After months of trying and tweaking different housekeeping recipes I thought I would share with you some of my favorites. Laundry detergent is crazy expensive and often laden with harmful chemicals so it was first on my list of green cleaning projects. I have tried a handful of different recipes (some with vinegar or liquid castile soap), but about a year ago I finally hit the laundry soap jackpot.
I seriously couldn't be happier with this little recipe! Even with all of Ez's clothes, diapers, burp cloths, blankets, and cloth toys it still usually takes me weeks to go through a batch. As we are a cloth diapering family it is especially important that we use something that will really clean, deodorize, and remove stains and this mixture does the job. It takes me less than five minutes to mix up a batch (and once you know the ratio you don't need to really measure it out), lasts a good amount of time, and smells lovely.
Homemade Laundry Soap
1/2 cup Borax (anti-fungal/ stain fighter)
1/2 cup Washing Soda (stain fighter/ deodorizer)
1/2 cup Grated Bar Castile Soap (gentle, biodegradable cleanser)
1/4 cup Baking Soda (deodorizer)
Mix all ingredients together in whatever container best works for you. At our place we use a large lidded glass jar to store and a thrifted wooden spoon to dispense. If you'd like that traditional sweet scent to your clothes simply add a few drops of any essential oil to the mix (lavender and orange work well). It's really that easy.
Happy laundering!
Namaste.
Tara
6 comments:
I love this, Tara! Thanks for posting this, I think I might be making a batch of my own laundry soap soon.
Thanks for sharing your recipe! I always like looking at other people's recipes. How is the castile soap? I am allergic to most bar soaps so only stick with borax and baking soda in my laundry.
Of course, guys! I love sharing recipes!
Danielle- That's great! It's surprisingly simple and really does the trick. Let me know how it goes!
Lea- We use Kirk's Natural Coco Castile Soap (fragrance free) and absolutely love it! Both my husband and my son have relatively sensitive skin and neither have had any problems with this soap. All castile soaps are vegetable based and most are without fragrance, so they are pretty gentle. I have also used Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap, but found that bar soap was much easier.
Very cool- I'm going to try this! You mentioned diapers- does it work well on soiled cloth diapers? I think what I use now is called Crunchy Clean- expensive but it does work.
Mama Smith- Awesome! We have always used this with our soiled diapers and it has worked like a charm. Everything comes out very clean, smelling fresh, and pretty consistently stain free. As I've never used anything else on them I have nothing to compare, but I have been very pleased with our results with this recipe.
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