don't worry

I don't want you to see this post and think I'm going all crazy on you. Rest assured I'm still the house work avoiding mom who would much rather go through a bag (a one pound bag, mind you) of peanut butter M&M's while watching a romantic comedy on the couch before I would even contemplate loading the dishwasher.

That being said, I saw this recipe on FB and thought it would be an interesting thing to give a try.

The recipe is for-brace yourself-homemade laundry detergent.

I'm not crazy! Really!

Just keep reading and you'll see why I was enticed to try it at least once:

1. Grate a bar of Fels-Naptha soap. I saw that Zote was another brand that people had success with.

A side note here: I had to make sure I was right next to this stuff while I was doing this. I couldn't step away for a minute or leave it unattended on the counter because I have little cheese loving mice children. This stuff looks just like cheese, especially when it is grated.

I'm just saying.

I didn't want to have to make any phone calls to poison control admitting that my son had gotten through half a bar of the stuff before he realized it wasn't cheese or before I realized what he was doing. That would be down right embarrassing.


2. Add the soap to 4 cups of hot water.

Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap is melted. That took about seven minutes for me.


3. Fill a five gallon bucket half full with hot tap water.

4. Then add the melted soap/water combination,

one cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (it was very important to use this detergent-something about sodium carbonate, I think),

and half a cup of Borax.

5. Stir until the powders are dissolved, then fill the bucket to the top with hot tap water. Stir it again.

6. Cover with a lid and let sit overnight to thicken. I let mine sit for a couple of days (I kinda forgot about it in the garage).

This is what it looked like when we took the lid off. There was a huge gelatinous mass in the middle of the bucket while around it looked like water. Steve and I decided that a., letting it sit for a couple of days probably wasn't the greatest idea and b., we needed one of those industrial mixers that can be attached to a drill to blend it all properly.

I'm sketchy on how exactly Steve mixed everything (we don't have a mortar mixer) as I went in to help kids in showers. All I know is that a 9 iron may have been involved, and somehow it worked.

I'm just fine not knowing all the details.

From there Steve filled a rinsed laundry detergent bottle half full of the detergent. He filled the rest with water and put it up in the cupboard.

I have done about seven loads now with the homemade stuff and so far everything is just fine. I give the bottle a good shake and then pour out 5/8 cup per load. I was a little disturbed the first couple times I put the detergent in the basin and there were no bubbles. I have since gotten over it.

There was also a suggestion to add 10-15 drops of essential oil to every two gallons once the gel had cooled. I did not do this because a., I have no idea where to find essential oils other than online and b., I just scored this baby a Target:

A huge bottle of fabric softener for like seven bucks. I wanted to use that and not have competing scents.

I am crazy like that.

But I am not going all anti-social/anti-world on you people. I won't yank my kids from the public school system and begin wearing an aluminum foil hat so the government can't read my thoughts.

This was relatively easy, and if you noticed, this recipe makes 10 gallons of detergent.

TEN GALLONS.

I already had a box of Borax hanging around from my orange crayon fiasco, and I have hot tap water pretty handy too. I was able to find both the bar of soap and the A&H stuff at Winco in the laundry isle. Both were pretty reasonably priced.

So, FYI I thought this was pretty cool.

Would you ever consider making homemade laundry detergent?



P.S. I am not crazy!