I've been making stuff (laundry- part 1)

Happy 4th of July!  I only know it's the 4th because Jody isn't at work today.  It feels like a Saturday and I'm trying hard not to start the washer. 

For about a year and a half now I have been making laundry detergent.  If you're on Pinterest then you've probably seen those DIY posts on making all kinds of things yourself.  I can't even remember which recipe I used for the DIY laundry detergent.  I just thought since laundry is one of my hobbies, why not give it a try, maybe save some money, and that would be a good thing.

When I started running low on detergent I bought all the necessary ingredients to make a batch.

One box of Borax $4.39, one box of WASHING (not baking) Soda $2.99, one bar of SOAP (like Dr. Bonner's $3.??, Kirks, Fels Naptha, Ivory 3/$1.??) and Essential Oil any scent (I used Pink Grapefruit) $? can be kind of pricey, but a little goes a long way.

I also needed something to make and store it in so I grabbed a empty Cat Litter bucket out of the garage before Jody filled it with wood scraps, ashes or junk.  Yeah, I washed it out and dried it really well.  (If you don't have a cat, find someone who does and have them save you a bucket, they work well for mixing and storing your detergent.)

I cut the bar of soap into chunks and started running it through my food processor.

I no longer have this little food processor.

I immediately stopped running it through my food processor and took the whole operation out onto the deck.  The dust from the soap was unbelievable!  I put a dish towel over my face like a stage coach bandit to keep from inhaling the dust.  I think I could taste soap for a day or so after.  Another reason to take it all outside is that the dust settles on everything in your house and becomes sticky.

Once my soap was powdered I began mixing everything in the bucket. 

Washing Soda - looks like a cup but I think I used 2 cups

Borax - I think I used 2 cups of this also

Then I dumped in the ground up soap and about a gazillion drops of Essential Oil, until the smell didn't smell like soap but like Pink Grapefruit.  I mixed it all up with a big wooden spoon.  

I thought it would be a great idea to store the detergent in some coffee canisters that I had saved but that was just too much trouble.  Since I was going to try to make enough to last awhile I just set the Cat Litter bucket on the back of my washer, on it's side and left all the detergent in the bucket and put the coffee cans in the recycling.

If you have cats and have used this type of cat litter in the green bucket you'll know that the lid doesn't come all the way off.  It's like a flap.  So I set the bucket where the flap opened facing up and since the bucket wasn't completely full the contents didn't spill out.  Easy-peasy... mix and store in the same container!

This laundry detergent works really well on jeans, sheets, towels, all types of clothing.  All you need to use is about 2 TABLESPOONS!  One batch lasts me about 9-10 months.  I do an average of 5-6 loads a week.  The clothes smell awesome!  I just love cramming my face into the towels as I drag them out of the dryer to fold them. I've been asked "what are you doing?" on several occasions while folding the clothes.

The draw back.... why is there always a draw back?  I began seeing residue on my dark colored knit clothes like my yoga pants and Jody's t-shirts.  I then learned that Borax needs hot water to completely dissolve.   I don't like using hot water, especially on dark clothes, and my washing machine is set up to only rinse in cold water.  Was all the soap rinsing completely out? My mom would have put a piece of the laundry in the sink and filled it with water to see if any soap rinsed out, but not me.

So, I was off to research some of the liquid recipes on Pinterest.   Of all the posts to Pinterest, I've seen very few that tell you the downside of their 'experiment'.  Why is that?   Maybe it's so I'll have something to do on weekends.

If you follow me on Pinterest, you may not find this recipe for laundry detergent in my Pins.  When I try something and it fails, I delete it.  Why waste my friend's time.  I have however started following One Good Thing by Jillie, here's her recipe.  As you can see she adds more stuff to hers, I don't want any kind of bleaching agent in my dark loads, so I leave that out and add Oxyclean to the load of lights as I need it. If you are going to use a dry detergent I would use hers... I think she may put a lot of research into her 'experiments.'   Although I did follow her advice on the dishwasher goo.


Speaking of dishwashers....  Update on the dishwasher detergent:

I set the container on this Tupperware lid so any run-off would be contained.

Oh look!  The run-off has been contained and glued itself to the jar!

It's like putty!  I wonder why the bottom half of this picture is so dark?

It wouldn't come off the spoon!  So I just put the spoon in the dishwasher with the goo on it and started it up! I guess it's just dark in here... I do most of my mad scientist stuff after Jody goes to work at 5:30...  bwahhh!

Stay tuned for my next experiment.

Have a great 4th, and as my mom would say "don't come crying to me when you blow your fingers off" as the neighbor's mailbox exploded.