Homemade Laundry Soap

Laundry.  

Ugh.

It never ends, does it?  

I was thinking about laundry last night as I was folding a load that had sat in the dryer for a couple of days and re-washing the load in the washer.  I'm ashamed to say that this isn't an uncommon occurrence at our homestead.  I've tried several different systems for doing and keeping up with laundry, but it seems that what works now doesn't work then.

Anyway, as I was getting things going (there is a light at the end of this week's laundry tunnel - only three loads left in the laundry room!) I realized that I am almost out of laundry soap.

So I got to thinking about laundry.

Right now, I do laundry for five of the six of us.  Thing #1 does her own, most of the time.  She will do about 2-3 loads herself weekly.  She'll also help out with towels and sheets if I ask.  I do about 2-3 loads for the Farmer and myself and at least 2 loads of towels (seriously, do they actually NEED a new towel EVERY shower!)  Then there isn't much laundry thrown in from Things 2-3-4 except for the random sock and underwear I find.  Suddenly, it's the weekend and the kids clean their rooms and I'm climbing Mt. Laundry with 10+ loads.  Ugh.

And heaven forbid, they sort it!  I have four baskets for dirty laundry labeled: Whites; Dark; Light; Towels & Jeans.  Most of the time they get the whites and towels right, but there is no difference between light and dark.  Oh well, it's a start.

Can you tell I'm frustrated?  I'm sure it will pass, but it just hit hard last night.

We've got to get a better system in place.

As for washing, I wash everything in cold.  Once in a while I'll do sheets & towels with hot, but usually cold all around.  We hang on the laundry line in spring, summer and fall and use the dryer in the winter or on rainy days.  I LOVE the smell of line-dried laundry.  There's seriously nothing better than crawling into fresh, line-dried sheets at the end of a long day.

Years ago, I began making my own laundry soap.  Thing #3 had really sensitive skin and would break out in goose pimples no matter what commercial soap I used.  So I started making my own.  And I played with the recipes a bit until I found one that I like.  It's based on the recipe found HERE.

And since I'm almost out of the commercial soap I've been using....it's probably time to make more of my own.  Recipe follows.....

Ingredients:

2 bars Fels Naptha or other soap of choice (I really want to try ZOTE soap as I've heard it has a great smell and is such a pretty pink color!)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda (NOT BAKING soda!)
1 cup baking soda
6 cups water

Steps:

1. Heat water.  Grate soap bars.
2. Add grated soap gradually to hot water and melt. Do not boil!
3. Turn off heat and add borax, washing soda and baking soda.
4. Pour into 4 quart size mason jars.
5. Add enough warm water to each jar to fill it almost to the top - to the "shoulders" of the jar, if you will.
6. Cover and let sit overnight.

This is a fun step....the water and soap mixture separate out and look really cool.



7.  Take the separated mixture and put it in your blender (not your mixer as I first tried - SUCH a MESS!) And blend until it whips up into a creamy pudding-like mixture.  I had to do this in several steps in order to get through it all.

8. Clean out the mason jars used above and re-pack the pudding-like soap mixture into the jars.  I was able to fill 6 1/2 quart size mason jars with the finished project.

9.  Add a cute label and move to your laundry space.

(seriously, my laundry room is never that clean......no matter how much I wish it was!  But doesn't it look so nice in pictures???!!!)

Sometimes I add essential oils, but not often.  The Farmer prefers unscented laundry.  But I like to add lavender to our sheets and towels.  And tea tree is a great anti-bacterial for towels and all those super dirty farm clothes.

And that's all there is to it.

Now to actually get it done this week before I run out and room cleaning day comes again....