Thursday, October 13, 2011

Liquid Laundry Detergent - Attempt #2 = SUCCESS!!!

I did it, and I LOVE it!!!
This time I started with this recipe from the blog, "Why Not Sew".  She doesn't use as much water as some others I've seen, but that's OK - it's STILL way cheaper than the store bought stuff, and it works GREAT!!!
Here's the ingredients:
Except that I took this picture after I made the soap, so what you don't see is the missing bar of Ivory soap. My bad.
Also, this makes 2 gallons of detergent. Since my previous detergent bottle isn't that size, I poured the finished recipe into a clean cat litter bucket. (I always saved them and they come in handy all. the. time!)

Here's the recipe and what I did:
1 bar of soap (IMO, the more natural, the better)
1 cup of Borax

1 cup of washing soda
a big pot
empty gallon jug
container to store your soap in

I filled the empty gallon jug full with water, and poured about half of it into a large pot and started warming the water. As it was heating up, I grated the soap bar, and slowly stirred it into the water, stirring frequently. I also measured the Borax and washing soda and set that aside. Once the soap had dissolved, I added a bit more water from the gallon jug, and then slowly added the powder products and kept stirring until it was also dissolved. Remove the pan from heat.
It will look like this:

I poured the remaining water left in the gallon jug into the 5 gallon bucket, filled the gallon bottle one more time with warm water and poured that into the 5 gallon bucket. I then added the soap mixture to the bucket and stirred until it was well mixed.
Immediately I could tell that I had what I wanted. It was a beautiful consistency!
Done!
The recipe I used calls for 1/2 cup of detergent per load. I knew that I didn't want to be slopping detergent everywhere, so I used the recently emptied store bought detergent bottle, and checked to see how much it's little blue cup would hold. Guess what - it is exactly 1/2 a cup!
I did remove the plastic spout thing on the bottle because I found the homemade deteregent does thinken a bit as it sits. When I go to do laundry, I give the bottle of detergent a good shake to even out the consistency.
I'm thrilled with the results. Next time I MAY add some lavander or citrus essential oil, and I may add a bit more water. We'll see.
Happy Laundry!!!





5 comments:

Mary said...

uhh, that's a lot of work to get soap!! rofl!! but you sound happy:))

Angie Simonsen said...

It actually went pretty quick! 20 minutes or so.
I'm very happy with my laundry soap! Up next, body soap!

Anonymous said...

Did you use this in an H.E. Washer or standard washer?

Angie Simonsen said...

I did a TON of research on various home made laundry soaps, and this is fine for H.E. washers. There are virtually no suds. They're all cooked out when you add the grated soap to the water. I have added Lavender to the mix, and it is a wonderful (but not needed) compliment to the mixture. I will NEVER go back to buying laundry detergent at a store. By far, this is the best "home made" improvement I have made. When I start a load, I shake the bottle I have the mixture in, as it separates, so save a bottle for that!

Angie Simonsen said...

Right! I didn't answer your actual question! Mine is a standard washer. I have friends that use this in a H.E. machine with no issues. Hope that helps!!!