Laundry soap

I've been scrapping the bottom of the box of Tide for the last few loads of laundry and I dread buying laundry soap.  Scents to decide on, prices to groan over, the pretty scent with the soap that does nothing, not to mention being daring enough to try something new and having the kids skin react.

A while back Carmina mentioned she was going to make some laundry soap.  I'd tried that when Charlet was a baby but the big bucket of half gel, half goo, half liquid (yes, I can do math) was a pain and I didn't get my yummy smells and it wasn't wonderful on baby spit up marks.  Did I mention it was a pain?  I never tried it again, but several years ago I came across a recipe for powdered laundry detergent.

One problem, I couldn't find Washing Soda anywhere.

I've since been using washing soda as a booster in the laundry but had long forgotten about the recipe until Mina reminded me.  So today on my day off, without kids, with nothing else planned or demanded of me I chose to spend my me time making laundry detergent.  Yes, I know -- I have no social life.

Now my house smells of jasmine and laundry is piling up for me to fold (why oh why can't there be a laundry detergent recipe that folds the laundry too????)

Laundry Detergent

1 box Borax
1 box Baking Soda (4 lb)
1 box Washing Soda (4 lb)
3 bars fels naptha soap
3 lbs oxyclean (or equivalent--I used a cheap equivalent)
 essential oils if desired (I desired)

Dump baking soda in a big container (I used the roaster pan, other people use 5 gallon buckets but I didn't have one empty) and drop in the essential oils (I didn't measure) and let sit while preparing the fels naptha.  I grated the fels naptha in the food processor (which I had to replace, mine broke mid-project but it's just barely been hanging on since last years mass grate and freeze episode) then processed it so that the soap was in tiny bits.  Pour everything into the pan with the baking soda, mix well and store.  Use 1-2 tablespoons per load.  I have mine is a pretty glass jar from Wal-mart and I use the tiny scoop from the oxyclean.

Enjoy the laundry. (ha! I can pretend, right?)

I got the recipe from Being Creative Blog It wasn't the first place I saw it, but I never followed their link to the original source and I couldn't find that blog again.  I also added some jasmine essential oils.  Maybe at some point I'll pull out the camera and make these posts a little more interesting but for now you can go to the link and see her pictures.

As for how it works, it has Kaede's playground dirty pants clean, socks that the kids ran outside in the mud in white, and scrubs that had...well, never mind the details there.  Scrubs are clean and fresh smelling too.

I have plenty of fabric softener for the time being but when I run out I'm making my own.

~Heather