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Posts Tagged ‘homemade laundry soap’
Water is such a precious commodity. Every living thing depends on water, but many natural water sources are polluted. One of the main culprits is the soap that many of us use on a daily basis. Many household and industrial chemicals have found their way to our rivers and lakes.
To help planet Earth recover from all the harmful effects of modernization, it is time to go back to basics. Homemade laundry detergent that uses environment-friendly materials can definitely go a long way. These detergents clean your clothes and do the environment a world of good. The laundry soap recipe utilizes natural ingredients to clean your clothes, the way that Mother Nature intended.
Many of us are trying to find ways to cut back on spending, and save some extra money, perhaps to pay off some debt, or to save for that vacation you’ve been planning. For some, like myself have decided to brew their own coffee instead of buying it on the go, for others it could be going out to eat less, saving coupons and so forth. One great thing you and your family can do, to not only save money, but also introduce a much healthier and much safer product that the entire family uses, is to make your own laundry soap.
Making your own laundry soap is simple and very affordable. You have several recipes to choose from by doing a simple search on the internet, or finding a recipe book on making your own natural products. You not only know what is in your soap, but you have control. Many store bought detergents have harsh ingredients that can cause skin irritations. This is a major reason why new Mothers are recommended to wash their infants cloths, and blankets in a mild soap instead of a detergents.
We use this recipe and get between 60- 70 loads per batch for less than $1.00
All you need is a 2 gallon bucket with a lid, 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha, ½ cup of washing soda, and a ½ cup of borax powder. Your Fels Naptha will need to be graded and have 6 cups of water added to it in a sauce pan and heat until soap begins to melt. Then you will need to add 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax and stir until it has dissolved. Now remove from heat and pour 4 cups of hot water into your bucket, add your soap mixture and stir. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cup of water and stir. Now all you need to do is let it sit for 24 hours and it will gel up. When it is ready to use it will have a gel like clumpy appearance; you can use a large wooden spoon to stir the gel substance into liquid form and use only 1/2 cup per load.
For over 100 year Fels Naptha has been used for effectively treating and preventing poison ivy, poison sumac and poison oak. Did you know that poison ivy resin can remain on your clothes for up to one year? Many handmade laundry soap recipes include the ingredient Fels Naptha as a base, because of its century long reputation for not only effectively eliminating the dangers of these resins, but Fels Naptha gets the job done when it comes to eliminating tough stains.
Though you can typically find Fels Naptha in the same aisle as you would find soap bars, it is not recommended to use Fels Naptha as a body washing soap bar, for its active ingredient is a skin and eye irritant. This soap should be reserved instead as a base for homemade laundry soap, or for pre treating stains before washing. The ingredient benzene solvent is proved to cut through grease and tough stains. Fels Naptha has also been known to get rid of aphids in the garden and to treat itchy bug bites and burns and itching from poison ivy, oak and sumac.
It’s been almost a month since our youngest daughter left the nest and went away to college. Even though she’s only a few hours’ drive away, I can’t help but worry. It’s not that I don’t trust her to make smart decisions, but I just wish there were a way to show her how much her father and I miss her being around the house. Inspiration struck when I was online looking at natural household recipes. It suddenly occurred to me that I should mail my daughter a care package.
I whipped up a batch of homemade laundry soap and enclosed instructions on which outfits are appropriate for the washer and which should be dry cleaned. As far as I can remember, she always relied on me to do the laundry. I also made sure the care package was chock full of her favorite snack foods and some warm mittens for winter. Even though she’ll be back for Thanksgiving, it’s still nice to receive a present from home.