring grated works. Before we started making this I had never heard of Napatha. It's in the same aisle as the laundry detergents.

Melanie said...

See why I have a hard time finding a formula that works for me? I know what Napatha is, but as far as I am aware, is not available here, but I'm going to redouble the effort and look again. I am allergic to the petrochemicals in Irish Spring! So you see, this is why I MUST make my own stuff!

Kathy said...

Oh yikes Melanie!! Yes, I definately see why you make your own concoctions. We do not fancy Irish Spring. I honestly don't think Ken's sensitive skin would be able to handle it anyway. Best wishes on yoru research. If you need me to I can send some Napatha.

Tami said...

Thanks for the recipe Kath....will keep it in mind when Earl and I are back out on are own can't seem to talk mom into it! :o(

Lindsay said...

Sounds like a good deal! I usually get the powdered stuff from Trader Joe's and it lasts a long time (and doesn't have anything weird in it), but this looks good too. :)