I love a project...

I love a good project.  In fact, I'll try anything once simply because I want to say, "I tried that once."

As I write this note to you I'm having a cranberry/orange juice mixer... yummo!  It's 1 part Cranberry Juice, 1 part orange juice and crushed ice.  Mmmmmm.

I have been hearing a lot of my friends talk about laundry detergent, as of late.  Home made laundry detergent to be more specific.

To be completely honest, I haven't been terribly interested because I assumed it would be ...
     ...too time consuming
     ...too expensive
     ...too wasteful
     ...a waste of my time
     ...completely absurd

Last week I was reading an article about what all goes into laundry detergent.  It's really not that complex a subject, let me tell you. That article reminded me of all my susie-homemaker friends who have been telling me about homemade laundry detergent.

So, I found the most common recipe, asked a couple friends their recipe and decided to give it a go.

Here's what I used:

1 glass canister.....$7.99

1 box 20 Mule Team Borax....$4.49

1 box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda....$2.89

1 bar Ivory soap....$.79    &    1 cheese grater.....$1.00

Here's what I did:

First, I grated a bar of Ivory bar soap into my glass canister. I chose Ivory because it's 99.9% pure and I know my family does not have any skin allergies to this product. I used the whole bar.  Information says this is what does the actual cleaning.

Second, I poured in 1 cup of Borax Detergent Booster.  I just poured it right on top of the grated Ivory soap.

Thirdly, I added 1 cup of Arm & Hammer washing soda.  I also chose this product for it's all natural qualities. I just poured it right on top of the other two ingredients.

Finally, I took my tiny spatula and stirred it all up. 


That's it.  That's the whole recipe; the whole process.
Now, because I purchased enough bar soap to make a quadruple batch, I grated the other three bars of Ivory soap and added in the Borax and Arm & Hammer, and again, I mixed.

Then the test of all tests.  The laundry.  Now, I know I'm a bad blogger, but I failed to take photos.  But let me share with you a few of my results.

First, I have a high efficiency washer, so I only have to use 1 TBS of this super duper homemade wonder.  My clothes came out so clean.  My son had spaghetti on his ecru shirt - his BRAND NEW shirt, I might add.  And all the stains came out - without pre-treating.

And bonus, of all bonuses, my clothes rinse clean...that means NO fabric softener is needed.  I just throw them right into the dryer and presto-chango, they're dry.  

The very last thing I love about all of this is the price.  You can see from my list above that the cost for the whole recipe is approximately $9.50 without the canister.  Now, I have enough of the washing soda and Borax to make a couple more recipes, but I ran out of soap.  But because I only use 1 TBS of this detergent I figured it's going to cost me $0.17 per load.  Can you believe that? $0.17 per load!!!! 

I'm sold on this project.  In fact, I would recommend you give it a try... see what you think... then drop me a line and tell me about your experience!

Only By His Grace,

Billie