In the past four years, I have become a laundry detergent snob. With Gabe, we did cloth diapers. I did so much research while I was pregnant about what detergents were the best for the job while still being economically conscious. I fell in love with Country Save. It was good for the diapers, the washing machine and not so bad for the environment either! It was (and still is) a great detergent.
Once I began working on a dishwasher detergent, I remembered why we had to stop cloth diapers. We have such hard water with iron and other materials in it that no matter what detergent I used, we couldn't keep them clean ... or get that gross ammonia smell out. I tried EVERYTHING! With dishes, I was easily able to tell if the detergent wasn't working great because my dishwasher would look bad or simply enough, there would still be spots on the dishes. I was nervous to try it out with clothes because it would be harder to tell.
Well, my last box of Country Save was dwindling down and I decided it was time to at least give it a try. After a few loads, it seemed to be working really well. No smells and everything appeared to look really good. This weekend, I finally had a good test ... clothes after a bonfire. The clothes reeked of smoke and some grass and dirt from the kids running around. They came out smelling like roses! Actually, they came out smelling like nothing because it is fragrance free!
It's cheap, it's effective and it will last for a long time ... I'm sold! Again, why did it take me so long to do this?!
Homemade Laundry Detergent
Makes 5 cups1 bar castile soap
2 c borax
2 c washing soda
First, grate your bar of soap. Then put the grated soap into a high speed blender and pulverize it to dust.
In a bowl, put all three ingredients together and mix well. Keep detergent in an airtight container.
For regular washers: use 1/8 cup; 40 loads
For HE washers: use 1 T; 80 loads
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