After Googling around, I found several recipes and decided to try this one first. I had almost given up after I couldn't find Arm & Hammer Washing Soda - not Baking Soda - and Borax. I had driven to town to go to bigger stores, and it turns out my local Piggly Wiggly had it only 3 blocks away from me! (I still scored at the Goodwill store so the trip to town wasn't a total waste.)
You will need a 5 gallon bucket. I've picked these up for free from bakeries, and then purchased new lids at Home Depot. They also have the buckets too if you can't score a free bucket at the bakery.
Recipe:
- one bar of soap
- 1 quart of water
- 3 gallons of hot water
- 1 C of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT BAKING SODA!!!)
- 1/2 C of Borax
On the stove top, as you heat 1 quart of water, grate the bar of soap into the water. I used Ivory and it dissolved very quickly.
Stir until the soap is dissolved.
Add 3 gallons of hot water to your 5 gallon bucket.
Add the soapy water to your 5 gallon bucket and stir.
Add 1 C of WASHING soda and 1/2 C of Borax to the mixture and stir.
Allow the mixture to cool overnight to thicken.
Now my local Piggly Wiggly isn't the cheapest place to buy things, but I paid $2.65 for the Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, $3.45 for the 21 Mule Team Borax and about .33 cents for the bar of Ivory soap. Using this recipe, a batch of laundry detergent, about 3 gallons, cost me $.89 cents. If I use about 1 C of the liquid detergent, that's about .02 cents a load.
I will test my first batch tomorrow and let you know how it works.
21 comments:
can you buy tide scented essential oil for fragrance?? giggles...Im curious as to how this works
Can't wait to hear how it works!!
This gives me a great idea, you could change the smell just by adding a few drops of essential oil and it would still be reasonable
Borax really??? it is normally found in the laundry isle But I been wanting to try my hand making my own.
I think Borax is used in a few other homemade cleaning recipes too. *scratching head*
there is a silly puddy thing you can make with it..
and?
i gotsome home-made detergent from someone on Hyena Cart as part of a trade that I did, and it was really good. But sadly the waiting list was too long and I wasn't able to get any more. Please blog about your results - I'll be looking out for it xx
I've had that recipe for a while, just waiting for inspiration to strike so I'll make it. lol Looking forward to hearing how it works!
Cool recipe. Thanks for sharing. Will love to know how your results come out. Does anyone out there have a good recipe for removing underarm stains from tee-shirts and my husbands work shirts. I know it's the deodorant that he uses, but even if he switches, it comes back. HELP....HELP...HELP
Theresa
I'll be interested to know too! I really like borax and keep some around just for general cleaning purposes (that, lemon juice, and vinegar...I use it more than other cleaners). :-)
Underarm stains are a battle I have as well..........I wonder if using plain lemon juice on the stains and placing the shirts in the sunlight would remove them? Usually, we just toss the shirts........I wear alot of tank tops under shirts when going sleeveless and having the stains just won't cut it. I would love to find a 'cure'. LOL
I found this site which recommends soaking the shirt in vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.........
http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Yellow-Armpit-Stains
and one more:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf307383.tip.html
That is cool I wil try it out. I even have Borax already. Good luck!!!
I made this a few years ago. Worked fine for us. Didn't take long to make. But then our store stopped carrying Washing Soda so I went back to store bought.
I don't know that I've even SEEN washing soda. I'm assuming it's located in the laundry detergent aisle?
this has created quite the stir --- yoohoo!
now i'm dying to get back to the states and try it out for myself
xx
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda.. I had just saw that in stores here.. don;t know if it just came out or what.. but it was a huge box.. Target,, I think had it here.. did not pay attention to the cost of it there.. but will check my next trip. You can add about a cup of reg baking soda (large load) to the laundry esp whites and it will brightem them.. family use to run a laundry and they always used it in every load of whites.. really works.
Thanks for the tip!
It is in the laundry detergent aisle or try www.soapsgonebuy.com, but its more expensive online. I'd ask your grocer to carry it before trying to order it online.
obeekaybee
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