Make Your Own Natural Laundry Powder
I am sure most DIY type people have already heard of and likely make the recipe that involves Fels Naptha soap as I once did. Some may use Zote instead if they live on the East side of the states. After using this for years, I finally took the time to research just how natural Fels Naptha is and was not happy with what I found. From what I understand, Zote is not much different.
Then there is the borax issue, there seems to be a bit of controversy on just how safe it is but one thing some may have discovered is that safe or not, it is very harsh on anything with elastic in it.
So it was time for me to come up with my own recipe and mine only involves two ingredients, with an optional one as a third if one likes.
First you need a good natural bar soap. I use my own homemade soap but I recommend Dr. Bronner's for those who do not make their own soaps, or finding some basic hand made soaps that you know are truly all natural.
I make a simple lard soap for use in my laundry powder and hand soap but I also use the flakes, bits, and pieces that fall from the bars and molds when making my herbal soaps. So that is why you will see bits of color in my laundry soap - those are my homegrown herbs.
I cut the lard soap up into small pieces with a knife but you can choose to grate if you prefer, I personally like chopping rather than grating.
Into my blender I put one half cup at a time of each of the washing soda and soap pieces. The third and optional ingredient is whatever essential oil one would like. I rarely do this but when I do, I find that the lime is my favorite. Just put a few drops in with the soap and washing soda.
I then process on a medium speed until it is fine grains. I have found that it is best to not go higher on the speed as it causes the soap and soda to clump at the bottom and then freeze up the blender. However, you may have one of those fancy, expensive blenders that this is not an issue so just work with what you have and you will find what speed is best. You may even be able to add up to a cup of each at a time if your blender or processor can handle it.
If the soap and soda do end up clumping, just break it up with a chop stick and pour into whatever container you plan to store it in.
Repeat this process as many times as needed until you have the amount you desire.
I like to store mine in a one quart mason jar and I always have two jars so when one goes empty, I can fill the other when I am ready while having another one to work on.
When I go to wash a load of clothes, be it in the electric machine or in my off grid laundry set up, I use one tablespoon at a time for larger loads, half that much for smaller loads, but again, you can adjust the amounts to suit your needs and how dirty your clothes are. Extra dirty clothes may need a bit more.
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I am allergic to most washing powders, so i use Bi-Carbonate of Soda for all my laundry. Your recipe for washing powder looks good, thanks.
One can also use just vinegar or even vinegar and washing soda. I have done both of these with good results
Ahhh yes, i have heard that this mixture is also a good cleaner, right ? Thanks for the tip.
If using soda and vinegar together it is probably best to use soda for the washing and vinegar for the rinsing. As soda is basic and vinegar acidic, they will equal each other out and probably also equal out effect. Vinegar is supposed to be a good softener though, and prevent smelly clothing.
Great recipe! I wish everyone would use something like this instead of those toxic, artificially perfumed detergents that, in my opinion, should be classified as air pollution. I think many people would find that their asthma and allergies 'miraculously' clear up if they just stopped using commercial laundry detergents. Thanks for posting this!
Agreed and Thank you!
:-) It isn't long ago (the 50s) that many people in Norway still washed their clothing with normal bar soaps (which were then just as natural as Bronner's) in the brook or river. When I visited Bolivia in the end of the 90s they were still using bar soaps, and I'm pretty sure it dominates in large parts of the less developed world (such as India).
I'm trying this! Thanks for sharing!
We make our own laundry powder too, using our homemade soap (Andrew makes a coconut oil version). It gets everything clean, even my boy's sometime-nasty reuseable diapers! I also use our bar soap for washing dishes--just rub the bar on the wash-rag and scrubby-scrub. So many of these cleaning ideas are so easy--I don't know why so many in the diy/natural community make it so complicated.
I use coconut oil for our regular bath soap but I like to use the lard for the laundry soap as it seems to clean a bit better and it is cheaper than coconut oil :D
I have tried making different dish soap recipes using the homemade soap and washing soda. They do actually work quite well but I still miss those bubbles! haha
Haha, I do too. It's amazing what we've been programmed to expect! I have decades of life telling me that BUBBLES MEAN CLEAN, even though I know it's purely psychological, now.
I make my own but it's the liquid version. My youngest daughter makes it too- she loves it
Never tried the powdered one.
But I do make my own dishwasher tablets- those are so easy too.
goldendawne how do you make it please let us know.
i will post this coming week. Thank you for asking
here is the link and pics
https://steemit.com/homestead/@goldendawne/homemade-dishwasher-tablets
The recipe I use to make was liquid, but when I decided to go truly natural and nix the Fels Naptha and the Borax, I switched to the powder version. It just makes it even more cost effective anyway when I can use my own homemade bar soaps as well :)
That's the bar soap i used for my liquid laundry soap too
Yeah, it cleaned well but I do not anymore as I was unhappy with what I found out about it after doing some research. This was after I stocked up on a crud load of bars too! haha! O well, they may come in handy for something some day :D
One reason I switched to the powder is once I got my off grid set up going and I could actually see what the soap was doing in the water, I found it mixed better than the other. Of course, by that point I was using more of the thick "sauce" version because it takes up less space than the big batch of liquid soap
great info. Thanks for sharing what you have discovered. Knowledge is power.
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