Homemade Laundry Detergent

I used the homemade laundry detergent for years. Now, I use a variation of it here and there. Let me tell you that the homemade laundry detergent has many uses other than laundry washing.

It's a great spot remover. It took out ink stains from my son's 'ruined' football shirt with the help of some hairspray. I've always used hairspray for ink on clothing. Well, the big college man went and washed his white football shirt (which was part of his traveling suit) with a pen! There was ink stains covering the entire shirt. I used hairspray and washed it, but the ink only became lighter, but was still visible. Then I had DS rub homemade laundry detergent into the inky spots along with hairspray, washed and VOILA! Perfectly white shirt again with no ink spots after the second washing.

I rush to the container of homemade laundry detergent for all my clothing stains. ALL! I've washed muddy, grass-stained white football pants for years. Those things are nasty! The homemade laundry detergent always gets out the stains if I smear the pants in the solution, let sit for a day, then wash.

Some have complained that their clothes become yellowy and a bit dingy. I've never had that happen, I wonder if it's because we have soft water?? Not sure, but I suggested to a friend that she might like washing her clothing once per month in Tide and oxyclean. That's another great tip for whites: wash them in Tide and oxyclean! Okay, I cheat and use Tandil which is Aldi's brand of Tide and it works just as well. It costs almost 1/2 what Tide does. It makes your white clothing look 'marine white'.

The homemade laundry detergent is great for cleaning. When we moved into our home the baseboards in the kitchen had a greasy, grimy yuck on them. I took an old rag, globbed a big slothering mess of homemade laundry detergent on the baseboards and let sit for 10 minutes. When I came back that grime wiped right off. I got this idea mainly because when I used a certain pot to make the laundry detergent, it always washed up sparkling clean.

So, I guess you would like the recipe. Here it is:

1 bar of Fels Naptha soap (You can use Ivory or Zote, so I've heard, but I've always used FN)
1 cup washing soda (not baking soda)
1 cup borax

Grate the Fels Naptha bar into a 5 - 6 quart pot. Fill pot approximately 1/2 full with water and simmer. (It's important not to boil, as the Fels Naptha could be flammable at high temperatures).

Once the soap has dissolved and the solution is yellowy in color remove from heat and let cool slightly. Then measure the 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax into the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket. Pour the hot Fels Naptha solution over the top of the soda/borax and stir until it's all dissolved. Pour additional water into the bucket until it's full. Let sit for one day.

Now when you open that bucket a day later you're going to think that you have had a visit from Bill Nye the Science Guy, but no, it's supposed to look that way. It will look goopy and almost like a solid. This is the fun part.....roll up those sleeves (although some use a huge stick or paddle) and dig into that cold, gloopy 5-gallons of what looks like baby snot and stir it all up. It will break up to the point where you feel like you can scoop it out with a cup.

I add 1 cup of solution to my washing machine while it's set on the 'hot' water setting for about 30 seconds to a minute. This dissolves the goop and it won't settle and spot on your clothes. Then I switch the washer to 'cold' or 'warm' or whatever setting you like.

Pretreat any stains before hand with the goop. You can leave it on a stain overnight to assure it's power of treating stains!

One thing you must understand is that you don't need suds to get things clean. The homemade detergent just doesn't suds! So, if you need a bit of an allusion to help you with this, buy a bottle of Dawn dish detergent and squirt just a tiny, tiny squirt in the washer as its filling with water. You can have your suds AND Dawn dish detergent does cut dirt and grease in the laundry room, too.

I calculated a few years back that this laundry detergent only costs me about 1/2 cent per load whereas some store boughten detergents cost almost a dollar per load.