Homemade Laundry Detergent, Take 2...Powder!

For Abbie, because I promised.  And the rest of our readers, too!

Well, I finally ran out of my 5 gallon bucket of liquid laundry detergent (Duggars' Recipe).  It lasted me over a year, and that includes a time when another family of 4 was living with us and using the detergent.  I also didn't dilute it nearly as much as the Duggars suggest because I felt like I needed more cleaning power.  My final review is that, while it definitely costs very little compared to store-bought, I felt that our clothes got a bit dingy after a while.  ESPECIALLY the whites.  Frustrating.  Also, I missed that "laundered" smell.  It's one of my favorite smells in life, after all!  It wasn't a big deal, but I also wasn't fond of measuring liquid.  It just seems messier than it needs to be, whether store-bought or homemade.

I didn't want to make another 5 gallons of the liquid without first trying a powder form.  Some people seem to caution away from powder because of it "wafting in the air" posing a problem to breathing health.  Others said they had trouble with caking in their dispenser.  It does cost a bit more than homemade liquid, but still not nearly as much as store-bought.  And powder?  Just so much easier to measure!  So I researched, chose a recipe, and went for it!

I used Liz Marie's Laundry Soap recipe.  I had 1 leftover bar of Fels Naptha, so I only did 1/3 of her recipe - yes, math was involved to figure out how much of the other ingredients to use.  Good brain exercise!  I also thought it would be good to only do 1/3 just in case I didn't like the recipe or it wasn't effective.  Here are my notes from making it:

• I left out the scent beads because of cost and non-necessity.
• Microwave the soap bar(s) on a plate.  It makes it SO much easier to grate or powder-ize.  After breaking up the pieces as much as I could by hand, I put it in a big ziploc bag and went to town with my rolling pin.  I figured, "The finer the bits, the better they dissolve" to avoid the caking issue.
• I picked up a simple plastic snap-top container from Target - plastic is cheaper, lighter, and IF per chance it falls off of washer/dryer/shelf, you'll only have to clean up detergent.  I use a 2 Tbs measure (harder to find in store, though not impossible...Amazon will rescue you).  Normal loads use 1 Tbs (half a scoop).  Bigger or more soiled loads use 2 Tbs (whole scoop).

I made my 1/3 batch back at the beginning of December.  It's mid-Februrary now, and I still have at least 2 months or so of detergent left!  Which means a full batch would last approximately a year to a year and a half!  My thoughts after using it for a few months:

• I.  Love.  It.  After the FIRST load, I thought I was seeing things.  The clothes seemed brighter - especially a particular green shirt my boys wear.  I called my boys into the laundry room and asked if they thought the shirt was a brighter green.  Even they agreed!  I'm pretty certain it's the oxyclean.  And if you keep extra on hand, you can add a little to any load you want to have an extra punch of clean!  I usually do this for whites and wash on warm.  They have revived a bit from the dingifying effect of the homemade liquid.  But new socks we've gotten recently are still perfectly white!  No dingifying!
• Laundry smell!  It's back!  I think because the Fels Naptha isn't so diluted down with water as in the liquid recipe, the smell is able to shine a bit more.  I imagine the powder version would smell like whatever soap you choose to use (Fels, Zote, etc.).  The smell is not incredibly strong like store-bought, but you might catch me with my nose in clothes.  Maybe frequently.  If you were a bug on a wall in my sunshiny laundry room.
• Measuring?  LOVE.  Super easy.  Mess free.  Unless you bump your hand or the measuring spoon or just completely miss your dispenser.  But that's user error.  ;-)
• Wafting and breathing powder in?  Not with daily use.  I did notice some of this action when pouring the batch into my plastic container, but I'm the only one around when doing it.  So no worries for my kids, namely my asthmatic boy.
• Caking?  I have had no issues with this at all.

Conclusion?  I'm sold.  For forever.  :-)

Ps - I would have pictures for you, but I believe my superhero power of spastic static ruined the memory card drive of my computer......  Apologies.  You'll just have to imagine my little container filled with powder and measuring spoon!

Never-ending Laundry

I had to explain to JG the other day the quote, "A mother's work is never done."  Laundry is one of the reasons behind that saying!  I've attempted numerous methods to stay on top of the never-ending laundry in my home.  I've tried doing laundry ALL on one day which meant about 7 loads, and it was almost certain one or more loads would be left crumpled in a hamper waiting to be folded (for days...or in the washer or dryer...washer being the worst of the three...you know what I mean).  I've tried designating days for which type of load.  Yeah, that didn't work at all because life gets in the way.  I've tried doing one load a day, but I am too OCD about "properly" sorting laundry to just throw all the day's clothes/towels in one load. I've tried doing laundry on just two days, but some piles weren't big enough to do; and it just got too confusing.  Frustrating.  I've also never liked having to get three different hampers and take them to one central place to sort the loads and have it all overtake my laundry room.  Annoying.

SOLUTION!  Yes, I have found one that works really well for our family and might be worth trying for yours.  A solution that does not take up mountains of floor space, tells me when which load needs to be done, AND one that my kids and Hubz can consistently help with.  Woo hoo!  Walmart has laundry hampers that are tall, thin, and white.  Simple and organized looking.  I purchased three of them (approx $18 total) to place at the top of our stairs where we have a little landing area.  They come with stickers: whites, colors, and darks.  I put two "whites" stickers on either side of the whites hamper and so on with the colors and darks.  (I REALLY wish I had room for four baskets as I am a whites, lights, brights, and darks gal... but I will take the room I can get and compromise for now!)  This spot is very central to the bedrooms in our home, so my kids and Hubz can immediately (or when reminded to) take their dirty clothing to the hampers and sort them.  This means no dirty clothes littering the bedroom floor or bathrooms.  It also means teaching them how to sort laundry.  And it means that at a glance, I can see which load must be done -- each hamper is a great size for one load of laundry.  Hamper full?  Slide that baby into the laundry room (or have a kid do it!), throw it all in the washer, start it up, return hamper.  DONE.  No gathering hampers.  No sorting into piles.  No random hampers taking up space in bedrooms or laundry room with dirty clothes waiting to be washed.  No panic that this load was not done on this day.  No zillion loads in one day.  Wash, dry, fold.  It is RARE that I have to do two loads a day.  I think this method is wonderful because it is more relaxed and flexible... and it runs me rather than me trying to control it.  If that makes sense.  :-)

(Towels are a different story -- I have one hamper in the laundry room for those.)

I.  AM.  IN.  LOVE.