A Practical Recipe

So with my day-to-day job, there has been a lot of upheaval in the last couple of years.  With that upheaval came a series of 4 new bosses in less than 2 years.  (Yeah, here is where you say - at the very least - Yikes!)  One of these bosses wanted to play a team-building exercise / game on her first day with us.  I can play nicely, so away we go.  The task was to list 2 truths and a lie, and the other office members were to guess which was truth and which was the lie.  I am a terrible liar, so this was particularly challenging.  I came up with the following:

I have pet mature tigers.  I make my own laundry detergent.  I love mice.

Being the country girl that I am, no one guessed that I am actually a little bit terrified of mice.  (One read about Bubonic Plague will do that do a gal!)

Fast forward 18 months, and one day a woman in my office came back to my "cell" and told me she was going to make her own laundry detergent.  She was so excited that I couldn't help but smile along with her and share a little bit of learned wisdom with her.  She is, after all, one of my favorite office mates and makes every day at work better!

I started doing this several years ago, and love it. Now, it seems these days there are more and more things that every day "Jo" is doing to save some money and live a little bit closer to the earth.  So, this leaves me inspired to share my laundry detergent recipe.  The ingredients will cost less than a bottle of Gain, and you can make a LOT of detergent from them.

Purchase: 1 box of 20 Mule Team Borax, 1 box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, strong bar soap.  (I love using Fels Naptha, but have used some stout homemade soap in a pinch, as well as the Dial fresh spring scent that was on sale.)  If I get 4 bars of Fels Naptha (roughly $1.25 per bar), I have enough to make detergent for about 6 months, for my family of 5.

Get for free: Frosting bucket from your local Wal-Mart or Sam's cake decorating center.  Clean thoroughly.

Action: Grate 1/2 bar of Fels Naptha, or whole bar of other soap.  Set aside.  Measure a rounded 1/2 cup of each Borax and Washing Soda.  Also set aside.

Boil 1 - 1.5 gallons of water.  Pour into bucket, and stir in grated soap.  Stir until dissolved and then stir in Borax and Washing Soda, until they are also dissolved.  Slowly stir in cooler water until 2 - 2.5 gallons are achieved.  Cool completely.

*NOTE: None of the instructions I found warned me that this would become a very thick gel!  The best way to deal with this is once cooled, simply plunge your hand and arm down into it and squisk it through your fingers until you have a liquid again!  Then, if you're super adventurous you can whisk it, but I'm not that adventurous any longer.

Put the lid on the bucket, and use a cheap (or free) 2/3 cup measure for each load of laundry.  This is super low sudsing so it's perfect for HE washers, leaves practically no scent on your laundry and rinses out easily. 

I am a huge fan of good smelling laundry, so I DO still buy fabric softener - and one tip I read suggested soaking a washcloth in the softener then let it air dry, and use it as a dryer sheet for up to 20 loads.  This really works well - it goes a long way, the laundry is soft and smells so good! 

And now, I'm off to switch the laundry to the dryer and tumble into slumber. Another week and a half before I make more detergent!