Time to do more laundry. There are two things in my life which I know will happen, death and laundry. In order to continue our journey towards decreasing the amount of things which we are dependent on purchasing and decreasing the chemicals we use, we have been making our own laundry detergent for a while now.
This may be common place for most of my friends but for those of my readers who did not know you could make your own, alllow me to enlighten you. Store bought laundry detergent is two things: expensive and full of things I don’t want on my shelf of cleaners. Since I make most of my own cleaners the ingredients needed to make laundry detergent are all on my shelf already.
You will need to buy washing soda, I use Arm and Hammer. Washing Soda is not the same thing as baking soda, it is found in the laundry aisle as well as the second ingredient, Borax. I buy Mule Team (which can also be used to make many other cleaners or used anywhere you need a scouring powder). The last thing is a bar of soap, you can really use any soap but the most widely used are Fels Naptha, Zote or Ivory. I use castile soap as well as organic goats milk soap made by a wonderful friend of mine at the Farmers Market. Optionally you can also add essential oils. I change the ones that I use occasionally but my favorites are grapefruit, patchouli and lavender.
Grate 2 cups of soap, add one cup of Borax and one cup of Washing Soda. Put into a container and use 1 to 2 tablespoons per load. If that seems like too little soap it is because it is pure cleaners. Store bought laundry detergent is full of fillers. The whole process takes me about 10 minutes thanks to a handy grating blade on my food processor.
I spend pennies per load and I have control over what my childrens clothing and bedding get washed in, plus I get a kick out of being dependent on one less thing.
