A Christmas Gift of Clean

Since I stocked up my cleaning supplies early on in my journey, it’s been much easier to test out new recipes as I need to.  There’s no rushing to the store.  Instead, I just find a recipe that works with what I have.  This has come in handy a few times.

For Christmas, my mom asked for cleaning supplies and recipes to get her started around the house.  Luckily the shopping was easy, as I had already done the searching and research earlier this fall.

Along with some supplies, I decided to make some laundry detergent for her.  It was a pretty simple process, though not without a few issues along the way.

I found a recipe at Why Not Sew that looked like a good starter.

Here’s the recipe, along with a few of my notes:

You need:

– 1 bar of soap (any basic kind, without fragances or dyes)
– 1 cup Borax
– 1 cup Washing Soda
– a large pot that holds more than 2 gallons
– a grater
– a funnel
– a long spoon
– 2 empty gallon jugs

To make the detergent:

1. Grate your bar of soap into your pot. Add one gallon of water and cook until soap dissolves completely.

2. Add the Borax and washing soda. Bring to a boil.

3. Turn off the heat. Add 1 gallon of cold water. Stir well.

4. Pour 1 gallon of your detergent into each container with funnel.

The detergent will coagulate as it cools. If it’s too thick to pour, stir in more water and use more per load. Use 1/2 cup per load. For front load washers, add directly to basin instead of the tray to avoid clogging the washer.

This won’t make many, if any, suds. And this detergent does work for high efficiency washers. For more information, visit the original post. A lot of issues have been answered in the comments section.

Have you ever made detergent before?