Doin' the washin'

A little over a year ago, my best friend, Alicia mentioned that she makes her own laundry detergent. I remember looking at her skeptically as if she was kidding. She wasn't. I couldn't imagine doing that- giving up the freshly laundered smell of Tide or Gain in my clothes- somehow that smell just makes the world seem in order.

But still in the weeks that followed, I started to ruminate on the home-made laundry detergent scenario. It makes sense. We pay around $15 every couple of weeks for a box of powdered gold. Apparently, there's a whole black market out there for Tide- as people are stealing truckloads of the stuff and selling it off for profit. Who knew? Reminds me of the days when the kids were still on formula and I had to go to the guest service desk at the grocery store to buy formula because people were stealing it off the shelves. To me, baby formula would be on my list of things to steal- but laundry detergent? I'm not sure that's worth hard time. I joke. I totally joke.

Anyway, I kept thinking about it, and finally had the nerve to mention it to Martin. You should have seen his face. Now, I have had my fair share of hair brained ideas (in his defense), but I could tell he thought that this was one of them. Little did he know that with the advent of Pinterest, there is a whole wide world out there now, of home-made stuff that can save us money and trips to the store (and in some cases, even cut out harmful chemicals and toxins). Nevertheless, he was a good sport, but still replied, "I don't think I'm ready for home-made laundry detergent". Okay, that's fair. I will bide my time.

Cut to about 2 weeks ago, and Martin was out of town. I ran out of laundry detergent. The stars had finally aligned, and I could try out my experiment with little resistance. Muhahaha. I texted Alicia and got the recipe she uses and the ingredient/supply list.

Powdered Borax
Arm and Hammer Washing Powder
Ivory Soap
Coffee scoop (I used the one with the slotted bottom for closing a coffee bag- found it at Target)
Jar or container with lid
Grater
large bowl
Twine
Stain remover (such as Spray on OxyClean)

Seriously? That's it. I couldn't believe how few ingredients it had- and all in all I think that totaled maybe $10 or so including the bottle of OxyClean (which I will use as needed). I had no problem finding the Ivory Soap or Borax at Target, but I did have to jump over to Walmart to find the Arm and Hammer Washing Powder. Now, I've since seen recipes on Pinterest that include Powdered Oxyclean and powdered Fabric Softener Crystals. I still have some of my original batch left, so I'll probably stick with this for now, as it's cheaper, and also, does not contain all the chemicals- and I'm starting to like that idea.

Now, I'm no allergist, but I would guess this is a great recipe for someone who's washing baby clothes or individuals with sensitive skin.

Here are the instructions:

1 bar Ivory Soap
1 c. Borax
1 c. Arm and Hammer Washing Powder

1. Grate one bar of Ivory Soap into a large bowl. I bought a special grater just for this, but I did notice that since it's soap it cleaned right up in the dishwasher so I really don't think it would matter- you could probably also use your food processor.

2. Add one cup Borax.

3. Add one cup Washing Powder.

4. Mix and pour into your jar or container.

5. Label jar and attach coffee spoon to the side. Done!

You only need 1 Tbsp. of detergent per load. It does not suds up the way other detergents do, and if I have a particularly smelly or dirty load, I will add 2 scoops for my peace of mind, but I don't think that's necessary. I did print instructions with my label maker and attach them on the side, so Martin would not be afraid to use it. He tends to over think these things. Please note- there is not a stain remover in this mix, so you will need to pre-treat stains with a stain remover, and use bleach on your whites, if you normally do.

Of course, I couldn't wait to sniff my first load of laundry. It doesn't have the heavy fragranced smell, but my clothes do, indeed, smell clean. If the fruity and flowery smells are really that important to you, I would suggest looking up the recipe using fabric softener on Pinterest. I have also pinned it onto my "Home Remedies" board for future use.

When Martin returned home, I immediately stuck the laundry in his face and said, "Smell! It's home-made detergent!!!" He is fine with it! No complaints from the hubby, and yes, he's even helping me wash with it. Two weeks later, I still have about half of my jar of detergent (I do about 8-10 loads of laundry a week), plus a ton of leftover supplies to make more- I'm probably set for 6 months to a year...

....which leads me to wonder how much I can get on the black market for the home-made stuff. Guess I'll just settle for sharing with y'all instead.