Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Day 3: Laundry Suds

Since I cleaned up the laundry room yesterday, I had room to make the laundry soap today. I found the original recipe at http://www.food.com/ , but have changed it a bit to fit our needs.

Ingredients: 1 bar Fels Naptha Soap
3/4 cup Borax
3/4 cup Arm&Hammer WASHING Soda (not baking soda!) 1. The first part is pretty fun. Put the Fels Naptha bar on a microwavable plate and microwave for 30 second intervals, for about 3 or 4 minutes, making sure the soap doesn't fall off the plate. How can soap fall off the plate you ask? The bar will expand and grow, kind of reminding me of a science experiment gone wrong.


(we think this one looks like Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars")



2. Let the bar soap dry out on the plate for 2 or 3 days. I found it is much easier to crumble after a couple of days. It also acts as a air freshener during this time, so your getting a 2 for 1 deal here!

3.Take the bar soap and crumble it between your fingers, until there are no chunks left. I have tried this in a food chopper before, but it didn't really work out that well.

4. Mix the borax and washing soda in with the crumbled bar soap. Voile` All done. Use 2 Tablespoons per load of laundry. (I have an energy efficient front loader, so maybe you will have to adjust to your washer.)




Statistics: (you will find I'm a cent-nut, I obsess with pennies)




Fels Naptha Soap $1.09 a bar= 1 batch of detergent




Borax $4.49 for a 72 oz. box= 14 batches of detergent




Arm and Hammer Washing Soda $2.79 for a 55 oz. box= 7 batches of detergent

After a lot of calculating (of which I won't bore you with) I figure this costs me about 6.7 cents per load of laundry. I did buy a damaged jug of liquid detergent for $4, marked down from $9.50 (no, didn't have a coupon either, bummer) and that should come out to about 5.7 cents a load., but I am doubtful about the actual price since it is much harder to pour liquid detergent to a precise amount to get the pre-determined loads. Now my next step is to get everyone here to not make so much dirty laundry. I know, fat chance.

1 comment:

  1. Great tip on the microwave! I was not looking forward to grating soap! Thanks! Kristy from www.apronsandapples.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

Please be kind and don't shrink my jeans!