So, my last post gave you a quick catch up. Now, how about something exciting. Well, perhaps.
By the way, did you notice my new flower at the top? Purty, right? My first REAL sunflowers that grew in my yard this year. I have more pictures I just may bore you with. But that will have to wait for a later date.
Today. Well, today is all about cleaning. Laundry, to be exact. I've heard about making your own laundry detergent. That you can save a TON of money. A TON, I said. So, I thought I might as well give it a try. There are all kinds recipes hanging out there on the internet. You can look up and try for yourself. You can go with liquid or powder. I chose powder and went with the
simplest recipe because I knew I could remember it next time I wanted to do it.
So, here is the recipe...
And here are my ingredients...
So, why did I choose Fels-Naptha over the other soaps. Well, for one, nostalgia probably. This stuff was a staple in our laundry room when I was growing up. Got a stain, get the Fels-Naptha. That little orange bar of soap was IT! I hadn't seen it in FOREVER, but still remembered how well it worked and thought that it would be my best bet for cleaning our clothes. But, I must admit, I still have a hard time saying it.
I ended up making a huge batch. 6 bars of soap, 6 cups of borax, 6 cups of washing soda. So, it cost me about $14.00 to make my batch of laundry soap.
First, I grated the FN with a cheese grater.(This is after I tried putting it in my food processor and the noise was HORRIBLE.)
Then, I ran it through my food processor until it was nice and fine. About the size of couscous.
And then I put all the ingredients together in a tub, and mixed well.
Now, the exciting, good and almost unbelievable part of this is that you only need 1 TABLESPOON for a load of laundry. You read right. ONE. TABLESPOON. So, for the sake of science, I measured out my tub of soap and figured out that this much soap is approximately 200 loads. Actually more, but I took into account adding a little extra for those really grubby loads. And, I have to admit I am a bit of a skeptic so I add a little more than a Tablespoon per load.
So, the scoop on the soap... It works! And I really like it. Your laundry doesn't come out smelling all perfumey like some detergents. So, if you like perfumey than this probably isn't for you. I don't use fabric softeners, and since I started using this detergent, my clothes have been MUCH softer. My whites, are nice and white. Well, I don't think I really have a negative.
I call it Prairie Soap because as I was grating away in the kitchen I could just picture myself in an old cabin on the prairie somewhere, in a prairie dress, with my hair tied back in a handkerchief, sweating as I cleaned, surrounded by wooden tubs of laundry created by my husband working out in the dusty fields all day.
And on a side note, let me tell you how well Borax cleans grubby showers. Our shower pan is old, old, old. And, no amount of cleaning with all of those super chemically cleaners has helped. The box of Borax had all these other uses which included cleaning your bathroom and tile. I took some Borax and sprinkled it on my shower floor, got it wet enough to make a paste and started scrubbing and what do you know?! It was cleaning better than all those expensive, smelly, hard on the hands cleaners. In fact, my cleaning cabinet is slowly changing from lots of expensive chemicals to more natural, old fashioned, things you have around the house items like Vinegar, Borax, Alcohol (for windows), Hydrogen Peroxide and such. But that is a whole 'nother story!
