Monday, August 31, 2009

Things You Do When You Don't Watch T.V.

When we lived in our little basement apartment in Albany, A. and I watched a lot more t.v. Of course, we only had an antenna, because we are too cheap to pay for television if we don't have to, which meant our choices were severely curtailed. Mostly, we watched PBS. On Sunday mornings, we would watch "CBS Sunday Mornings," which is a fantastic program, but somehow we never get around to watching it anymore. There are other things to do. Like make laundry detergent.

Oh yes. You read that correctly. We made laundry detergent yesterday morning. I know you're all thinking, "WHY?" To which I say, "WHY NOT?"

See, we somehow ended up with a magazine called "Grit" in our possession. I do not know from whence this magazine appeared--maybe from the magazine exchange at the library? It's not like we have a subscription. Anyway, it's a magazine about . . . well, about self-sufficiency and country living, I guess. You know: gardening, animals, building things, and making things. Like soap. There was a whole section in this particular issue about making soap.

Now, I really have no desire to actually make soap. A. was all for rendering some lard and making soap from it. I really feel no need to be messing around with lye and fat. But there were instructions for making laundry detergent that did not require any nasty rendering or lye. The recipe (is it a recipe if the end result isn't edible?) called for a bar of laundry soap, washing soda, borax, and water. Easy enough.

We always have Fels Naptha in the house. Fels Naptha is a very old brand of laundry soap in bar form. It's pretty powerful, and A. likes to wash his hands with it when he's soiled them with some filthy activity, like sheep shearing or dismantling an oily car. I am told you can actually just add grated Fels Naptha to a washing machine. Not that I have ever done this. And we brought a bar of Fels Naptha with us when we went to Spain for two weeks, for hand washing our clothes in sinks. Easier than hauling around detergent.

BUT ANYWAY.

I had to buy the washing soda and borax, both of which are available at the supermarket, though not prominently displayed. They come in BIG-ASS boxes, and you only use 3/4 of a cup of each, so we have enough for many, many batches of laundry detergent. All you do is dissolve a grated bar of Fels Naptha into hot water, add the washing soda and borax, more water, stir stir stir, cool and done. The texture was oddly . . . mucous-y. Ew. And the detergent seemed to be pretty fragrant (Fels Naptha contains perfumes). Bummer. I don't particularly care for heavily scented laundry detergent.

BUT. That laundry mucous got our dirtiest clothes CLEAN. And the scent disappeared in the wash. Plus, we got about three gallons of detergent out of one batch. The whole thing took us about 10 minutes, and I figure cost about two bucks.

It's gonna be laundry mucous for us from now on.

19 comments:

Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother said...

Borax is also good for ant and roach problems. Mix borax and sugar -- I think it was 1-to-1. Put a little in the lid of a jar, set it behind the fridge, and the bugs pick it up and bring it home. (Not the whole lid, just the stuff in it.) The whole nest eats it, they all die. Neat.

Anke said...

I started making my own laundry detergent a while back. Since I'm to lazy to make liquid detergent, I just grate the soap and mix them with the washing soda and borax. Two cups washing soda, two cups borax and one grated bar of soap. Works great!My softener is a 1/4 cup of vinegar which does NOT make your clothes smell.

QuiltedSimple said...

I make dry - with bar soap, borax and washing soad - 1/2 cup per load. Works wonderfully well - and our daughter, who has severe exczema - does not break out in a icky bleeding rash anymore! Makes you wonder what they put IN that detergent you buy in the store???
Kris

Anonymous said...

You guys are HARD CORE. I am now feeling inferior for buying Tide.

(Oh, also - we sometimes watch the Sunday morning news, but after seeing one story on said program, like, TWO WEEKS AGO that was all "What's this 'Twitter' the kids are talking about?" we have dubbed it The Old People News, as it seems to be their main demographic. Only old folks and people with babies are the only fools up that early on a Sunday anyway.)

Aunt Krissy said...

Make some soap. I do and it's not hard. Just be carefull with the lye. And you don't have to use animal fats ( no rendering ) I think that I will make some laundry soap. That's cheep!

Chiot's Run said...

I've always thought about making some but I just never have gotten around to it. I would prefer the dry for storage space reasons. I was considering using a bar of lemon Dr Bronner's instead of Fels Naptha.

It's probably also much healthier and less-toxic than the store bought stuff.

Phoo-D said...

I'm with jiveturkey- that is totally hard core! I'm impressed and am pondering how Mr. B would respond if I tried this...probably with huge disbelief!

Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother said...

Sounds like a bunch of people here might like The Dollar Stretcher. It's a free newsletter (weekly? I think) that always has things like recipes for making your own soap, that tip I had about borax for bug problems, etc. I stopped getting it because we didn't have the time for lots of it, but it's full of great tips.

Amy said...

I make mine with pink Zote instead of Fels Naptha. Everybody likes the smell. Last time I used essential oil to fragrance it, but the smell wasn't very strong and it messed up the gelling process. (or I messed it up....eh. I still used it anyway....)

Melinda said...

I subscribe to the Grit but must have missed that article...I will have to look for it!!!I want to make some laundry soap too!

Kristin @ Going Country said...

Melissa: The issue we have is from a long time ago--like, last year I think. So unless you save them all, you'll probably have to look online for instructions. There are a TON of recipes with those ingredients, though. Ours was a big batch and required one bar of laundry soap, 3/4 of a cup each of washing soda and borax, and a total of one gallon+six cups+2 quarts (I think)of water, added at different times in the process.

Anonymous said...

How about a good something to wash your hair with that isn't store bought shampoo? My scalp could use some relief from that stuff.

The Management said...

Be careful. My father did this once cuz he's a bit of a dork - he washed two loads of laundry without looking at them....dude mixed it wrong or something because he burned holes in a load of my mothers work clothes and all of their towels. :)

Measure twice, throw away clothes never :P (Also, my word verification is compost...go figure.)(

Kristin @ Going Country said...

Only a man wouldn't notice holes in clothes.

Yes, that was a sexist comment. But I stand by it.

Also, I believe it is the washing soda that can be detrimental to clothes. It can weaken fabrics if used in too high a concentration. The recipe I used called for relatively little washing soda in proportion to the other stuff. Some other recipes I saw (even some commenters listed here) have more.

rls said...

Suddenly I feel very high-maintenance.

jean said...

And I thought I was doing good by buying on sale. Now I have to make it myself? I don't think I'm ready for that yet. But keep me posted oh how it goes.

sweetbird said...

I may have to try this out. I'm tired of paying ridiculous amounts of money for my eco-friendly detergents.

Anonymous said...

We've been making it too. I add essential oils to make it smell (or to make Leif's diapers smell) better. Takes a bit of time, and we use the other stuff too, but it feels good to save $$$.

ABG

sheila said...

I don't like fragrances so when I made laundry soap I used unscented bath soap instead of Fels Naptha. Works great, clothes are clean and it costs pennies per load. I made a five gallons batch. It will last a year or more I think. This spring was the first time I made laundry soap. Wish I'd found out about making this when all my kids were little and I was going through a big jug of laundry soap every week.