1 bar finely grated Castile soap (I use Dr. Bronner’s Baby
Mild)
1 cup Borax (I use 20 Mule Team)1 cup washing soda (I use Arm and Hammer)
Using the finest side of a cheese grater, grate your bar of
soap into a large bowl. Add borax and
mix well with a spoon. Add washing soda
and mix again with a spoon until the three ingredients are well mixed. Transfer to a lidded 32 oz container, like a
washed out yogurt tub. I use a large
glass canning jar. Stick a Tablespoon
inside your container to use for measuring.
Use 1T per load in your HE washing machine, 1/2T for smaller loads. You can use up to 2T for a large load in a
non HE washer if you like.
So, the last few weeks have been CRAZY! We, at long last, have moved into a new home
that we spent many, many months planning and watching as it was built. It has been quite the ride! Anyways, we chose a “HE” washer/dryer combo
that will help us be thrifty on resources, and so far, I like the results
(especially the “dewrinkle” cycle in the dryer).
For many months, I had been using my homemade liquid soap
and it had been working just fine. All
my research indicated that it would also work well in an HE washing
machine. Well, last week, I got to try
it out for myself. While the clothes did
come clean, and thanks to the low sudsing action of castile soap, I avoided a
bubbly mess, I was unhappy with the residue left behind in the little soap
dispensing drawer. My recipe for liquid
detergent is a tad unpredictable.
Depending on the temperature of the water, the humidity in the air, and
who knows how many other factors, my liquid soap ranges from very liquidy to
cloudy, to down right glopy. In my HE
washer, the soap dispensing drawer is left with a few glops of soap after every
load. I don’t love having to clean that
out so, I’m super glad I’ve also spent
the last few months researching Borax in my “free” time!
Borax was the only thing keeping me from trying a powdered
laundry recipe because I had read a bunch of web pages claiming that borax was
toxic. Well, after much thought,
research, and a few doses of common sense, I decided that I really need not
worry about borax. It is a completely
natural substance mined straight from the earth, just like salt. In fact, the mining of borax has NO effect on
our environment, and miners have had no health issues related to their work! It is true, that it will make you ill should
you ingest a large quantity (just as salt would), so you should store it out of
children and pet reach.
I used the powedered recpe for a few weeks at my mother-in-law's home with her non-HE washer and found that 2T was really best for large loads. In my new HE washer, I find that 1/2T works great for small to regular loads and 1T does the job well for the large loads such as those with towels and sheets.
Like I said, we’ve just moved into our new home! So posting links to some credible sources on
the safety of borax will have to wait, but I hope you don’t wait too long to
try this recipe! I really LOVE it! It takes a good forty-five minutes to make,
but it is so easy and mess-free to use!
Also, whites come out brighter than ever J
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| Grating the soap... |
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| Mixing the ingredients! |
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