Need another reason to make your own detergent?

[Henrietta23]

coffee through nose...... need to do laundry now!

 

[WishboneDawn]

Newbie but I've been making my own detergent for awhile and prefer it but I've recently been reading that borax, one of my ingredients, isn't so harmless itself. *sigh* Effective ingrediants generally aren't, are they? Anyway, I'm thinking of just seeing how washing soda and soap do. Someone on another forum said she just used salt but I'd be a little worried about corrosion.

 

[Britesea]

I did some reading on borax, and it appears to me to have a fairly low toxicity. (salt is also toxic in large enough amounts, remember). Since the problem seems to concern ingestion of sodium borate it seems to me that the safest thing to do is to wear a mask while making it to cut down on inhaling it, and then use common sense about protecting my pets and family from eating it. If someone posts a detergent that works as well without borax, I'll consider switching, but I'm not ready to go down to the river and spend all afternoon pounding my clothes against rocks yet.