OT??? Make your own laundry soap

I am not necessarily a fan of the Duggar fannily and don't care to debate their choices (VBG) but I am going to try their recipe for laundry soap. In my research I found that you can add 1/2 cup of baking soda with the Borax and it will eliminate the need for fabric softener. I also read you can use white vinegar in place of liquid fabric softener.... and your clothing will not smell like a salad. ;-) And you can substitute Ivory bar soap for the Fels-Naptha soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/...20best%20value

Or

http://tinyurl.com/3ke6beq

I'm all for saving money and- to bring this On Topic- with lavender essential oil added- it will make my quilting cottons smell wonderful!

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

I've never made my own laundry soap. Report back to us and let us know how
it works?
If you prewash then you are surely OT here. How are all the pooches doing?
Taria

"Leslie & The Furbabies in MO." wrote in message
news:3933643.895.1334719808325.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@ynbi17...

I am not necessarily a fan of the Duggar fannily and don't care to debate
their choices (VBG) but I am going to try their recipe for laundry soap.
In my research I found that you can add 1/2 cup of baking soda with the
Borax and it will eliminate the need for fabric softener. I also read you
can use white vinegar in place of liquid fabric softener.... and your
clothing will not smell like a salad. ;-) And you can substitute Ivory
bar soap for the Fels-Naptha soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/...20best%20value

Or

http://tinyurl.com/3ke6beq

I'm all for saving money and- to bring this On Topic- with lavender
essential oil added- it will make my quilting cottons smell wonderful!

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

"Leslie & The Furbabies in MO."
I am not necessarily a fan of the Duggar fannily and don't care to debate
their choices (VBG) but I am going to try their recipe for laundry soap.
In my research I found that you can add 1/2 cup of baking soda with the
Borax and it will eliminate the need for fabric softener. I also read you
can use white vinegar in place of liquid fabric softener.... and your
clothing will not smell like a salad. ;-) And you can substitute Ivory
bar soap for the Fels-Naptha soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/...20best%20value

Or

http://tinyurl.com/3ke6beq

I'm all for saving money and- to bring this On Topic- with lavender
essential oil added- it will make my quilting cottons smell wonderful!

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

I have used brown apple cider vinegar instead of fabric softener for many
years, maybe 30. Mostly I use it to prevent static in my clothes, and I
don't use it in all the laundry I do. Other times I might use unscented
fabric softer sheets and cut them in half and use them 2 or 3 times. I also
use 1/10 vinegar & water to clean the kitchen with, and on my dust cloth.
I have a friend who makes her dry laundry soap and has for 5 or 6 years.
I buy my liquid soap and only use half the recommended amount, using part of
it on any stains, and have good results. I've done this for many years, so
that a bottle that will wash 42 loads will wash at least 80 loads.
(and I don't have to bother with mixing the dry stuff to make my own
detergent.) I wash only with cool water, not warm or hot. HTH
Barbara in SC where the cold water is usually no colder than 50
degrees----just guessing

I use regular laundry detergent (Seventh Generation HE) but I do add
about 1/4 cup vinegar to the rinse cycle using the fabric softener
dispenser. It has some softening effect, helps rinse out any detergent
that might be left, and neutralizes odors. It does not leave any odor
in the clothes.

Julia in MN

Note: Fabric softeners are generally unnecessary. Fabric softener leaves
a coating on your laundry that reduces absorbency -- not desirable on
towels, etc. Dryer sheets do the same -- and also cause a buildup on
the lint filter which can reduce the efficiency of the dryer if not
washed off periodically.

On 4/17/2012 10:30 PM, Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote:
I am not necessarily a fan of the Duggar fannily and don't care to
debate their choices (VBG) but I am going to try their recipe for
laundry soap. In my research I found that you can add 1/2 cup of
baking soda with the Borax and it will eliminate the need for fabric
softener. I also read you can use white vinegar in place of liquid
fabric softener.... and your clothing will not smell like a salad.
;-) And you can substitute Ivory bar soap for the Fels-Naptha soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/...20best%20value

Or

http://tinyurl.com/3ke6beq

I'm all for saving money and- to bring this On Topic- with lavender
essential oil added- it will make my quilting cottons smell
wonderful!

Leslie& The Furbabies in MO

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I thought this would be a recipe using fats and lye. I don't consider
this to be making your own soap. It's just combining a Fels-Naptha bar
with washing soda. Perhaps less expensive than buying regular laundry
detergent, but not really making soap like my grandma did using leftover
cooking fat and lye. Now that was some soap. My mother used to use it
for laundry by shaving it up and heating with water the night before,
similar to the Duggar recipe, but in a smaller quantity.

Julia in MN
On 4/17/2012 10:30 PM, Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote:
I am not necessarily a fan of the Duggar fannily and don't care to
debate their choices (VBG) but I am going to try their recipe for
laundry soap. In my research I found that you can add 1/2 cup of
baking soda with the Borax and it will eliminate the need for fabric
softener. I also read you can use white vinegar in place of liquid
fabric softener.... and your clothing will not smell like a salad.
;-) And you can substitute Ivory bar soap for the Fels-Naptha soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/...20best%20value

Or

http://tinyurl.com/3ke6beq

I'm all for saving money and- to bring this On Topic- with lavender
essential oil added- it will make my quilting cottons smell
wonderful!

Leslie& The Furbabies in MO.


--
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This message has been scanned for viruses by Norton Anti-Virus
http://webpages.charter.net/jaccola/default.html
-----------

I have made and used their recipe for powdered soap for several years, and have had great success with it. (I don't make the liquid version because I don't like messing with large amounts of boiling water, and don't like carrying heavy buckets of goop from my kitchen down to the basement.)

You can use Fels Naptha bars OR ordinary Ivory Soap bars. I use Ivory, which is easier to find, significantly less expensive, and far easier and faster to grate! For the grating I use my microplane. On "laundry soap day" I just get out the ingredients, my microplane, a measuring cup, and a great big old mixing bowl and go at it in the kitchen while NPR is on the radio. I don't even bother to stir it up very well, because I grate soap, add the borax and washing soda on top, give it a wee bit of a stir, and then grate more Ivory and top it with borax and washing soda. I stir every "layer" a bit, and then make more layers. When I run out of Ivory soap bars, or when the bowl is getting really full, I'm finished. I store the soap in a large plastic bucket with a lid, and have a tablespoon on top. As for how much to use, I have a top-loading washing machine, and use 1 tablespoon for ordinary loads. For extra-dirty loads I use 2 tablespoons.

I'm not a big fan of the Duggers, either, but decided to try their laundry soap recipe simply because so many commercial laundry soaps have added ingredients that make me itch like crazy. This stuff does not. It works very well, and if you want to watch it, take a tablespoon or two of it in a sandwich baggie to the laundromat and use it to wash a bedspread in one of the giant front-loader machines with a window in the door. I find that my laundry comes out completely clean, with no odor, and with nothing that makes me itch.

If you don't have large plastic buckets with lids handy, go to the bakery at the local grocery store and ask to buy a couple of the ones they use and then usually throw away. My grocery will sell a 5 gallon bucket with lid for $1. You can also scrub out the plastic buckets that come with latex paint. You probably would want to avoid plastic buckets that come with lawn chemicals, of course.

I suggest you give the powdered version a try and see what you think. Make a small batch as a trial.

On 4/17/2012 11:30 PM, Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote:
I am not necessarily a fan of the Duggar fannily and don't care to debate their choices (VBG) but I am going to try their recipe for laundry soap. In my research I found that you can add 1/2 cup of baking soda with the Borax and it will eliminate the need for fabric softener. I also read you can use white vinegar in place of liquid fabric softener.... and your clothing will not smell like a salad. ;-) And you can substitute Ivory bar soap for the Fels-Naptha soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/...20best%20value

Or

http://tinyurl.com/3ke6beq

I'm all for saving money and- to bring this On Topic- with lavender essential oil added- it will make my quilting cottons smell wonderful!

Leslie& The Furbabies in MO.


Leslie, I use the same technique as Julia and add regular vinegar to the
fabric softener dispenser in the top loading machine. I find it helps
rinse out detergent and acts as a fabric softener. And I have used this
method for more years than I care to count but at least since my oldest
was born in 63.

Judie

On Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:30:08 -0700, Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote:

I am not necessarily a fan of the Duggar fannily and don't care to
debate their choices (VBG) but I am going to try their recipe for
laundry soap. In my research I found that you can add 1/2 cup of
baking soda with the Borax and it will eliminate the need for fabric
softener. I also read you can use white vinegar in place of liquid
fabric softener.... and your clothing will not smell like a salad. ;-)
And you can substitute Ivory bar soap for the Fels-Naptha soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/...0455/Homemade%
20Liquid%20Laundry%20Soap-%20Front%20or%20top%20load%20machine-%20best%
20value

Or

http://tinyurl.com/3ke6beq

I'm all for saving money and- to bring this On Topic- with lavender
essential oil added- it will make my quilting cottons smell wonderful!

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

There is nothing new about that recipe.
People have been combining hard soap with borax and soda ash to do
laundry for at least a hundred years.

When I was a kid a couple of my grammas would just chuck the whole bar of
Fels Naptha into the tub of the wringer washer, and add the borax and the
soda.

We often use vinegar in the rinse at my house. Always with silk or wool,
often with anything that might have picked up a smell. I am death on
fabric softeners because to me they don't make things feel soft, they
make them feel a bit greasy and the pile feels weird on anything that has
one. Everybody else thinks I'm bonkers. Anyway that doesn't happen with
vinegar. I count vinegar not leaving a smell as a plus. I don't care
for the smell of most laundry products, though they are a whiff of fresh
air compared to the horrible stench of the alleged odor killing products.

You might care to look into soap nuts. I've not tried them yet, but I've
a friend who swears by them and says that while it is an expense up front
they are a lot cheaper than buying laundry soap in the long run.

NightMist


--
I'm raising a developmentally disabled child. What's your superpower?

On 23/04/2012 18:59, NightMist wrote:
On Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:30:08 -0700, Leslie& The Furbabies in MO. wrote:

I am not necessarily a fan of the Duggar fannily and don't care to
debate their choices (VBG) but I am going to try their recipe for
laundry soap. In my research I found that you can add 1/2 cup of
baking soda with the Borax and it will eliminate the need for fabric
softener. I also read you can use white vinegar in place of liquid
fabric softener.... and your clothing will not smell like a salad. ;-)
And you can substitute Ivory bar soap for the Fels-Naptha soap.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/...0455/Homemade%
20Liquid%20Laundry%20Soap-%20Front%20or%20top%20load%20machine-%20best%
20value

Or

http://tinyurl.com/3ke6beq

I'm all for saving money and- to bring this On Topic- with lavender
essential oil added- it will make my quilting cottons smell wonderful!

Leslie& The Furbabies in MO.

There is nothing new about that recipe.
People have been combining hard soap with borax and soda ash to do
laundry for at least a hundred years.

When I was a kid a couple of my grammas would just chuck the whole bar of
Fels Naptha into the tub of the wringer washer, and add the borax and the
soda.

We often use vinegar in the rinse at my house. Always with silk or wool,
often with anything that might have picked up a smell. I am death on
fabric softeners because to me they don't make things feel soft, they
make them feel a bit greasy and the pile feels weird on anything that has
one. Everybody else thinks I'm bonkers. Anyway that doesn't happen with
vinegar. I count vinegar not leaving a smell as a plus. I don't care
for the smell of most laundry products, though they are a whiff of fresh
air compared to the horrible stench of the alleged odor killing products.

You might care to look into soap nuts. I've not tried them yet, but I've
a friend who swears by them and says that while it is an expense up front
they are a lot cheaper than buying laundry soap in the long run.

NightMist


You've just mentioned what I was going to mention, which is the soapnuts.

Haven't tried them myself, would love to know how to use them, as over
here they sell them alongside bicarb (i think) and essential oils. So
don't know how much to use and when to use the essential oils etc.

Thanks

Janner
France

On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:36:35 +0200, Janner wrote:

On 23/04/2012 18:59, NightMist wrote:

You might care to look into soap nuts. I've not tried them yet, but
I've a friend who swears by them and says that while it is an expense
up front they are a lot cheaper than buying laundry soap in the long
run.


You've just mentioned what I was going to mention, which is the
soapnuts.

Haven't tried them myself, would love to know how to use them, as over
here they sell them alongside bicarb (i think) and essential oils. So
don't know how much to use and when to use the essential oils etc.


http://www.buysoapnuts.com/how-to-use-them/

There are several places that turn up in a google search. This one is
not only at the top but has one of the simplest and clearest explanations.

As you see, the easiest thing is to just tie a few in a cloth bag and
toss them in the washer. Reuse them until they start to get mushy.

The friend I mentioned bought a 2 kilo economy pack and expects that they
will last her and her DH at least two years. YMMV

You can add essential oils to any laundry process. Just put some, how
much depends on the strength of the oil, in any liquid, shake well and
add as or after the washer fills. Most liquid soap holds it in
suspension quite nicely if you want it in a form to keep handy on the
shelf.
You can also put them in a small amount of alcohol and spray that over
any sort of salt while mixing with a spoon. Just like you do to make
scented bath salts out of plain epsom salts. Then just put some of the
salt in with the laundry.

NightMist

--
I'm raising a developmentally disabled child. What's your superpower?