Poll on laundry soap

[the4heathernsmom]

Well so far after 3 loads nothing spectacular has happened yet but it does seem to do the job ok so far. No odor left on the clothes although the Zote bar has a strong clean smell but it doesn't remain in the clothes. It did not get any old stains out so far. I spent 11.97 on supplies and it made half of a 35 lb bucket full. I am using a regular size scoop per load. I does gump up just a little on cold water wash....the Zote gratings do.

 

[miss_thenorth]

What grating blade did youuse for the zote? the first time I made it, I used the cheese grater blade, and it gumped up. Now I use the smallest holed one -don't know the name of it, and it works fine.
I also did not find it took out old stains, but it does well on new ones if you pretreat. My theoryis -ifit works as well as you storebought detergent-that's all it need to do,cuz the savings are HUGE! Also, with a front loader--you don't need a large amount of soap to clean--so play around with how muh you use to find out how much you need.

So, did you hang your clothes out on the line? Tha is also a big money saver

 

[Farmfresh]

I use a blender or food processor and mix the grated soap (I don't care which kind) with the borax till it is a fine powder. Then I mix in the other ingredients in a big bowl. If you try to grate the soap this way alone it gunks up in a big ball. After the soap is POWDERED like this it works very well EVEN in cold water.

 

[the4heathernsmom]

ok so no on my food processor the smallest grate blade I ahve is cheese size but I put no powder in when I grated it ok so next time I will process it with the pwoder and see how that goes. Yes it is holding up I think with regular detergent. Football game is tomorrow has been raining all week so this will be my biggie test is the football uniform so we shall see !!!!!

 

[the4heathernsmom]

well had a great test last night. Was puoring rain here muddy nasty gross weather has been raining for a week. DS had his very first football game last night and came home with solid reddish black muddy pants that are supposed to be white. Washed in the long cycle last night with homemade soap and bleach and perfect. Got it all out and that is saying a lot for our east texas red dirt. I used a little more than usual of the soap and normal bleach. I was pleased!!!!!!!!!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Yay!!!! that's great to hear!! Now, all that money you would have spent on laundry detergent can be redirected to something more worthy!!!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Try FelsNaptha! My mom said the Zote was not as good as the Fels for this detergent mix. Said the Zote was too goopy, didn't smell as good and didn't clean as well.

 

[Lady Henevere]

This may be a dumb question, but I've been wondering about it for a while so I'm going to just go ahead and ask.....

What is the point of making your own laundry soap?

If you have to buy the ingredients to make it, it's not any more ss than just buying pre-made laundry soap. So there must be something I'm missing -- maybe it's cheaper? Maybe it works better than store-bought soaps? Maybe pre-made detergents have stuff in them you don't want on your clothes? Maybe....something else?

Please enlighten me. (And please forgive me if you see this as a hijack -- that was not my intention at all!) Thanks!

 

[dragonlaurel]

This may be a dumb question, but I've been wondering about it for a while so I'm going to just go ahead and ask.....

What is the point of making your own laundry soap?

If you have to buy the ingredients to make it, it's not any more ss than just buying pre-made laundry soap. So there must be something I'm missing -- maybe it's cheaper? Maybe it works better than store-bought soaps? Maybe pre-made detergents have stuff in them you don't want on your clothes? Maybe....something else?

Please enlighten me. (And please forgive me if you see this as a hijack -- that was not my intention at all!) Thanks!

You can control what the ingredients used are, it's much cheaper in the long run, and you know how to get by if you can't get the commercial stuff some day.

 

[Farmfresh]

The major reason is COST.

Without all of the perfumes fillers etc that is in commercial soaps as a bonus.

I make my own lye soap as a base from pennies worth of lye (which you CAN make yourself if you had to) and free lard that I rendered myself from the butcher shop. The other ingredients Borax (which is about $4.00 a box at most) and washing soda (another $4.00 per box or so) are both natural ingredients, the Borax being a mined mineral. One box of each plus my homemade soap will make enough laundry soap mix to last for at least 6 months! The recipe calls for 2 to 3 TABLESPOONS per load. Compare that with even concentrated commercial detergents.

Someone else on here figured our wash costs us something like 3 cents per load! (and that cost was making the recipe with PURCHASED soap like the Fels Naptha!)

If the worst finally did come I am sure some of the ingredients would be hard to come by as well, but I could STILL be clean and sanitary even if I only washed with my homemade lye soap. My grandma did much of her laundry with a bar just like mine for years! She said it cleaned better than commercial.

I have been making my own soap for years now. I also notice my clothes in addition to being nice and clean, are wearing longer. I no longer have to use a fabric softener and I think my clothes are softer than when I was. The colors also stay better. All of this means I save even more money in the long run.

As for time. I make up SEVERAL batches of the dry recipe at a time. I store the soap once it is made in several big plastic juice bottles that I have cleaned and saved. This makes my effort and cleanup time very small. I never run out of soap in the middle of laundry day, so there are no last minute rushes to the store. Plus I simply appreciate NOT having to hassle with the grocery store and hauling all of that detergent home.
When it is time to buy ingredients again (the Borax and Washing Soda) I usually buy 2 or 3 boxes of each at a time. This is again a gas and time saver.

Come on and join us! Come over to the Cheap and Clean side!