#6: Laundry Soap

Please feel free to skip this one. I too thought making your own laundry soap was a bit over the top....right up until I started making my own laundry soap.

Background story: I shop frugally whenever possible so I mostly bought whatever laundry soap was cheapest and on sale. I won't go further into the ongoing budget balancing act. It makes me tired to discuss it. Anyway, cheap laundry soap always made me sneeze, but not a big deal, right? Then Elijah came along. At first, I used that crazy expensive special baby soap, but after awhile, I had to cut back and he got the same soap the rest of us got. Then he turned into a lizard creature. He had scaly skin all over and angry dry spots. Someone told me I should change laundry soap. Great. Another expense. Story of my life. But, I did it. I switched to hypoallergenic, dye-free, scent-free and he improved right away. My budget did not.

(Side note: "Unscented" usually just means the manufacturer added a masking scent to make it not smell like anything. Scent-free means no added scents. There's a difference. I know, it makes about as much sense as how marshmallows have blue food coloring in them. Really, they do. Read the ingredients.)

Anyway, I started hearing about weird people making their own laundry soap. Then I heard about more weird people. Then I realized I hung out with some of these weird people, so maybe I was the weird one. Who knows? Anyway, I took the plunge. I was too lazy to do the liquid version where you have a big bucket and you melt everything together and something else. I forget. I wanted easy. So I chose the dry ingredient recipe I liked best and made sure it was recommended highly by at least two real, reliable people. I don't know if you knew, but there are tons of unreliable people out there on the internet who claim something works....like gluten-free oat flour pizza crust, and then it's super gross. I needed real, reliable people.

1 bar soap, grated, processed to powder
1 C. washing soda
1 C. borax

That's it. Like any dry soap, it's not a great mix for cold water wash, but it works fantastically for all others, even cool temperature. Just put it in the machine, start filling it with water, add laundry. Presto.

Now for notes. This part will lull to sleep if you've had a tough week, or even if you haven't.

1) Soap is soap. It can't be the lotion stuff. If you wouldn't normally wash your clothes in lotion, don't buy a lotion soap. If you do normally wash your clothes in lotion, by all means buy a lotion soap. I use Ivory, despite the scent, because it doesn't bother Elijah, and it's cheeeeeap. It's also easy to hand-grate. Three bars of Ivory takes me about 2 minutes to hand-grate. Then I leave it out to dry, tempting many family members and visitors to secretly grab a pinch of "mozzerella". I wonder how many visitors have grabbed it and never confessed to eating soap in my kitchen? I know I've found a few headed for it and stopped them. My family still stops and stares at it whenever it's out. I have to dry it because otherwise it gets kind of clumpy when I turn it into powder in the food processor.

Other people use Dr. Bronner's soap (more expensive, way higher quality, harder to grate, not clumpy in the food processor). People also use Fels Naptha (check by laundry products in the grocery store) which is great for stain removal, but really too odoriferous for us.

2) Washing soda is cheap and found in many grocery stores in my area now, thanks to my pioneering laundry soap friend. It is not baking soda.

3) Borax is borax and shows up in most laundry aisles. (It is also some sort of ant defense thing, but I prefer stuffing cinnamon under my baseboards. The room smells like potpourri instead of borax. Yes, I really put cinnamon under my baseboards where the ants come in. I would rather accidentally ingest cinnamon, than borax. Come to think of it, I also enjoy purposely ingesting cinnamon.) But I digress....what is with me today? Move on, Patti

4) I add 2 Tablespoons to any size load.

5) Benefits of this soap: Your clothes smell like clothes, not weird perfume. Your clothes are softer. Your sheets are insanely soft and you will never want to get up in the morning. (This has actually been a down side for me.) You will find fewer stains when you are folding clothes. Quite simply, this soap, even with Ivory, leaves no residue to stiffen the fabric or makes you smell like weird fake flower stuff.

6) I was finding early on that sometimes a really smelly load of clothes just got the "stank", even with my miracle soap, so I have started routinely adding 1 T. of baking soda (not washing soda) to each load. The stank has never returned.

7) When you combine all the powders, do it outside. I actually wear a dust mask because I don't enjoy the sensation of powdered soap in my sinuses. I have also tied a dishtowel around my face, but this really embarrasses my kids.

8) If you have a high falutin' washing machine that is dedicated to water conservation and front-loading and whatever else, I've heard this stuff can work too because it's low suds. But that was on the internet. Be careful. You might want to check with a couple of real, reliable people.