Friday, August 21, 2009

Frugal Friday--Homemade Detergent...

This was really easy but like anything else...make sure you get the right ingredients. I accidentally bought Arm & Hammer baking soda...instead of washing soda. My gracious friend lent me some of her washing soda...which is different and contains Sodium Benz....which helps it set up like detergent. So, mine is a bit clotted looking...with clots of floating baking soda booster! Also, I used a huge red funnel to put some back in my Tide container for easy pouring...and now it's sort of a pearly blue! Neato! HA HA HA! Oh, the joys of frugality!
Ingredients....three gallons hot tap water, 1 five gallon bucket (Walmart has cute ones), Borax for cleaning boost, Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, 1 bar of your favorite soap...I recommend Ivory like soaps...nothing with lotions.
Put three cups of water on your stove top...and as it comes to a simmer...shred your soap into the water and stir. Eventually, you will shave it all up! Really, you will!
Pour three gallons of hot tap water into bucket, add hot soapy mixture (fully dissolved soap ya'll), and stir for a bit. Add 1 cup borax and 1 cup washing soda and stir til dissolved.
Put on lid and let it set over night...it should be a nice syrupy mixture...if you got washing soda that is! Hehehe!

Oh, a little side note...this is really soapy so you might want to use vinegar in your rinse cycle...which I do anyway. I promise, you can't smell the vinegar after it's all washed. I don't smell like a pickle...Loverbrains wouldn't like that! Hehehe!

AND To give the appropriate credit, where it's due...this idea came from my frugal friend Sarah!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! This soap idea is great :) I actually have a question about the vinegar. What does that do for your wash? I haven't used it and was curious. Let me know if you think this detergent is working well for your clothes.
Love ya, Sarah

Bobbi said...

Vinegar does several things for wash...according to my many book resources it brightens colors, removes any soap residues leftover in clothes and the machine, and keeps lint from sticking to the clothing. The clothes feel really clean too...if that makes any sense...

Anonymous said...

How much of this detergent do you use per load of wash? Mom

Bobbi said...

I measure in the Tide cap...and use the same amount that I'd used of the Tide.

Carmel said...

Cool... I think I saw this on PlumPudding the other day, but I didn't read the whole post. Glad to know someone did this, I've actually been thinking about looking up how to do it too. : ) Frugal minds think alike!