Launder with Your Own Soap
One good reason to make your own washing compound is that you control its ingredients. Another, equally satisfying justification, is money: you save by buying ingredients in bulk and you store in reusable containers.
There are many laundry soap formulations that work in old and new top-loader and side-loader washing machines. Here’s one we like, courtesy of my favorite librarian via the Duggan family.
Laundry Soap
Makes 10 gallons
Ingredients
4 cups hot water
1 Fels-Naptha or Zote soap bar, grated. Or give yourself a break: use Zote flakes
1 cup – Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ cup borax
Your choice of essential oil 5-10 drops per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
5-gallon bucket with a tight lid
Clean, used laundry soap dispenser
Heat soap and water until soap dissolves.
Fill bucket halfway with hot tap water.
Add melted soap, washing soda, and borax. Stir until all is dissolved. Cover and let sit overnight. It will gel.
To use, stir the stored solution, then fill laundry soap dispenser 1/4 to halfway full. You’ll soon know how much you wish to dilute the solution.
Add essential oils*, if you wish, and then water to fill the container. Shake before each use. It will separate between uses.
Top-loading machines need about ½ cup per load.
Front-loaders use ¼ cup per load.
* Start with 5 – 10 drops essential oil per gallon. Adjust amount until you like the result. Consider lavender, rosemary, tea tree, lime, and eucalyptus, and conifer (pine, cypress, and so on) oils.
Finding ingredients
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda is available in some grocery and many hardware stores. It’s also online at Meijer.com and, of course, Amazon. Washing soda is not another name for baking soda or Arm & Hammer Detergent. The active ingredient is sodium carbonate. It also works for cleaning silver.
But what if you just can’t find washing soda in your area? Make it. Please note that I haven’t actually done this yet. Stay tuned for update or please let me know if you beat me to the experiment!
Zote is a soap product that commonly comes in bars but is also manufactured in flakes, if you look carefully. It’s often available at Big Lots, Walmart, and online.
Zote works great on its own to remove stains. Just rub the bar on the stain before washing.
