After minutes of exhaustive web research, I melded two recipes to get what I thought was the best-cleaning option (with items on hand). Here's what I used and how it went:
1 Cup ordinary baking soda
1 Cup Sodium Carbonate (also called "washing soda")***
2 Gallons hot water
1 trial-size bar Dial Spring Fresh soap
I filled a 5-gallon bucket with the hot water, stirred in the baking soda and washing soda, then grated the soap directly into the bucket.
I used a hand-crank cheese grater that you normally use to grate Parmesan cheese. It worked very well and only took a minute to clean with an old toothbrush. (So far our Parmesan cheese doesn't taste "spring fresh" so I guess I got all the soap out!)
I stirred the bucket until most of the visible flakes of soap were melted. It created a larger amount of suds than I expected, but the feel of the mixture was quite reminiscent of laundry detergent. Because I used a scented bar of soap, I was concerned that it would smell strong in the finished wash, but decided to give it a chance.
THE TEST:
I had enough everyday clothing to make two medium loads. I decided that I would waste water on two smallish loads (I normally only wash full loads) for the sake of "science".
As luck would have it, I had two of Thom's work shirts in the laundry, so I put one in the "homemade" pile and one in the control pile.
I washed with the homemade detergent first. In cold water with my normal cycle. I used about 3/4 Cup for the load.
It didn't foam much (as advertised), but you could still smell the distinctive odor of the soap. Once the load was done, I noticed that the scent had diminished dramatically.
I hung the clothes on the line and then washed the "control" load. I used my normal amount of Purex Free and Clear, about 1/2 Cup. We hung that load on the line and waited anxiously for the results.
Thom made a small change to one of the shirts so he could tell them apart. He handed me both shirts for inspection.
There was no discernible scent - neither dirt nor perfume - just a clean laundry smell. Visually both shirts appeared clean. There was no mark on the sleeve of either shirt (where Thom wipes the sweat from his forehead, leaving big oily dirt stains).
Conclusion: It works! At least as well as Purex Free and Clear, for the purposes of my everyday laundry.
Changes I would make in future batches:
- Use a less perfumed soap. It's very strong in the bucket even tho the clothes didn't dry with that scent. I might consider scenting it myself with lilac, vanilla or a similar natural scent.
- I would dry out the soap in the closet before grating it to get a finer grain. It would dissolve a little easier that way. To be fair, it only took about 5 minutes of stirring to get the freshly-opened soap to dissolve.
- I will try one bucket with no baking soda. It seemed it would be more odor-controlling, but I may be wasting baking soda for nothing!
I doubt I'll add borax, because of the additional cost and because most of my clothing doesn't get that dirty. I can use more detergent if necessary, or pretreat serious stains before washing.
Speaking of cost, mine breaks down this way:
Baking Soda .17
Washing Soda FREE***
Soap FREE (it was a trial size sample I got in the mail)
Water .12
Total cost for two gallons: .29
Total cost for two gallons Purex: 2.50 +tax (buy one/get one free at CVS)
To sum up, homemade laundry soap works for me. I hope you'll consider trying it for yourself if you haven't already. If you have thoughts (or recipes) to share, you can do it at Frugal Finesse Yahoo Group
*** My washing soda was free because I work at a community which uses Sodium Carbonte in the pool filtering system. Since sodium carbonate comes to us in 40 pound bags, they graciously gave me a few cups.
If you decide to make detergent regularly, check with your local pool supply company and see if it is cheaper to buy from them, rather than buying labelled washing soda from the store.
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