Homemade Laundry Soap!

[gerrijo]

W :)W

Holy hanna this is awesome, thank you so much for sharing

Now one quick question - would I be able to substitute Dr. Bronner's soap for the Fels-Naptha?  I just bought a 32 oz-er on sale last night and I would love to be able to use it for laundry detergent!

[TheMistressT]

W :)W

Holy hanna this is awesome, thank you so much for sharing

Now one quick question - would I be able to substitute Dr. Bronner's soap for the Fels-Naptha?  I just bought a 32 oz-er on sale last night and I would love to be able to use it for laundry detergent!

I was wondering the same thing about Dr. Bronner's!  Someone else mentioned they used a different brand of castille soap, so it seems like it would probably work. 

I'm so excited to try this!

[Momma2FIVEgirls]

We use a very similar receipe for our laundry soap. We use the liquid version because that's easier for me to mix up. My husband has severe exzema and we have to be very careful about what we use. I have tried many different soaps and I usually use the same soap he washes with, Dove Sensitive Skin. This works well for us, and we have 5 munchkins to test it with. 

[kjlutz]

This looks great.  Thanks for the recipe and instructions. 

A few questions though:

1. Is it safe to make this in appliances/dishes that will be used with food once washed?

2.  Could Sunlight cake soap be used as the soap?


Thanks so much, I love the idea of making your own laundry detergent. 

[tivaclare]

Thanks for sharing this! I've seen this idea/similar recipe elsewhere and was wondering when it'd be on craftster.

I hope this is allowed, if not mods, please delete or edit. But for those who don't have access to a food processor to grind the ingredients, there is also a liquid recipe. I haven't made it yet, but plan to this weekend. I've heard good things about it from others who have used it. The ingredients are cheap and you can get a huge bucket at Walmart (only store we have) in the paint section for under $4.

http://christianhomekeeper.blogspot.com/2007/02/homemade-laundry-detergent.html

[MareMare]

If you are doing the gel version you don't need to worry about the food processer, you can chop or shred the soap up since it is going to be melted down anyways. You can use pretty much any real soap, it is better if it is unscented, and if it cp/hp soap that you make it is good to be unscented, uncolored, and 0% superfatted, you don't want extra oils floating around in your laundry!

[MirthFairy]

W :)W

Holy hanna this is awesome, thank you so much for sharing

Now one quick question - would I be able to substitute Dr. Bronner's soap for the Fels-Naptha?  I just bought a 32 oz-er on sale last night and I would love to be able to use it for laundry detergent!

I was wondering the same thing about Dr. Bronner's!  Someone else mentioned they used a different brand of castille soap, so it seems like it would probably work. 

No you can't. Fels-Naptha isn't a soap - it's a detergent, which is different.
(http://www.algebralab.org/passage/passage.aspx?file=Chemistry_Soaps.xml for a science lesson )

On the other hand, I do seriously recommend a book called Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan, which has a bunch of cleaners that do use Dr. Bronners. I use her Alice's Wonder Spray for everything. It smells lovely (which is to say it smells like whatever you scent it with), cleans wonderfully, and is really cheap to make.

BTW - I've been using this detergent for a while and have never heard of adding grapefruit. What's it supposed to do?

[patty_o_furniture]

I only added the grapefruit because you have to have some edible part to the challenge.  It doesn't add anything.  You can't even smell it over the fels-naptha.

[snips and snails]

I used this recipe for about a year (in a front loading washer) and realized one major problem...

I started to notice that my clothes were losing their shape and becoming *literally* threadbare. My lint trap (after every load) could have been spun into a small blanket.
after a ton of research I discovered that these ingredients need HOT water in order to dissolve properly and not beat up your clothes like sand would.
Then I started making it into a gel formula. This is slightly more time consuming, but the result is much better. (for me, anyway)
You can find that recipe at
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm

Keep in mind, you have to stir the gel before every use or it settles.

Hope this was useful!

Oh, and about trying other soaps, anything glycerin based didn't work for me, but I was grating the soap by hand <3

[SuzukiBeane33]

Snips and Snails- thanks so much for that tip!!!  I have a kit to make laundry soap at home, and I always wash in cold water!  I haven't made the soap yet, and I'm glad I read your comment before using it.  Off to check out your gel recipe...  Seriously, I owe you one