Thinking about laundry and washday which was traditionally on Mondays-click for history
Do you have a specific day for laundry?
A fellow knitter hailing from Maine responded to my post of Fels-Naptha Soap
Here is Carrie’s recipe for Homemade Laundry Soap with the accompanying photos she sent when I invited her to be the guest blogger.
“Loved your blog, sorry to text so early. Wanted to tell you it cost 2.75 to make a 5 gallon pail. If you used 1 cup per load it would be approximately 80 loads using 8 oz. Cost per load is about 3.5 cents” Carrie. I had the wrong cost of ingredients you don’t use the entire box.
Thanks for being guest blogger, Carrie.
HOMEMADE LAUNDRY SOAP
Ingredients:
2 cups Super Washing Soda
1 cup Borax Detergent Booster
1 Bar Fels Naptha Soap
Supplies:
5 gallon pail with lid
½ to 1 cup measuring cup
Whisk
Stir Paddle that attaches to electric drill or large sturdy stir item.
Directions:
Grate 1 bar of Fels Naptha Soap with a cheese grater and place in a saucepan. Cover soap with approximately 3 to 4 inches of water. Heat on stove at a low simmer until soap is melted, stirring constantly with whisk.
Add Borax Detergent Booster and Super Washing Soda to 5 gallon pail. Fill 5 gallon pail to ¾ full with hot tap water. Attach paddle bit to drill and begin mixing the powder and water until combined and powder has dissolved.
Then slowly add the melted soap mixture to the pail, while stirring with the paddle. Next fill remaining pail with hot tap water, till it reaches 3 inches from top of pail. Continue to mix until smooth.
Mix it several times over the next few hours until it has cooled. This will produce a smooth pail of soap.
Use ½ to 1 cup per load of laundry.
** For use in top load washers, for front load washers, please check your manual.
Thanks for sharing Ruth
Thanks for sending the photos and recipe.
Used to be Sunday. But hesh and I don’t have enough dirty clothes so now I just do it when I do it. And I definitely don’t make my own detergent. But it might be a good science experiment.
Fascinating !
Super Washing Soda is sodium carbonate which I use to increase ph in our swimming pool. Way cheaper than the pool store. Available at Lowes.
Baking Soda is sodium bicarbonate which I use to increase alkalinity in our swimming pool. Way cheaper than pool store and food grade to boot. Best price at Sams or Costco.
Easy to make sodium carbonate from sodium bicarbonate. Utube.
Wow! Thanks for posting Ruth and that is so cool Carrie!!!
Thank you Carrie and Ruth! I’m sending this on to my daughter.
If she makes it have her photograph and I’ll add to the post.
What a money saver. Not that I will make my own laundry detergent. But this is tempting. I wash clothes three days a week with Thursday being sheets and towels day. Laundry loads are much smaller now with only two of us rather than five. I rarely use my dryer, opting instead for line drying outdoors in warmer weather and drying on a drying rack in the colder Minnesota months. Hanging laundry on the line is one of my favorite domestic activities. Ah, the sun, the sky, the scent of sun-dried sheets.
I love the smell of laundry dried outside on the line. I’m considering making this. Seems the perfect time for such a project.
Every other day is wash day for us. (Sigh) I love handmade soap; if I lived close to Carrie I would definitely buy some from her. 🙂