Hello summer! As a teacher, I look forward to this time of renewal. As a mom, I look forward to getting my house in order. It’s so hard to balance work, home and community obligations…so when summer comes around I try to focus on several projects to make my home, well more homey.
With summer here, I have to be careful with projects. They must be ECONOMICAL! I am a teacher after all.
My first project this summer was to make my own detergent. Now I’ve heard of people making tons of powdered detergent, but I’m a liquid kinda gal! Then my friend, Danielle (see her pic below), told me she made LIQUID detergent and that it worked!
I used a recipe I found on Pinterest (a website recommended by Danielle). I saw several ideas, but finally settled on this one {Source}.
The original recipe called for:
1 bar of soap of your choice
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
Big Pot
Grater
When I went to the neighborhood Wal-Mart, they were completely out of washing soda and Borax. : ( Thankfully, I found some at Reasor's across the street.
When I got home, I was so excited! I started thinking of all the money I could save! The blog author recommended using Ivory because it helps keep whites and colors bright. I wanted that attribute, but I also wanted a good scent to the soap. So spontaneously I decided to double the recipe and add a bar of Irish Spring! I began by grating the bars of soap into my pot. The Ivory was much easier to grate than the Irish Spring. When it was done, the soap looked like strange grated cheese.
I added 2 gallons of warm water, 2 cups of Borax, 2 cups of Washing Soda, 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar. I boiled the concoction. At this point my husband wandered into the kitchen and said, "I hope you're not making meth in here!" I silently cursed my choice of documentary films on Netflix.
As the laundry detergent began to boil, my house was filled with such a clean smell that Derek's comment was quickly disspelled. After the detergent mixture was done boiling, I added 4 gallons of cold water.
I immediately used the detergent, but after some volunteer work with TYPROS with Danielle...she mentioned that I should wait until the mixture coagulates. But when I got home the load I had put in the washer smelled super clean!
A word of advice, don't bother with pouring it into different containers. I just left it in the pot and put it right on top of the dryer. I also left a 1 cup measuring cup right on top of the pot to measure the detergent.
My final alterations of the original recipe goes like this:
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda
1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
I bar Ivory Soap
1 bar Irish Spring (or your fav smelling soap)
2 gallons warm water
2 gallons cold water
1. Grate bars of soap into pot. Add 2 gallons warm water, 2 cups Borax, 2 cups Washing Soada and boil until bubbles form on top. Make sure the spaghetti soap strands are all dissolved.
2. Turn off heat. Add 2 gallons of cold water. Stir your soap well.
3. Let the detergent sit for 24 hours and stir before using.
I will definitely do this again! If you try this, let me know how your detergent turns out! Please leave a comment below.
~What's next here @ the Cowan lab? Well, I did see some recipes on Pinterest for fabric softener. I think I'll try it when my fabric softener runs out. It's gotta be really good, because I'm obsessed with that Downy smell!
