Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This watered-down Irish girl sends you wishes for a happy and productive day!
In my last post, I showed pictures of the cleaning products that I use for the bathroom and kitchen. Yesterday I made laundry detergent. When I first started this blog, I gave the recipe for laundry detergent from the Dugger Family. (The Duggers are the family with about nineteen children who had a reality show on TV.) With that many children in one family, there would definitely be tons of laundry and the cost for store-bought detergent could really eat at the family budget. You have to admire such an inventive and industrious family.
A few years back, a co-worker at my old job had told me about this homemade detergent. He and his wife had just had a baby and they decided to try to eliminate as many chemicals as possible in the products they used for their baby. He gave me the recipe and I gave it a try. I have no intentions of going back to store bought.
The Dugger recipe can be found on their website at www.duggarfamily.com. I’ve re-vamped the recipe a little to suit our needs and this recipe seems to work fine for us. Once you purchase the main ingredients of soap, washing soda, borax, and essential oil the ingredients will last for a couple of years…unless you have as many family members as the Duggers do. Our local Walmart carries all of these ingredients, except the essential oils. It should be noted that this detergent doesn’t “suds up” as much as store-bought detergent, but I’m ok with that as there seems to be no difference in the cleanliness of the clothes.
Laundry Detergent
2 cups hot tap water
1/2 bar Fels-Naptha Soap or Octagon soap
¾ cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
¾ cup Borax
10 drops of your favorite essential oil (this is optional; I use Doterra brand essential oils, which are a little on the pricey side, but very concentrated and have many other household and health uses…I like orange and lavender… Doterra’s website address is http://www.doterra.com)
In a medium-sized pot, over medium heat, add the hot tap water and grate the half bar of soap. Stir continually until the soap melts completely.
Fill a 2 ½ gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, Super Washing Soda and Borax. Stir until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to within 2 inches of the top with more hot tap water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
Next day, stir in essential oil (optional). Fill your container(s) half full…I have a stash of previously-used laundry detergent bottles that I re-use, but you could also use sanitized milk jugs. Then fill to top with regular cold tap water. Remember to shake the container prior to adding to your washer.
For top loading washing machines – use 1/2 cup per load
For front loading washing machines – use ¼ cup per load
In my quest to save money and live as naturally as possible, this has really been an eye opener. I used to spend at least $6.00 – $7.00 for store-bought laundry detergent that lasted about two months. It now costs me a couple of dollars to make a six-month supply, I know the detergent has fewer chemicals than the store-bought version, and my clothes are as clean as ever. In fact, when weather permits and I hang our clothes on the outside clothesline, they dry softer and less wrinkled than if I had done the same with store-bought detergent.
 |
| Grate the soap, then add 2 cups hot tap water. Stir over medium heat until soap is melted. |
 |
| Fill bucket halfway full with hot tap water. Add heated soap mixture, Borax, and Super Washing Soda. Stir until all ingredients are dissolved. |
 |
| Fill bucket to within two inches of top. Let sit overnight to cool. Then stir in essential oil (optional). |
 |
| Fill bottles halfway with concentrated detergent mixture, then top off with cool tap water. |
 |
| Finished product...six bottles of detergent! |
No comments:
Post a Comment