waxing philosophical about homemade laundry soap

[valmom]

Yes, laundry soap would be pretty far down on my list if the soap hit the fan (Love that phrase, too!), but if/when things settled down I would be doing the wood ash lye thing (want to try that some day, but I am so happy with my standardized bought lye I don't want to mess up).

Can't you get oils from nuts? Acorns aren't edible, are they? There would be an oil source, maybe.

I have got to get my hazelnut bushes ordered.

 

[Wifezilla]

Acorns are edible but need a little processing. If you have a white oak, they have fewer tannins. I used to eat those acorns right off the tree! LOL

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/clay79.html

 

[valmom]

I didn't know that! I may have another thing to try this fall.

 

[mamagoose]

Yes I hear that bread made from acorn flour is very tasty!

In the SHTF situation there are several plants that can be used as soap. Horsetail is probably the most widely available across the U.S. And it grows right next to streams anyway so it's right there when you need it.

 

[murphysranch]

Unless the house burned down, I've got enuf soap to last me a lifetime. Would last hubby's lifetime too.

This comes from taking the used soap from hotel rooms during the years I travelled for business!

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[Mackay]

When I was travelin in Mexico a few years back I was always taken back by how while the mexican woman got their whites..I found out their secret when I took my clothes to one of them to wash. They do use a wash board and fels or that other one, coconut oil based, can't think of its name right now. It is the smell of Mexico in rual communites.

She got our socks so darn white I had to put sunglasses on to look at them!

But by the time our trip came to a close, and after my socks and underware visiting many home laudries across mexico my socks and underware were being returned to me with holes from the scrubbing... but sure darn white!

I would opt for a bucket and a plunger method myself and save the wash board for only critical dirt.

I have enough ingredients to make my own laundry soap to last about 4 years... should I make it all up in case I loose electiricity?

Hmmm. I can think of other things Id rather do today
and tomorrow
and the next day

 

[Wifezilla]

Zote soap is made out of coconut.....and yeah...I love how it smells

 

[pioneergirl]

Glad I'm not the only one worried about the stain issue! DH has been trucking livestock, and boy oh boy do his clothes SMELL....I have him put them in a tub of water and vinegar. I only use the washboard for hard stains on the jeans/Carhartt type stuff. For the rest, like underwear and t-shirts, etc, I scrub them against each other. I won't be worried about the smell to much should soap hit the fan.

As for hygene for us women, it seems I read somewhere eons ago about the pioneers using rags and either boiling them or, if they were really bad, burning them! I am working on something that can maybe house a sponge (in a pocket) and yet still be attached to my "unmentionables" and not ride around every time I bend or walk.

TP? I've got old towels cut into squares that I'm going to dye brown/black and have by the toilet. Those will get put in a water bucket when used, then boiled to clean.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Y'all are awesome. This is why i need you. Why didn't i think of something as simple as boiling? I don't know.

Pioneer girl, here's a link to a bunch of patterns for the reusable fem. pads. http://tipnut.com/free-pattern-for-washable-feminine-menstrual-pads/ There might also be someone on SS who makes and sells them. I can't remember for sure. I want to do this, but i'm not in the sewing mode right now.

I'm thinking that i am going to finally learn to really make lye. That seems like a good step forward. I need to read up, i guess, because it's probably not quite as simple as free makes it sound. But Lord knows i have plenty of wood around here to use to make some wood ash and give it a shot. And i think i might freak out my mil and ask for a washboard and bucket for Christmas.