Over several months time, and giving samples to family and friends to try and get their feedback, I have come up with a formula that I have been using for several years. When I first started making it, I used store bought soap bars made specifically for laundry use. Since I now make my own cold process soap, I now make my own bar soap to grate for my laundry soap. For those of you interested in experimenting with soap making, I'll share that recipe in a later post. For those of you not quite ready to jump in and make your own bar soap, the store bought laundry bars, such as Fels Naptha or Zote Soap, will work just fine for this recipe.
Homemade Laundry Soap
- Roughly 2 1/2 cups loosely packed grated laundry soap bar (see note below)
- 1 cup washing soda (AKA soda ash, or sodium carbonate)
- 1/2 cup borax
- 1/2 cup baking soda (AKA sodium bi-carbonate)
- A few drops of Essential oils of your choice (optional)
I make laundry soap in an old food processor. If you don't have one, a box grater will work well to grate your bar soap. It will just take longer. Some say the rhythm of the grating process is therapeutic. Personally, I would rather get it done fast so I can move on to other things. I first slice the bars into small enough strips to feed into the top feed tube. Allowing them to dry for a few hours at this point will also help the shredding go a little easier. Then I shred it with a shred disk you might use for carrots or cheese, then set the shredded soap aside. After all my soap bars are shredded, I measure out my recipe in the food processor with the chopping blade at the bottom. Give the whole batch several long pulses until it is all well blended and it is ready to go. I store mine in an old 5 gallon paint bucket, even a re-purposed cat litter container would be perfect, as long as it has a lid to keep moisture levels down. As you can see by the size container I use, when I make my laundry soap, I make a big batch, so I will have enough to last me several months.
All of these ingredients you should be able to find in your local big box store, or even your grocery store, but I shopped around for the best prices on each item. One ingredient in particular, sodium carbonate (NOT sodium BI-carbonate), AKA washing soda or soda ash, is typically found in the laundry aisle, but I found an even cheaper, more obscure place to purchase it. Believe it or not, soda ash is an ingredient used to make some glaze formulations in ceramics. If you have a ceramics supply house near by, you might be able to buy soda ash by the pound from them way cheaper than in the laundry aisle. It works good for other cleaning purposes, as it is also sold as washing soda. It is also the same active ingredient in coffee machine cleaners you would typically pay several dollars for a small 8 oz container. Mix it 1 tablespoon to 4 cups of water and you have another money saving use to keep your coffee maker clean. Just make sure to run 3 batches of clean water through your machine afterwards to rinse out the cleaner solution.
If you are worried if this laundry soap recipe will work in an HE machine, don't. This is a very low suds formula that works great in HE machines as well as regular machines. When I had people test my formula, I had people with both kinds of machines try it with great results. It also works great for baby clothes and people with sensitivities to many laundry product additives. I only had one person complain it bothered her, but later found out she has sensitivities to baking soda. You can also make the recipe without baking soda, but here in Florida with the harder water, it really seems to help soften the water and help with the rinsing. Tweak the formula for your water conditions and see what works best for you.
If you are finding bits of soap left undissolved after the wash, you are likely using too much. If you are used to store brands, the amount of this recipe you need will seem like too small of an amount to get the job done. Keep in mind, most conventional store brands include water or other fillers to make it looks like you are getting more for your money. When you strip it down to the essential cleaners you really don't need much. I have seen other on-line recipes dissolve or cook their soap formula to make a liquid soap. I guess you could also do that, but who wants the extra work, plus it will just take up more room with the added water.
Speaking of other online formulas for laundry soap, many will recommend using left over scraps of regular bar soap you might use for washing your hands or your body. Don't do it. These bars are mostly either detergent bars, since in production the skin friendly glycerin is removed to sell for a higher price in lotions, or the bar is what they call "super-fatted." If you don't already know, soap is made by chemically changing the physical properties of oils, butters, or fats into soap using lye, also known as sodium hydroxide. In soap speak, super-fatting soap means having excess oils added to the soap that do not completely saponify, or turn into soap, during the chemical and curing process. These unsaponfied oils are great for moisturizing your skin, but not so good for your laundry. Excess oils will build up on your clothes and in your machine over time. Not good! Please use only soap designed for laundry purposes or cold process soap that is not super-fatted. Lard or tallow based soaps also seem to work a bit better than vegetable oil based soaps, in my opinion. Over time, the vegetable based soaps seemed to make my whites a little dingy.
I hope this post has been worth the wait, and you now have a whole new insight to your laundry. It may be far more than you ever thought you would know about soap or laundry, but typically knowing too much is far better than not knowing enough. :o) Please post your comments and results, so if you have tweaked your formula for different parts of the country others can also benefit from your findings.
One day I will try your recipe, but until then I have changed a few things about the way I wash my laundry. I add about 1/3 cup of borax to my brand name detergent (I only use half the recommended amount - they recommend too much imo). I really can't believe how stains that have been on t-shirts for months are gone after this small step. Then, I add 1/3 vinegar to the final rinse and my clothes are so soft! Thanks for the great tips Lisa! (p.s. I have left several comments over the past few weeks but for some reason they don't show up.)
ReplyDeleteGreat tip, Virginia! I have never tried that. That is a wonderful and easy way to get some of the benefits of homemade laundry soap without all the extra effort. Great tip! Thanks for sharing! :o)
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