Homemade Laundry Soap

[TeamCaffee]

I have been using homemade laundry soap for a little over a year. What I like about the laundry soap is it is cheap, we only use small quantities, and it does not take much room to store.

1 bar of shaved bar ZOTE or ( Ivory, Fels-Naptha)
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda

I made four batches of this and added one box of the 3 lb OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover.

Turtle suggests 1 cup of baking soda instead of the OxiClean and I will change my recipe the next time I make laundry soap.

Use 1 Tbsp per load or if heavy soiled use 2 Tbsp.

I do pretreat stains and if they are oil stains I put a small drop of Dawn on the spot and rub in.

I keep a the large baggie in the truck and fill a small quart size bag that I carry in and refill as needed.

 

[paullud]

Have you tried Dirty Jobs? My wife was able to get rid of 5th wheel geease stains after a few washes.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using EO Forums mobile app

 

[Turtle]

I have been using homemade laundry soap for a little over a year. What I like about the laundry soap is it is cheap, we only use small quantities, and it does not take much room to store.

1 bar of shaved bar ZOTE or ( Ivory, Fels-Naptha)
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda

I made four batches of this and added one box of the 3 lb OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover.

You may want to add 1 cup of baking soda to the mix. Washing soda (Sodium Carbonate Na[SUB]2[/SUB]CO[SUB]3[/SUB]) is very caustic, pH 11, and Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate NaHCO[SUB]3[/SUB]) is pH 8.1. Adding baking soda reduces the overall pH level without reducing the cleaning power of the washing soda, but by reducing the pH level it makes it less caustic to your skin (it is advisable to wear protective gloves and a mask when dealing with washing soda, as it may irritate the eyes and skin, and it can be toxic when inhaled), and less damaging to clothes, as being less caustic it won't eat up elastic and cloth over time.

Also, adding baking soda adds another hydrogen atom, which gives quite a boost to the Borax (sodium borate Na[SUB]2[/SUB]B[SUB]4[/SUB]O[SUB]7[/SUB]·10H[SUB]2[/SUB]O with a pH of 9.5), which breaks down into hydrogen peroxide, which is the active ingredient in OxiClean (so you can actually leave out the OxiClean altogether since it's redundant).

Using the above recipe with baking soda instead of OxiClean, your clothes will be cleaner, smell great, and cost you about 8 cents a load (half that of store-bought detergent). We make it up in 5-gallon bucket batches at home. Well, I do, anyway. Everyone else uses it, tho.

I use a food processor to grind up the Zote into feta cheese looking chunks, although a cheese grater works great, especially if you have a cheese grater attachment on a food processor.


Incidentally, Zote (made in Mexico, BTW) is about 65 animal fat (beef tallow mostly), and coconut oil, along with sodium, citronella and glycerin. In ½" or 1" chunks, it makes awesome catfish bait because of the smell. Soft and cuts well, but stays on the hook. Other fish, like carp, leave it alone, but catfish go nuts for it, especially in warmer waters. Not as effective in cold waters (because the animal fat doesn't dissolve as easily). But if you grate a bar of Zote, dissolve it over low heat in just enough water to melt the soap (maybe a ¼ cup of water), then add ¼ cup of bacon grease and 4 cloves of minced garlic, then pout it into bait molds, catfish will be calling your for dinner reservations.

 

[skyraider]

I use this one fels naphta

 

[TeamCaffee]

Turtle I agree with you 100%. While I did not have a clue on the chemicals I should have known it because of all the uses I have found for baking soda.

Thanks for explaining it.

 

[Turtle]

The recipe you posted is probably a pretty common one for homemade laundry detergent. And it'll certainly work great. But just that one additional equal part of baking soda does the trick, and has the main benefit of not eating your clothes up like the mix without it does.

It's a formulation I learned during my dry cleaning and laundry days. I learned it while attending the International Fabricare Institute. (Well, la-ti-da) It's a formulation that was devised in order to be caustic enough to clean, and be basic (versus acidic) enough to deal with the high acid of baby pee and baby poop on diapers, while at the same time using the deodorizing power of the remnant O[SUB]3[/SUB] (ozone) from the breakdown of the baking soda.

Seriously.

 

[Dreamer]

My Aunt used to make Lye soap.. It would clean clothes well; but would "slightly irritate" the sensitive skin of say.... A 10 year old who mistook it for bath soap

Yep.. I never did that again!


Dale