Hi again all, : )
Up to bat this week is our Laundry Soap Packet. I worked this up because, frankly, we’re out of gallon jugs to mix our Laundry Soap in. We’ve taken them to the Market lately and have sold out. I wasn’t sure mixing it into a packet would work cuz there’s some liquid soap mixed in it, but it turned out great.
There’s laundry soap recipes all over the internet. We tried a few of them, and they all cleaned well, but I had a few personal issues to overcome. For one thing, I admit to rebelling against recipes where you have to grate a bar of soap. Just something in me doesn’t like doing that. Most recipes use either Fels-Naptha or Zote or Dove. Beyond, not wanting to do the grating thing, all the bars have a very strong aroma to them, and as far as laundry goes, I’m anti-fragrance big time. For whatever reason my body chemistry and perfumes don’t mix. Um, yeah, stinky P.U. 😛 So, it’s free & clear for me or nothing. Also, there’s some reports about the Fels-Naptha bar having some petroleum derivatives in it which would make it not a truly chemical-free soap. I don’t know whether that’s so or not, nor have I researched what’s in Zote or Dove either. But if you’re concerned about chemicals and are planning to make a laundry soap recipe with any of these bar soaps, it might be worth looking into.
Again, the fragrance issue kicked many of these recipes out for me, and so I decided to come up with my own. We used just Borax for a while, and it worked well, but I wanted a little more whitening power. So we enhanced the Borax a bit by adding Arm & Hammer Washing soda as well as a small amount of Castile Soap. And Voila´. Easy, simple and inexpensive. All things a busy momma could hope for! That, and no stinky P.U.’s for me. Lol.
Our Laundry Soap Packets just need to be added to one gallon of very hot tap water until dissolved and then you’re good to go! 🙂 Very simple to just cut of an end of the baggie, then use a funnel and a long handled wooden spoon to encourage it into a gallon jug. For best results, use a half cup of All Natural Laundry Soap to a medium to large load, and then run your washer on it’s longest setting. Also, as with any laundry soap, be sure to not overload the washer. If you want a natural bleaching effect to go with the soap, add a half cup of lemon juice or peroxide to each load. White, bright, and natural!
That’s it! Happy Laundry Day to you 🙂
A very good article on using Borax:
http://www.crunchybetty.com/getting-to-the-bottom-of-borax-is-it-safe-or-not