And now, on to the laundry soap!
I realize some of you already make your own laundry soap, but I thought a tutorial would be fun and hopefully helpful.
Ingredients:
1 bar Fels Naptha (I have friends who use whatever soap is on sale, but my results increase exponentially with Fels Naptha, so anymore, I don't do subsitutes)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup Borax
Instructions
Grate the Fels Naptha. If you have a food processor, I highly recommend using it. I use the fine grater on my Cuisinart.
I then pour the grated Fels into a bowl (isn't it gorgeous?!),
put the chopping blade in the processor and replace the Fels.
Pulsing with the chopping blade for a bit takes it from this:
to this:
which I think has to be faster to dissolve.
Add the borax and washing soda and mix:
Then transfer to jar, or whatever works for you. I personally love the look of my laundry soap, so I like to keep it in a glass jar.
I made a double batch, which fits easily in a half gallon jar. It's actually a little over 5 and half cups of soap. I use about 4t per load, so I get 65+ loads out of it. I need to use less now than I did before Jonathan installed the water softener, so if you have hard water, your loads/batch may vary.
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9 comments:
Cool! But, doesn't that leave your clothes unscented? That's one of the things I love about store-bought laundry detergent. So, how would I go about adding scent??
The Fels Naptha leaves only a very light scent (though you would never guess it when you go to grate it!)... so virtually unscented, yes.
One option is to add essential oil to the soap. I grew up with very little laundry scent b/c of my sweet Mama's allergies, so I've never experimented with adding scent, and I don't have any great tips for how to do it.
Another option is to make liquid laundry soap. That makes it easy to add essential oil. Here are a couple of links for that -
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm
and
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/04/09/making-your-own-laundry-detergent-a-detailed-visual-guide/
That is nice looking laundry soap! The glass jars shows it so nicely!
So, if I were to make some (to save money), I'd have to invest in a food processor!? You know, one thing leads to another! But seriously, the savings are substantial!
I'm not a photographer, but I think the photography aspect of your project is great, Laurel!
Thanks for sharing!
You actually don't have to have a food processor. It just speeds up the process. :-) You can grate the soap on a hand grater and chop it up some for easier break-down. Or just crumble it into smaller pieces after grating. If you open the package and leave it for a week or more, it dries out and will crumble easier.
You actually don't have to have a food processor. It just speeds up the process. :-) You can grate the soap on a hand grater and chop it up some for easier break-down. Or just crumble it into smaller pieces after grating. If you open the package and leave it for a week or more, it dries out and will crumble easier.
Okay. So I can't use soap making to justify the purchase of a food processor? Oh well! Thanks for the tip for drying out the soap for easier grating. I want to try it, Lord willing! I can't be sure I'll be a convert, but maybe!
On the other hand (talks a little louder so Mike can hear) it's so much easier with the food processor.... ;-)
Let me know what you think if you try it. With or without processor! :-)
I really want to try it. I keep running into blogs of people who make their own laundry soap. We go through it soooooo fast and I am always up for a new homemaking adventure. A food processor would be nice to have. I've needed one for so many different things.
Oh! And I thought your pictures were really nice too! The natural lighting was just right. Did you try the macro mode?
Tab, I've been meaning to look and see if I could tell from the details of the picture which ones I did in macro mode and which ones I didn't. I finally got around to checking tonight, and I can't tell. I'm pretty sure I used it on some of them, but wish I had noted which ones, if any, I didn't. Next time I should take notes. :-)
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