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Complete How-To for Making Laundry Soap
I have seen several "how do I..." for laundry soap. Today I needed to make another batch, so I took photos of the process for anyone that is interested.
Step One: Gather all your goods.
I use a combo of Kirk's Castile bar soap, 20 Mule Team Borax, Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, and powder Oxiclean. I added the Oxiclean to keep my whites from looking dingy, and they now look fabulous.
Step Two: Grate your soap.
If you choose a really soft soap, such as Ivory, this method is a bit trickier- you don't want to over process or the soap will turn into little compressed balls. If you use a hard soap, such as Kirk's Castile, then you need to have faith in your food processor. If you can grate hard nuts, carrots, etc without issue then you should be able to grate soap. While I call it grating, I am actually using the chopping disc in my processor to obtain the grated effect.
Toss whole bars of soap into your processor. I have a 12 cup KitchenAid, and I grate 3-4 bars at a time. Once you have the bars in, lock on your lid. Fold and wrap a dish towel around the area where the lid joins with the bowl on the processor. This prevents a fine soap powder from getting tossed into the air.
Process. Once your have a fine powder, dump that batch into a container designated to hold grated soap. I chose an old plastic food storage container that I no longer use. Complete processing all the soap. If you get big chunks (see photo) just toss those back in and chop them up again.
Step Three: Make the laundry mix.
I put my Borax and Washing Soda into containers for ease of use. I then use a small measuring cup to combine the ingredients into the glass jar I use for the laundry mix.
2 scoops soap, 1 scoop washing soda, 1 scoop borax, 1 scoop oxiclean. Repeat again and again until you have filled your jar. Place the lid on and turn the jar sideways; rotate it a few times to mix all the ingredients.
Voila! You have a jar of laundry soap mix to use. I use the same 1/8 cup measuring scoop used to create the mix to measure for my laundry. 1/8 cup is all that I use for a regular size load. If you have any stains, pretreat with oxiclean, and then use the same amount of soap. When you first turn on the washer, put the water on warm, add your mix. It should desolve within about 10-15 seconds, and then you can place the water temp back on cold if you wish. I have not tried this mix on a front loader. It is non sudsing, so it may work.
If you are short on space, notice that the mix and supplies take up only slightly more than a large bottle of commercial detergent would. With this method, there is no giant 20gal bucket of goo that you have to mess with and store.
Since using this mix, my husband and I no longer have eczema. We previously used free/clear type detergent, and find that this mix works even better than the commercial stuff. We also have pets (two cats and a bunny) and this removes animal stains/odor. It also cleans our military uniforms with ease.
Hope this helps!!
Re: Complete How-To for Making Laundry Soap
This needs to be made into a sticky.
Every week I see someone asking how to make laundry soap.
<a href="http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/wayfastwhitegirl/?action=view
does the soap do anything to your food processor? does it clean out easily?
and does Oxi clean contain anything toxic in it? i am surprised to see such a regular product on the list.