On May 17, 7:31*pm, spamtrap1888 > wrote:
> On May 17, 3:18*pm, George Leppla > wrote:
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> > On 5/17/2012 5:04 PM, Kalmia wrote:
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> > > On May 17, 3:04 pm, Doug > *wrote:
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> > >> I recall someone posted such a recipe around a year ago.
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> > > look for
> > > 'OT making laundry soap' *by George L. *He estimated 4 cents per
> > > load.
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> > We've been doing this now for over a year and it works really well. *We
> > are going to try adding powdered Oxy-clean to the detergent in stead of
> > the color-safe bleach and give that a try. *It is very cheap ($11 for
> > enough to do 190 loads)
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> > Here is the detergent recipe.. from January 2011:
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> > The recent discussion about making your own laundry soap/detergent was
> > interesting to me so I gave it a try. I decided to do a dry powder
> > instead of a liquid because of storage space, ease of use, etc.
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> > I looked around the Intergoogle and found plenty of recipes and this is
> > what I came up with:
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> > 2 bars Fels-naptha soap
> > * 2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax
> > * 2 cups of Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer)
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> > Grate the bars of soap into a fine powder. We used an old SaladMaster
> > hand processor. That should give you about 4 cups.
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> > Mix the shredded soap, washing soda and Borax together. We ran batches
> > through a food processor to grind the soap further and blend
> > everything really well.
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> > We washed one load so far and neither of us can tell the difference
> > between this and the liquid detergent we have been using... but maybe
> > there is a cumulative effect that we can't see yet. Since we will
> > continue to use bleach in the whites and color-safe bleach in the
> > colored clothes, there might not be much difference.
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> > Cost..... Bar soap is $1 each. The box of Borax was $4 and the box of
> > washing soda was $3. I figure the cost per load will probably be around
> > 4 cents (approximately 2 to 3 tablespoons per load) The cost per load
> > for the liquid detergent we were using was about 17 to 20 cents a load.
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> > With only two of us in the house, we really don't do a lot of laundry so
> > in the grand scheme of things, the monetary savings aren't all that
> > important. I am somewhat of a do-it-yourselfer and I just got curious
> > about this and decided to give it a try. Call it a hobby... but if I
> > had a bunch of kids, this would be a viable alternative.
>
> Congratulations. You are now laundering like they did before Tide came
> out, 67 years ago. Can I interest you in an old Maytag with a mangle?
> The hillbillies at the other end of the block have one on their porch,
> believe it or not.

My mom used her mother's old-type wringer washer once to shell peas
for pea soup. LOL.

N.