1 bar grated Ivory soap (or Fels Naptha, if you can find it)
1 cup Borax
1 cup washing soda.
Water
Put the soap, borax, washing soda and 1 quart hot tap water in a pot and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally. It will get a little bubbly. Keep stirring until all the ingredients are dissolved.
Put 5 more quarts of hot tap water in a bucket. Add the soap mixture and stir until it’s well mixed. Let it cool. It gets really slimy as it cools. And it will still be a little lumpy.
I store in a big clear sweater tub with a lid. I scoop it out with an old ¼ cup.
I like that it is so cheep and easy to make. I have tried scenting it but prefer not to.
(If you cook on low for two days, you don't need to gate the soap.)
UPDATE:
You can make it in the crockpot!!!
Dump the ingredients into your crockpot with some water on low all day. No need to grate the soap. When the soap is dissolved, dump with more water into your container then let cool.
This turned out the best consistency of any time I have made it. The only reason I even tried this was because we just got a gas stove and the vent is not yet hooked in, so I didn't want to set it on the stove on low all day.
I make my own liquid fabric softener:
ReplyDelete1 cup baking soda
1 cup water
6 cups white vinegar
Let the vinegar react with the baking soda then add
6 cups water
10-15 drops essential oil
Thank you for stopping by again to share at training happy hearts. Your comment was very informative and well worth keeping in mind since I try to reduce or eliminate toxins in our home and the easy step of dissolving the Borax if we choose to use in a future recipe of any kind makes sense. (Although, I am not sure I will use it much anymore in kids' recipes now that all this has been brought to my attention.) Question now: Did you use an old crock pot to make your laundry soap? Sounds like an way, great way to make the soap, but now that I know more about the Borax, I am not sure I should try it. (I have been wanting to make my own laundry soap for a while now and noticed your category on the side bar which brought me to this post.)
ReplyDeleteMarianne, I use an old crockpot then disinfect/clean it in the dishwasher so I can make lotion bars or playdough in it. I fill the crockpot with water first then put in a cup of borax, a cup of washing soda and a bar of Ivory. I put my borax in a ziplock bag so I don't shake the box of borax and get dust in the air or have it spill on accident. I keep the borax up high so the kids can't get into it. I have tried a lot of detergent recipes and this is the best and cheapest I've found. I'm not breathing the fumes of the borax or letting the kids near it so I continue to use this recipe.
ReplyDeleteMarianne, Sorry for my slow response. My blogs are more like filing cabinets to keep information than a daily journal. Thanks for poking around. :)
ReplyDelete